Third-party intermediaries are people, organizations, or even nations (in an

international perspective) who enter a conflict to try to help the parties deescalate or resolve it (Burgess, 2004). FORMAL INTERMEDIARIES

People who are professional conflict resolvers and who are hired specifically to
do that job. They may be professional mediators, arbitrators, facilitators, or judges, who work privately or with a government agency. INFORMAL INTERMEDIARIES People who find themselves in an intermediary role, but it is not something they usually do as a profession.

Third parties can:

Provide breathing space (i.e. reduce tension)

Re-establish communication between two parties Refocus on substantiative issues

Repair stained relationships

Recommend time limits Salvage sunk costs of stalled negotiations Increase level of negotiator satisfaction

 Deadlock or impasse between two-parties Unproductive tension and hostility Anger and resentment overwhelm negotiators Mistrust and suspicion are high

There are a number of intermediary roles that individuals play. Bill

Ury (2000), identifies ten (10) such

roles: Provider (of needed resources) Teacher (to give new ideas for how to resolve conflict, or at least for new ways to approach it) Bridge-builder (brings people together where they can get to know each other better)

 Mediators (helps parties work out their problems themselves)

Arbitrators (listen to both sides then make a decision about what should happen) Equalizers (empowers the lower power group(s), so that they can negotiate more effectively with the other party) Healers (help parties apologize, forgive, and become reconciled) Witnesses (who observe what is going on and call attention to injustice) Referees (who try to keep both sides to fighting fairly) Peacemakers (keep the parties apart so they dont fight (at least physically