Mediation is a voluntary process. We will now define the concepts of interest and conflict more precisely. Interest, Issues, and Conflicts Interests are what people want. Issues, or positions, are views people hold regarding how they are going to get what they want. People may differ on issues while agreeing on interests.
Conflicts are real or perceived states of competing interests.
People may perceive that they have a conflict when they differ on issues and do not actually have competing interests. We will examine mediation because that is the peacemaking role that individuals can hope to play. A mediator helps to bring disputants together. Certain skills aid the mediator in this process. One skill is to have the dispute over interests identified, instead of just seeing the dispute as one of persons or of positions.