Consensus Builders

7. Massively Parallel Roles & Tasks

Consensus Builders go beyond the negotiation and mediation of relatively small scale disputes to help those involved in complex, multi-party disputes develop a broad consensus on ways of handling complex clusters of interlocking issues that affect large numbers of people and involve multiple interest groups. The line between consensus builders and mediators is somewhat fuzzy since consensus building and mediation processes are very similar. Also, as we indicated just above, people and organizations engaged in complex international mediation usually use the term "mediation," rather than consensus building. But, since their work is very large scale and complex, they seem to fit better here. Examples include individuals: William Ury would be one example, Jimmy Carter, when he was younger but still after he was U.S. President, was another example. Sometimes states act as mediators of international conflicts, as both the United States and Norway did in the early 2000s with respect to Israel, and Qatar is doing now in the latest Israeli/Palestinian conflict. NGOs, such as International Alert and the Carter Center also do international mediation as do a wide variety of religious organizations such as the Quakers, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and the Community of Sant'Egidio.

Most of the work of people and organizations that use the term "consensus building," such as the Consensus-Building Institute (CBI), and the Keystone Policy Center primarily work in domestic (meaning one nation) settings. But not always — CBI, Keystone, and the Meridian institute also work on international issues. They usually act as Track II mediators, however, not Track 1. A clearer image of the kind of work that these organizations do is found in CBI's collection of online resources and its summary of ongoing projects. Further examples include this description of ways in which businesses can use consensus building techniques to help them navigate the deep differences that divide their customers.