Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace by Daniel C. Kurtzer and Scott B. Lasensky IBSN 978-1-60127-030-6 copyright 2008. The book illustrates the historical events of this enduring conflict. America has positioned itself as the power broker in the region but has weakened this position by many missteps, not learning from the lessons learned and not taking advantage of opportunities presented. Nevertheless the US is the key and unique role to accomplishing a negotiated peace. "While many of the lessons are derived from the Arab-Israeli context, the book also serves as a general guide for negotiators, academics, and students of conflicts worldwide. (pg. vii)" Finally, taking all these lessons learned provides recommendations in the now much more complex conflict for future US administrations.
One of the key points to the book is how indispensable the US is in the negotiating process both for the Israelis and Palestinians. The US as a robust third party can vouch for the other side when distrust threatens the process. The US can provide funds and other resources to facilitate its position as mediator and in some instances stepping in as an arbitrator. This is a quasi-role that is fluid depending on the issue and specific conflict at hand. Whereas in this class we have discussed how mediators don't take sides and merely facilitate communication amongst the sides to assist them to come to their own conclusions and solutions, the US takes a much more involved position beyond simple mediator as it has deep interests in seeing a positive outcome. Although there have been many lessons learned in all of the negotiations there has been a reluctance on the part of the US administrations to consult with former negotiators, outside experts, former officials and diplomats giving rise to the assumption that those in the current government administrations had the lock on wisdom, thus many lessons learned were lost or often painfully relearned. The book outlines 10 lessons learned.
1. The Arab-Israeli peace is in a US national interest.
2. Our foreign policy must be seen as our own and we need to be the authors of our own policy.
3. The US must be the party suing for and aggressively seeking peace.
4. The US needs to focus the parties on the end game results to avoid getting mired in the mud.
5. The parties need to keep the commitments they enter into and the US needs to oversee this.
6. The President needs to be involved however strategically and balanced. Not too much or too little.
7. The US needs a broad yet experienced negotiating team.
8. Build broad bipartisan congressional and domestic support and use the political capital early before the end of a term or close to election times.
9. The envoy must have the full support of the White House with clear policy.
10. Strategic and prudent use of economic assistance for specific purposes...not to kick the can.
The best part of the book is the recommendations to future administrations. All of this together is a rather great book for negotiators and active mediators. The roots and elements of this conflict along with the solutions are applicable to almost any mediation scenario. Generally mediators must remain neutral however in the real world of diplomacy such a stance is rather difficult because like in this case the US has much to gain. The main take away from this book is that this conflict will not go away until a strong concerted effort is made and all the parties are vested in its success. That seems easy to say but the challenge lies in the US not constantly being distracted with its own internal problems and other regional issues and conflicts involving almost every state in the Middle East. This is a great read for future audiences because it strips the conflict down to the issues however that leads to the one problem I see in the book. The book leaves out the cultural differences between the two groups, their cultural styles, and describing the situation from each of the sides' perspective. All in all it is a great short read that does an excellent job describing the Arab and Israeli Negotiations.
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