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Third-Party Conflict Management and the Willingness to Make Concessions

Publication ,  Journal Article
Beardsley, K; Lo, N
Published in: Journal of Conflict Resolution
January 1, 2014

Third-party conflict management, particularly legal dispute resolution (arbitration and adjudication) and mediation, can help improve the willingness of disputants to make asymmetric concessions by ameliorating commitment problems and providing political cover. In both regards, and especially pertaining to commitment problems, mediation has substantial limitations when compared to legal dispute resolution. We develop these arguments and test the observable implications on the Issue Correlates of War data. To get traction on the mechanisms at work, we distinguish between challenger concessions and defender concessions, positing that challenger concessions face the primary hurdle of political cover while defender concessions face the primary hurdle of commitment problems. We find that legal dispute resolution strongly increases the propensity for concessions by both challengers and targets, even major asymmetric concessions. Mediation, on the other hand, only helps increase minor challenger concessions. Also consistent with expectations, mediation best enables asymmetric challenger concessions in the highly salient cases that need the most political cover, and legal dispute resolution best enables asymmetric concessions when there has been a history of failed conflict management attempts that perpetuate mistrust. © The Author(s) 2013.

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Published In

Journal of Conflict Resolution

DOI

EISSN

1552-8766

ISSN

0022-0027

Publication Date

January 1, 2014

Volume

58

Issue

2

Start / End Page

363 / 392

Related Subject Headings

  • Strategic, Defence & Security Studies
  • 4408 Political science
  • 4404 Development studies
  • 3801 Applied economics
  • 1606 Political Science
  • 1605 Policy and Administration
  • 1402 Applied Economics
 

Citation

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Beardsley, K., & Lo, N. (2014). Third-Party Conflict Management and the Willingness to Make Concessions. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 58(2), 363–392. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002712467932
Beardsley, K., and N. Lo. “Third-Party Conflict Management and the Willingness to Make Concessions.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 58, no. 2 (January 1, 2014): 363–92. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002712467932.
Beardsley K, Lo N. Third-Party Conflict Management and the Willingness to Make Concessions. Journal of Conflict Resolution. 2014 Jan 1;58(2):363–92.
Beardsley, K., and N. Lo. “Third-Party Conflict Management and the Willingness to Make Concessions.” Journal of Conflict Resolution, vol. 58, no. 2, Jan. 2014, pp. 363–92. Scopus, doi:10.1177/0022002712467932.
Beardsley K, Lo N. Third-Party Conflict Management and the Willingness to Make Concessions. Journal of Conflict Resolution. 2014 Jan 1;58(2):363–392.
Journal cover image

Published In

Journal of Conflict Resolution

DOI

EISSN

1552-8766

ISSN

0022-0027

Publication Date

January 1, 2014

Volume

58

Issue

2

Start / End Page

363 / 392

Related Subject Headings

  • Strategic, Defence & Security Studies
  • 4408 Political science
  • 4404 Development studies
  • 3801 Applied economics
  • 1606 Political Science
  • 1605 Policy and Administration
  • 1402 Applied Economics