Hi. I'm Julie Tietz, and welcome to Conflict Resolution-- Putting the Pieces Together. Today we're going to discuss shuttle diplomacy. So why don't we get started?
Our key terms are shuttle diplomacy-- a conflict resolution process used when parties cannot meet in person due to distance or discomfort. Conciliation-- a conflict resolution process in which the conflict resolver meets privately with each party to the dispute, seeking to gain concessions from each party.
Shuttle diplomacy was first applied when Henry Kissinger made attempts to end the Yom Kippur war in the early 1970s between Israel and Egypt and Syria, and other coalition Arab states. And it has since been adopted by other conflict resolution professionals.
Shuttle diplomacy involves the intervener meeting separately with each party. And this is due to the fact that there's a distance issue, or there is a discomfort issue between the parties, and so it's better if we have somebody that moves between each of the parties. And this "shuttle" term in shuttle diplomacy refers to back and forth movement. And the intervener carries messages, proposals, questions, and requests back and forth between the parties.
Now let's distinguish shuttle diplomacy from conciliation, because they kind of look similar on the surface. When we're looking at conciliation, we are looking at non-tangible elements of conflict or items, such as emotions and communication, versus shuttle diplomacy often looks at the tangible items. But that's not always necessary, but some of the processes in shuttle diplomacy, or the conflicts may focus solely on negotiation over the tangible items or issues.
However, shuttle diplomacy is like conciliation in the fact that it is an effective tool to apply in situations where face-to-face meanings are not possible, whether that's due to distance or discomfort, or even potential danger between the two parties involved. So now that we've covered shuttle diplomacy, let's go over our key points.
In shuttle diplomacy, we are meeting with the parties separately. And the intervener here carries messages, proposals, questions, and requests back and forth from each of the parties. And shuttle diplomacy may only focus on negotiating tangible items, and not worry or focus on the non-tangible items such as emotions and communications.
And this type of resolution, or dispute resolution, is effective when parties can't meet face-to-face, whether that's due to distance, discomfort, or danger. Thank you for taking the time out to view this tutorial on shuttle diplomacy. I hope you learned something, and I can't wait to catch you again next time.
