Switzerland faces increasing competition in its role as mediator for global conflicts

More and more competitors are bustling about in what is known as the market for good offices: countries such as China, Turkey and Saudi Arabia often mediate in areas of conflict. However, Bern is not running out of work.

In 2002, together with the USA, Switzerland brokered a ceasefire between the government and rebels in what is now South Sudan. In the talks about the current fighting in Sudan, meanwhile, the USA and Saudi Arabia are trying to find peace.

Switzerland is no longer involved, although it still has a good reputation in Sudan, reports the NZZ. And that despite the fact that Bern has offered its good offices since the outbreak of war in the north-east African country in April. However, the offer was not in demand.

Changed environment

According to the NZZ, Switzerland’s good offices have also recently been neglected in the Middle East. When Saudi Arabia and Iran surprisingly announced in March that they would resume diplomatic relations, China mediated. Switzerland’s position was not bad here either. Finally, in 2018, she assumed protecting power mandates for Saudi Arabia in Iran and vice versa.

However, Switzerland has never been unrivaled in its role as a mediator. According to the NZZ, Norway and Austria in particular have been vying for international mandates for a long time. What is new, however, is that regional powers such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey, or even the superpower China, are mediating, although – unlike Switzerland – they are not neutral.

As Elisa Raggi, spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs (EDA), told the newspaper, the “good offices” are increasingly an internationally competitive market in which other states and private actors want to position themselves. The environment has changed: the geopolitical situation has changed, new conflicts and actors have emerged.

New actors with different goals and instruments

According to the report, the new players have different goals and instruments than Switzerland. China, for example, is trying to expand its own influence in the Gulf region at the expense of the USA with its mediation attempts. Beijing can use financial and economic incentives that Bern does not have.

The role of Turkish President Erdogan in the grain agreement between Russia and Ukraine is similar. He could throw more weight on the scales than “a Swiss President who also changes every year”.

Nevertheless, the demand for Swiss contributions to world peace has increased in recent years, as Raggi told the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung”. In recent months, Bern has received several new mandates or partial mandates.

Achieving a breakthrough that would lead to a comprehensive peace agreement no longer corresponds to reality today. Rather, it is “a lengthy process work, the results of which are often not very spectacular”.

With material from SDA