Introducing Hegemonic-Mediation

Abstract

Separatist groups actively negotiating their demands enlist the support of superpowers sympathetic to their cause during mediation. The birth of a new country via secession is not so much an internal matter as it is contingent upon the recognition and support it receives from superpower hegemons such as the U.S. A superpower’s decision whether to induce secession or not is principally based on their own geopolitical interests and not on those of the local parties; despite that, most mediation theorists count on superpower mediation.

Mapping the mediation literature shows a strong emphasis on the importance of superpower leverage in the peaceful transformation of secessionist wars. Consequently, as a higher number of sub-national groups demand secession, mediation theories are devoid of any critical analysis with which to deconstruct the role of superpower geopolitical interests in determining the outcome of secessionist wars. This essay calls for a Critical Mediation Theory Discourse to analyze the specific nature of secessionist wars and to consider superpower mediation as a form of, what I introduce as, Hegemonic-Mediation.