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Glocal Peace Mediators as Norm Translators
Author(s) -
Kastner Philipp
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
swiss political science review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.632
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1662-6370
pISSN - 1424-7755
DOI - 10.1111/spsr.12423
Subject(s) - normative , norm (philosophy) , mediation , scholarship , sociology , glocalization , epistemology , agency (philosophy) , political science , law and economics , law , social science , globalization , philosophy
International peace mediators operate within a normative universe constituted of interrelated, overlapping and evolving norms. They are constantly involved in the application, creation and adaptation of different norms, whether consciously or unconsciously, explicitly or implicitly. This article interrogates the increasingly complex normative dimensions of peace mediation and, especially, the ways in which peace mediators navigate and translate different norms. It seeks to fill two significant gaps in the existing literature. With respect to the emerging literature on norms in peace mediation, the article innovates by drawing on critical legal pluralism. Through this approach, and by building on legal‐anthropological work on transnational human rights norms as well as on recent empirical studies on peace mediators, the article also adds to the existing international relations scholarship on norms and norm translation, which has not focused on mediation as a site, or on the involvement of mediators as a form of agency.