This chapter explores third-party mediation and peacekeeping. Mediation, along with arbitration and adjudication, is a form of peacemaking. Peacekeeping means maintaining durable peace after conflict has ended. The UN is one of several kinds of actors that engage in peacekeeping missions. They leverage the costs belligerents would pay if they return to war, provide information, reduce uncertainty, and provide political cover to facilitate political concessions. Also discussed in the chapter are peacebuilding efforts, including developing the proper political, legal, social and economic infrastructure to stabilize the security environment. Challenges for third parties seeking to engage successfully in peacekeeping and peacemaking include the difficulties they face in providing long-term incentives for peace, the possibility of distorting information flows such that peace is less stable, and being sensitive to local contexts. The chapter applies many of its concepts to a quantitative study of the causes of peacekeeper sexual exploitation and abuse, and a case study of third-party involvement during the conflicts in the Great Lakes region of Africa in the 1990s and 2000s.

All states have an obligation to settle disputes peacefully in accordance with arts 2(3) and 33 of the Charter of the United Nations (‘UN Charter’), and the purpose of this chapter is to provide an introduction to the methods for the settlement of international disputes. It begins with an overview of international dispute settlement, including a discussion of the concept of a ‘dispute’, and the distinction between political and legal disputes. It then traces the evolution of the obligation to settle disputes peacefully through its broad phases: the 1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions for the peaceful settlement of international disputes, and the creation of the Permanent Court of Arbitration; the Covenant of the League of Nations of 1919, and the creation of the Permanent Court of International Justice (‘PCIJ’); and the Kellogg–Briand Pact of 1928, and the UN Charter of 1945. The chapter then considers the various methods of international dispute settlement, beginning with the diplomatic methods (negotiation, fact-finding and inquiry, the use of ‘good offices’, mediation, and conciliation) before turning to the adjudicatory forms of dispute settlement.

Chapter 14 covers the provision on dispute settlement and consultations in the Agreement on Safeguards. This provision follows the general dispute settlement rules and procedures contained in the WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding and Articles XXII and XXIII of the GATT 1994. It is technically the legal basis for the handling of disputes on the application of the Agreement on Safeguards. Chapter 14 explains how the dispute settlement process operates at its different stages and the usual issues that arise in the conduct of safeguard disputes. The chapter also provides statistics on the performance of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism in respect of safeguard investigations and safeguard measures. It provides practical considerations derived from the experience of the author as an active litigant in dispute settlement proceedings.

This chapter delves into Germany’s stand on the peaceful settlement of disputes and the International Court of Justice. Germany facilitated talks with the leaders of the Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot communities, along with the UN secretary-general in Berlin. Although Germany spoke of providing ‘good services’, it meant ‘good offices’, while Germany’s role should not be overestimated.