Security Dialogue

States use mediation as a foreign policy instrument. Their intervention as mediators is legitimized by the goal of conflict reduction, which they typically proclaim. The desire to make peace, however, is intertwined with other motives best described within the context of power politics.... Mediators are seldom indifferent to the terms being negotiated. Even when they seek peace, they try to avoid terms not in accord with their own interests, which usually allow a wider range of acceptable outcomes than the immediate interests of the parties. ¹