Beyond Intractability: A Free Knowledge Base on More Constructive Approaches to Destructive Conflict

Introduction: William Ury explains how outsiders can facilitate the development and coordination of many different third-sider roles. This he calls "meta mediation."

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Meta Mediation
William Ury
Director of the Global Negotiation Project, Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School

Interviewed by
Julian Portilla
2003

So he [Nelson Mandela] very definitely is a model third sider and again he is an insider and he was helped by the outsiders and that's what we need the job of the mediator and people with mediation talent vis a vis the third side is often to play one of the roles that need to be played, one of the instruments that need to be played, but also we increasingly need to play the role of what I call the "meta-mediator," which is to use your skills of facilitation and bring different people together to orchestrate or help orchestrate or bring together the different voices of the third side, from within the society, from outside the society, to bring the police, the military, the church people, the women's groups, the business - to bring all the different elements of society that really will make up bring them into dialogue with each other in order to make a powerful third side.

The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. -- Steve Biko

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Beyond Intractability Version IV
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