• Corpus ID: 8230881

Methods of Third-Party Intervention

@inproceedings{Fisher2001MethodsOT,
  title={Methods of Third-Party Intervention},
  author={Ronald J. Fisher},
  year={2001}
}

• R. Fisher
• Published 2001
• Psychology

Third party intervention is a typical response to destructive and
persistent social conflict and comes in a number of different forms
attended by a variety of issues. Mediation is a common form of
intervention designed to facilitate a negotiated settlement on substantive
issues between conflicting parties. Mediators are usually external to the
parties and carry an identity, motives and competencies required to play
a useful role in addressing the dispute. While impartiality is generally
seen as an important prerequisite for effective intervention, biased
mediators also appear to have a role to play.
This article lays out the different forms of third-party
intervention in a taxonomy of six methods, and proposes a contingency
model which matches each type of intervention to the appropriate stage
of conflict escalation. Interventions are then sequenced, in order to assist
the parties in de-escalating and resolving the conflict. It must be pointed
out, however, that the mixing of interventions with different power bases
raises a number of ethical and moral questions about the use of reward
and coercive power by third parties. The article then discusses several
issues around the practice of intervention. It is essential to give these
issues careful consideration if third-party methods are to play their
proper and useful role in the wider process of conflict transformation.