The Mediator's Studio

Former freedom fighter turned UN diplomat, Haile Menkerios, recounts his role in Eritrea’s war of independence and the devastation of being exiled from the country he had fought to create. Reflecting on how his approach as a mediator in Sudan, South Sudan and beyond was shaped by his own experience of war, he stresses the importance of talking to everyone and urges us to “never stop believing in a better future”.

Veteran Algerian diplomat and distinguished conflict mediator, Lakhdar Brahimi, provides a front-row perspective on key moments in Afghanistan’s troubled history – beginning with his appointment as UN Special Envoy in 1997, after Kabul last fell to the Taliban. He reflects on personal regrets and missed opportunities over years of peace negotiations – from Bonn to Doha – and recalls his interactions with Taliban leadership, including the meeting where a young interpreter played an unexpected part in preventing a war. He also discusses his role in Iraq and why, despite his reservations, he couldn’t say no to the task of trying to find a peaceful solution to the war in Syria.

Join us next week for a new season of The Mediator’s Studio podcast. Guests include a veteran mediator in Afghanistan and Syria, a former freedom fighter turned UN diplomat, a peacemaker with decades of experience across Africa, a Yemeni activist and frontline humanitarian, and more! New episodes from 15 February.

Former Lead Negotiator for the Government of the Philippines, Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, takes us inside the peace talks that ended half a century of insurgency in the southern Philippines. She reveals how she worked to unify the positions of the army, police and political establishment on her own side and went on to find common ground with representatives of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, an armed group that for decades had fought for more autonomy. She lays out the milestones towards peace, describing how the parties reached the point of no return “on Heartbreak Hill”, and explains why we must all be radical in the search for peace.

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Former UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, reveals behind-the-scenes moments from his missions to Iran and North Korea. He also reflects on a career in the US Foreign Service, which threw him into the limelight of Lebanese politics at the time of Syria’s turbulent exit from the country, and recounts the dramatic episode when a talkative contact may have saved him from the huge car bomb that killed Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

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Former FARC commander, Victoria Sandino, now a Senator in Colombia, and the country’s former High Commissioner for Peace, Sergio Jaramillo Caro, were once enemies, facing each other over the negotiating table. Now they come together in The Mediator’s Studio to give the inside story on how secret talks led the two sides to a lakeside retreat in Cuba, where they forged a peace agreement to end one of Latin America’s longest conflicts. They reveal how they worked together when the Colombian people narrowly rejected the deal in a referendum and talk frankly about protecting an increasingly fragile peace today. 

Former Acting Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Libya, Stephanie Williams, reveals how Zoom calls and digital dialogues helped put the country on the path to elections after a decade of conflict and instability. She recalls her shock when a phone call from President Trump undermined the UN-led peace process, and explains how the latest, livestreamed round of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum turned up the heat on Libya’s political class.

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Businessman turned local mediator, Ibrahim Saleh Hassan, recalls being caught up in intercommunal violence in his home city of Jos and explains why, in the aftermath of this traumatic experience, he chose to be part of the solution rather than seek revenge. He tells Adam how he applied the lessons of this first dialogue process to other mediation efforts across Nigeria’s Middle Belt and why he has found that a peacemaker’s work is never done.

Former EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, reveals the inner workings of negotiations to secure a deal on Iran’s nuclear programme and looks ahead to prospects for the agreement under a Biden administration. She recalls how she put former enemies at ease in talks between Serbia and Kosovo, argues that Europe has learned the lessons of bitter division and war and explains why, despite the fact that progress is often slow, she remains optimistic about mediation and negotiation.

Special Envoy of the African Union to Sudan, Mohamed El Hacen Lebatt, recounts his mediation role in the political transition in Sudan; his arrival in Khartoum in an atmosphere of fear just ten days after the 2019 coup, his late-night talks with the military authorities and his discussions with opposition groups, particularly after a massacre that killed over one hundred civilians. He recalls shedding tears in the search for peace, and how those tears turned to elation once a deal was done.