Peace Mediation in an Age of Conflict

Ambassador Humaid bin Ali Al Maani currently serves as Head of the Diplomatic Academy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Sultanate of Oman, a position he assumed in September 2024. In addition, he is a member of the Committee of the Center for Strategic Partnerships and Foreign Trade and serves on the Board of Trustees of the National Museum. Previously, he was Head of the Global Affairs Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2017 to 2024, during which he also chaired the Omani Committee for International Humanitarian Law, served on the National Counter-Terrorism Committee, and held the post of Vice Chairman of the Oman Human Rights Commission. Earlier in his career, he served as Ambassador to France and non-resident Ambassador to Portugal, and before that as Oman’s Ambassador to India with concurrent accreditation to Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal, Singapore, and Seychelles. He has Master's degree from France.

Ambassador Tim Enderlin took office as head of the Peace and Human Rights Division (PHRD) of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) on 19 August 2024. He studied law in Zurich. Since he joined the diplomatic service in 1997, his positions have included Deputy Head of Human Resources of the FDFA, Diplomatic Advisor to the President of the Swiss Confederation, Regional Director of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in Laos, and Ambassador of Switzerland to Myanmar.

Ambassador Alp Ay is a career diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Türkiye. He currently serves as the Director General of International Mediation and Special Representative for Somalia–Somaliland. Previously, he was the Ambassador of Türkiye to Angola (2019–2023). He held senior roles in multilateral diplomacy, focusing on human rights, humanitarian assistance and humanitarian law. He had served in Riyadh, Prague, Council of Europe and Stockholm.

Katia Papagianni is Director for Mediation Support and Policy at the Geneva-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD Centre). In that capacity, she advises HD mediation teams and deploys to support mediation efforts operationally all over the world. She also leads HD’s global thematic work on Environment and Climate, Ceasefires and Security Arrangements, Gender and Inclusion, and Illicit Economies. Katia manages HD’s collaboration with Norway on the annual Oslo Forum as well as HD’s work on impact, results and learning. She has also been seconded by the HD Centre to the team of the UN Special Adviser on Yemen as an expert on national dialogue processes. She publishes and lectures regularly on mediation and peacemaking. Prior to joining the HD Centre, she worked in Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Iraq.

Jonathan Cohen is Executive Director of Conciliation Resources, a post he took up in 2016. Over the past 29 years at Conciliation Resources, initially as South Caucasus Director and then as Director of Programmes, Jonathan has supported dialogue and peacebuilding initiatives in contexts including the South Caucasus, Kashmir, the Philippines, Colombia, Ethiopia, the Mano River Region, Nigeria and Papua New Guinea. Previously he served as Deputy Director of the Foundation on Inter-Ethnic Relations in The Hague working with the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities. Jonathan is an Associate of the Institute for the Public Understanding of War and Conflict at the Imperial War Museum, a member of the Advisory Board of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at the University of London and a Board Member of the Peace Dividend Initiative. In 2007 he was awarded an OBE by the British Government for services to conflict prevention and conflict resolution in the South Caucasus.

Akiko HORIBA, Ph.D., is Director of Center for Mediation Support. She specializes in conflict analysis, peacebuilding, and Southeast Asian Area Studies. She received a doctorate in Area Studies from Sophia University Japan, and a Master of Theological Studies at Weston Jesuit School of Theology (currently Boston College), USA. Served as a Policy Secretary to a Member of the House of Representatives. Since 2015, Senior Program Officer at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation. Seconded to The Nippon Foundation before returning to the current position. She is a lecturer at Institute of Science Tokyo, Hosei University and Rikkyo University. She is a board member of Japan Platform, an international emergency humanitarian aid organization. Fellow at Georgetown Institute of WPS, Member of NATO-Civil Society Advisory Panel for WPS.