The “Mediation in Regionalized Conflicts: Lessons from Recent Peace Processes” project focuses on international mediation in intra-state conflicts that have significant regional conflict dynamics. These dynamics tend to make the conflicts more protracted and less amenable to resolution through mediation. The project is based on case studies. This study examines the Madrid Peace Conference, which aimed at solving the Arab–Israeli conflict and was co-chaired by US President George H. W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhael Gorbachev. In attendance, as negotiating parties to address the full set of issues in the Arab–Israeli conflict, were Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation. The Madrid Conference set up parallel processes: a multilateral track aimed at integrating the region and a series of bilateral tracks aimed at resolving the bilateral conflicts between Israel and some of the Arab States. This paper analyses the establishment of the Madrid/Washington process, and how the US created a regional framework aimed at solving the Arab–Israeli conflict.
The project is led by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. It is supported by the Cross-border Conflict, Evidence, Policy and Trends (XCEPT) research program, funded by UK International Development.