José Pascal da Rocha

The role of mediators in mediated ceasefires in the Sudan negotiations

Supervisors: Professor Stefan Wolff and Dr Asaf Siniver

The aim of the research is to inquire on how the styles of mediators affect the political will of conflict parties during mediated ceasefires. It will explore the situations of intra-state territorial conflicts through the lenses of two case studies that stand out the multitude of the Sudan negotiations: The Nuba Mountains Agreement 2002-2003 and the Darfur Peace Agreement of 2006, including a reference to the Doha Peace Talks 2009-2001. Through these two cases and the application of a process tracing methodology, the study will explore the various conditions that affect how mediators make use of their styles, interdependent with mandate, phases of the mediation process, mutually hurting stalemates and mediation strategy. It will investigate to what extent the desired and intended outcomes matched the initial mediation strategy and whether the synchronicity of strategy and adaptation to situational variables allowed for a successfully mediated ceasefire.

Biography

Pascal is a mediation practitioner, with 20 years of experience in conflict management, peace processes, diplomacy and post-war environments. He has worked with international organizations in crisis management and peace operations (e.g. UNOSOM I, II, UNPROFOR, IFOR, KFOR, SFOR, UNTAET, UNAMA, ISAF, UNAMIR, Operation Artemis), and and he serves as a Peace and Development Adviser (PDA) to the UN and as a mediation expert with the UN Department of Political Affairs. He is also a rostered mediation expert with the OSCE. He serves as a senior conflict prevention adviser to the African Union and as a senior mediation adviser to ECOWAS. Pascal has published books and scholarly work on mediation, electoral disputes, and crisis management. He has degrees in law, cultural studies and mediation.

Research interests

  • Mediation
  • Political Science
  • Peace processes

Qualifications

  • First and Second State Examination, Law, Germany
  • SJD Law, US
  • Master of Media and Intercultural Communication, Bulgaria

Conference Papers

International Association for Conflict Management (virtual), July 12th – 14th, 2021 – Paper titled: ‘Mediation in fragile states: The ECOWAS intervention in Mali’, with Dr Brown Odigie, ECOWAS Mediation and Facilitation Division.

Peaceland Talks, National University Kyiv-Mohyla, 30 September 2020, title of presentation: Inclusion of Civil Society into Track One Peace Processes: Experiences, approaches, and participatory processes.

Varieties of Peace 2019 Asian Conference, 22nd – 24th, October, 2019, title of presentation: The Changing Nature of International Mediation.

German Federal Academy for Security Policy, conference on Security Sector Reform in Fragile Contexts, April 12th, 2019, facilitation of workshop.

International Studies Association, 60th Annual Conference, March 26th – 30th, 2019, Panel with I. William Zartman, paper: Chameleons and Sandstorms: Mediating Insurgencies, Tribal Warfare, and Identities.

German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA) Hamburg, Processes In Negotiation (PIN) Project workshop: Concert Diplomacy (Book and research project), July 2nd – 3rd, 2018, chapter contribution on: The Changing Nature of Mediation 2001-2020.

Publications

Organizational Culture (Chapter 18), in: Spangler and Haywood (eds) (2020)The AMA Management Body of Knowledge, AMA Press.

Conflict, systems, and approaches to conflict management - An Overview, in: Bhattacharyya, S. (ed) (2019) Emerging Approaches for Conflict Resolution in Organizations. IGI Global, DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-1726-0.

The Changing Nature of International Mediation – Special Issue Global Policy, doi:10.1111/1758-5899.12683.

International perspectives on securing human and social rights and diversity gains at work in the the aftermath of the global economic crisis and in times of austerity – Special Issue Editorial (with Joana Vassilopoulou, Olivia Kyriakidou, Andri Georgiadou, Michalle Mor Barak), in: European Management Review, September 2018, doi: 10.1111/emre.12333.

The International Mediator – A Handbook, (French and Portuguese translations, Peter Lang Publishing), September 2019, ISBN: 978-1-4331-6982-3 (French)/ 4 (Portuguese).

The International Mediator – A Handbook (Russian translation, Southern Federal University Press), April 2019, ISBN: 978-5-9275-3138-7.

The Africanization of Democracy - Elections and Conflict Prevention in Sub-Saharan Africa (with Ratha Khuon), in: Sociology and Anthropology, 6(1), pp. 152 - 175. doi: 10.13189/sa.2018.060114.

Political mediation in modern conflict resolution: Emerging research and opportunities, IGI Global, February 2018, ISBN13: 9781522551188, doi: 10.4018/978-1-5225-5118-8.

The International Mediator: A Handbook, Lambert LAP Publishing, November 2017, ISBN-13: 978-620-2-00836-5.

ECOWAS Dialogue and Mediation Handbook (ECOWAS Press, 2018).

Contact details:

Email: pxd743@student.bham.ac.uk
Social Media: Twitter: @urduz