"Third Party" Term

The term "Third Party" refers to a neutral organization or a party who becomes involved in a conflict to help resolve disputes within parties. Third parties might act as consultants, helping one side or both sides evaluate the conflict and plan an effective solution. Additionally, they might act as facilitators, forming meetings, setting agendas, and guiding productive discussions essential for conflict resolutions. There are different ways to achieve resolutions between opposing parties and each approach has its advantage and disadvantages. The two main approaches are Mediation and Arbitration.

Mediators play an active and powerful role as a third party. Mediators not only facilitate discussions, but they usually impose a system and process on the discussions that is formed to move the parties toward mutual understanding and win-win agreements. While many different styles of mediation are common, most mediators have conflicting parties settle down together to explain to each other their views about the nature of the problem and how they think it might best be solved. The mediator often tries to get the disputants to focus on underlying interests more than their initial opening positions which were the cause of the conflict. By clarifying the different views and reasons for those views, mediators can usually get the parties to develop a common understanding of the situation, which often sets out a solution which satisfies the interests of all parties. While some mediators take a stronger role between the opposing parties, mediators do not have the power to impose a solution. At the best, they can suggest a solution which the disputants may or may not accept.

The most powerful third party role is that of an arbitrator. An arbitrator usually takes in the views and opinions made by both sides, examines materials and other evidence relating to the case, and then makes a resolution of how a conflict should be settled. Most of the time, arbitrator’s decision is binding and cannot be overthrown. Therefore, the arbitrator is the most powerful type of intermediary. Arbitration works well when the parties simply want a agreement, and do not worry about losing control of the process or the outcome. However, for parties and organizations that want to maintain control other forms of intervention are often preferred.

There are three main third parties that play intermediary roles which are states, NGOs, and IGOs. In the beginning states were the dominant third parties because they were the only justifiable actor in the international structure. However after the World War II, non-state actors such as IGOs and NGOs have become important negotiators in our world. Even more recently, IGOs are recognized as an important third party that sometimes even surpasses the role of single states.