Author Description

If it is to succeed, a mediation initiative cannot be launched at just any time; the conflict must be ripe for the initiation of negotiation. Parties resolve their conflict only when they have to do so-- when each party's efforts to achieve a unilaterally satisfactory result are blocked and the parties feel trapped in an uncomfortable and costly predicament. This toolkit lays out the steps mediators can take to recognize ripeness themselves, to foster the parties' perception of ripeness, and to ripen the conflict.