Issue Brief: Preventive Diplomacy and Mediation

In anticipation of the Secretary-General’s report on preventive diplomacy and the coming Security Council debate in the fall, heightened attention has been paid to the topic of preventive diplomacy in 2011.

This issue brief serves to provide a background to the current discussions as well as to provide a summary of recent developments.

It is based on a concept note prepared by Arthur Boutellis, Edward C. Luck, and Christoph Mikulaschek for the United Nations Security Council Retreat “Strengthening Preventive Diplomacy and Mediation” held in Istanbul on July 2-3, 2011.  The retreat was organized by the government of Turkey with the support of IPI.