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Elizabeth Menninga is an Assistant Professor in the Political Science department at the University of Iowa. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2015, specializing in International Relations and Political Methodology. Her research focuses on the effectiveness of international mediation in intrastate wars. Elizabeth teaches undergraduate courses in international relations and research methods as well as graduate statistics courses. Her most recent article, "Kantian fractionalization predicts the conflict propensity of the international system" published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, won the 2016 Political Ties award for best paper published on political networks.

Elizabeth discusses her research on when and how multiparty mediation can help the prospects for peace in civil wars. She identifies three characteristics of mediation efforts expected to improve mediation's chances of success. These three being complementary efforts, balanced mediation, and coordination among the mediators. To evaluate these characteristics, she employs statistical tests on a set of mediation attempts in civil wars between 1989 and 2005. She also discusses two specific cases of multiparty mediation: Angola and Mozambique. Elizabeth talks about her findings and what light they bring to how multiparty mediation helps the prospects for peace in civil wars.

For more information on the Foreign Relations Council visit their website at http://www.icfrc.org.