This study focuses on the varying effectiveness of three mediation styles—facilitation, formulation, and manipulation—on international crises. Effectiveness is assessed in terms of three outcome variables: formal agreement, post-crisis tension reduction, and contribution to crisis abatement. The authors analyze new data on the mediation process from the International Crisis Behavior project (1918-2001). Manipulation has the strongest effect on the likelihood of both reaching a formal agreement and contributing to crisis abatement. Facilitation has the greatest influence on increasing the prospects for lasting tension reduction. The authors explore how the different styles affect the strategic bargaining environment to explain these differences in impact. The findings suggest that mediators should use a balance of styles if they are to maximize their overall effectiveness.

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Research in distributed artificial intelligence (DAI) is concerned with how automated agents can be designed to interact effectively. Negotiation is proposed as a means for agents to communicate and compromise to reach mutually beneficial agreements. The paper examines the problems of resource allocation and task distribution among autonomous agents which can benefit from sharing a common resource or distributing a set of common tasks. We propose a strategic model of negotiation that takes the passage of time during the negotiation process itself into account. A distributed negotiation mechanism is introduced that is simple, efficient, stable, and flexible in various situations. The model considers situations characterized by complete as well as incomplete information, and ones in which some agents lose over time while others gain over time. Using this negotiation mechanism autonomous agents have simple and stable negotiation strategies that result in efficient agreements without delays even when there are dynamic changes in the environment.

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This study focuses on mediation as a means for mitigating or at least minimizing the potentially turbulent and violent consequences of international crises. Two main research questions are explored: (1) Does mediation in general affect the dynamics and outcomes of crisis negotiations? and (2) Does the impact of mediation vary in accordance with mediator style? Data are drawn from the International Crisis Behavior data set and from ongoing experimental work with human subjects. The historical data reveal that mediated crises are more typically characterized by compromise among crisis actors, are more likely to end in agreements, and show a tendency toward long-term tension reduction. The experimental research confirmed the relationship between mediation and the achievement of agreement and also revealed that mediation leads to crises of shorter duration and to greater satisfaction by the parties with the outcome. A manipulative mediation style is more likely to yield favorable crisis management outcomes than is a more restrictive facilitative style.