The Mediation Event and Negotiators Database (MEND) is a new and growing resource for researchers and practitioners with a focus on peace and conflict resolution.

Developed by PeaceRep researchers at the University of St Andrews and Edinburgh Law School, the dataset comprehensively covers broader peacemaking efforts within major armed conflicts, tracking all mediation and mediation-related events involving external third-party actors, regardless of whether these events result in a formal peace agreement.

MEND captures mediation as part of formal peace initiatives and mediation efforts running in support or in parallel to these. Each record corresponds to a unique event, providing detailed metadata about location, third parties, local actors, and individuals involved.

The MEND dataset facilitates a nuanced understanding of the roles various actors play in contributing to the peace processes and in brokering agreements. It also enables the identification of unsuccessful or spoiler mediation efforts that may still have influenced the ongoing conflict management. In an era marked by global fragmentation, this data plays a crucial role in providing insights into where, when, how, and why actors engage in mediation activities, allowing for the mapping of network dynamics between international and local actors, and identification of the mediation conditions conducive to the eventual signing of agreements.

Insights from the first release of MEND are available in a new report: Mediation in 2024: First Insights from the MEND Database. The report focuses on recent mediation efforts in six conflict-affected contexts: Sudan, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Israel (including Palestine/Gaza, Iran, and Lebanon).

Team

The core MEND team is led by Mateja Peter (University of St Andrews) with PeaceRep Co-Investigator Sanja Badanjak (Edinburgh Law School) as co-lead, alongside Elisa D’Amico and Kasia Houghton (University of St Andrews). Niamh Henry (Edinburgh Law School) played a key role in facilitating the integration of MEND with the PA-X dataset, while Tomas Vancisin (Edinburgh Law School) was responsible for the visualisations, including those featured in this report.

The initial release of MEND also reflects the valuable contributions of our dedicated analysts: Louise Courbin, Siheon Choi, Delia Burns, Sarah Gharib Seif, Ben Houghton and Aarushi Sharma.

Global Transitions

MEND is part of the PeaceRep Global Transitions series, exploring fragmentations in the global order and how these impact peace and transition processes. The research seeks to better understand why and how different third-party actors – state, intergovernmental, and non-governmental actors – intervene in attempts to broker peace, and how they see themselves contributing to reduction of conflict and risks of conflict relapse. We also study how local actors are navigating this multiplicity of mediators and peacebuilders and how this is shaping conflict outcomes and post-conflict governance.