The pause in Israel’s war on Gaza between 24–30 November 2023, along with each side’s release of a limited number of hostages and prisoners, could not have taken place without Qatar’s mediation efforts in what United States President Joe Biden acknowledged as a ‘critical partnership’.

Data on peace agreements and mediation efforts provides important insights into changing trends in international involvement in peacemaking. Across the mediation field, data shows diversification of third parties involved in peace processes and, in places, potential for congestion. Both these trends are contributing to an increasingly fragmented mediation space.

Public participation is a central element of the peace process in Colombia. For decades, many social sectors, in a country with immense geographic and social diversity, have demanded active inclusion. President Gustavo Petro’s government has adopted a holistic approach to peace, termed ‘Paz Total’ ('total peace'). This embraces the implementation of the 2016 peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP), talks with all remaining non-state armed groups and urban criminal structures, as well as the reform of social, drug and security policies.

Since the collapse of the military government in 1991, Somalia has experienced a wide range of clashes and disputes. Somali society is organised according to numerous major and minor clans, as well as sub-clans, which have a complex web of relationships with each other. Competition over water, grazing land, and other natural resources can often lead to disputes, between clans or within an individual clan, particularly for pastoralist communities.

Sudan’s pro-democracy activists have faced oppression, systematic targeting, massacres and coups. From mid-April 2023, they have faced the impacts of a national war between their main oppressors, Generals Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo ‘Hemedti’ of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF), respectively. This long-anticipated rupture in the security forces was precipitated by the failure to reconcile the irreconcilable – the ambitions of the generals, their civilian junior partners and foreign backers – following the coup in 2021.

Africa’s approach to mediation has become more inclusive over the past two decades. Impetus for this shift has come from within Africa: driven by the practice and activism of civil society, women and young people demanding to be heard; anchored in the evolution of continental norms such as the move from ‘non-interference’ to ‘non-indifference’ and the promotion of ‘African solutions’; and embodied in the African Union’s (AU) ‘roadmap’ for inclusive and sustainable development, Agenda 2063, and the 2019 Continental Framework on Youth, Peace and Security.

In Afghanistan, we suffered war for more than four decades. When the Taliban got strong enough to challenge the government, especially after 2010, different countries wanted to mediate. President Hamid Karzai established the High Peace Council. But it was unable to mediate with the Taliban, partly because of interference from other countries like Pakistan. And in 2011 the Taliban in Pakistan assassinated the chair of the High Peace Council, Burhanuddin Rabbani. Different countries wanted to mediate – Germany, Norway and some others during Karzai’s time in office.

Human history has always evolved in back-and-forth steps. Major breakthroughs and innovations typically have to overcome resistance from those who want to preserve the status quo. Innovative thinking, especially during times of crisis, has helped our survival and development.

The reach and type of mediators is changing, with a shift to the South and East and, as Mateja Peter and Sanja Badanjak’s analysis of ‘what the data says’ sets out, a new prominence of regional or ‘middle power’ mediators.