Peace Mediation in the Emerging Multipolar Order: Implications of China’s Growing Engagement in Myanmar’s Civil War

Abstract In the 21st century, peacemaking is subject to a changing international order in which rising powers play a growing role. China’s mediation in Myanmar’s civil war is a case in point: since the international peace architecture has little access to the conflict. This paper contrasts divergent theoretical assumptions on the impact of multipolarity on peace processes with an in-depth examination of China’s strategy. For analysts of the emerging multipolar order, this research indicates that the optimistic assumptions of Mignolo’s pluriversal and Acharya’s multiplex theory might not be met by the rise of new actors in peacemaking. Instead, China’s mediation in Myanmar suggests that multipolarity favors geopolitics at the expense of emancipatory movements. China’s growing involvement in peace processes worldwide confirms recent scholarship on the lack of conflict resolution tools in the multipolar order, rendering multipolarity prone to instability and condemning emancipatory movements to permanent subjugation.