Shortly before the Middle East peace talks began in November 1991, the United States Institute of Peace conducted a four-day simulation of what was about to unfold in the diplomatic dialogue between two enemy countries, Israel and Syria, whose representatives had never before sat together. This volume presents a description of that exercise and its implications for peacemaking and conflict resolution in the Middle East, a discussion of simulations and their utility for diplomats and for the field of conflict resolution, and a discussion among the participants of prospects for the overall Middle East peace negotiations.

fills a gap in the market on conflict resolution in the Arab world examines conflict management in the Arab world through comparative case study analysis will be of much interest to students of conflict resolution, Middle Eastern politics, peace and conflict studies, security studies and IR

This book explores efforts being made to create Russian-American cooperation in managing recurrent conflict in the Middle East. Theoretical, historical, and policy sections provide the framework for chapters that represent the most current, multinational thinking on issues of war prevention, crisis avoidance, and conflict resolution. The contributo

Inter- and intra-clan conflicts in Northern Israel pit hundreds against each other in revenge cycles that take years to resolve and impact the entire community. The Sulha is a Shari’a-based traditional conflict resolution process that works independently of formal legal systems and is widely practiced to manage such conflicts in the north of Israel, as well as throughout the Muslim and Arab worlds. The Sulha process works by effecting a gradual attitudinal transformation, from a desire for revenge to a willingness to forgive, through restoration of the victim’s clan sense of honour. Muslim/Arab Mediation and Conflict Resolution examines the process of Sulha, as practiced by the Arab population of northern Israel, where it plays a central role in the maintenance of peace among Muslims, Christians, and Druze alike. It presents detailed analysis of every stage of this at times protracted process. It uses interviews with victims, perpetrators, Sulha practitioners, community leaders and lawyers, along with statistical analysis to examine how Sulha affects people’s lives, how various sectors of society impact the practice, and how it coexists with Israel’s formal legal system. Furthermore, it examines how Sulha compares to Western dispute resolution processes. This book offers the first comprehensive exploration of the entire Sulha process, and is a valuable resource for students and scholars of Middle East studies, Islamic studies and conflict resolution.

The historical and cultural richness of the Middle Eastern societies and the role of the state in the countries of the region provide a unique basis to understand the variety of means to address violent conflicts in different societies with a common basis. Against this backdrop, the leading question addressed in the contributions to this book concerns what is the best-suited response to violent conflicts? The question implies that there exist alternative ways of dealing with violent conflicts. And posing this question, there follow immediately other questions: best in terms of what and best for whom: the offender, the victim, the public or all of them? The responses are related to basic concepts of punishment, retaliation and mediation that have evidently been developed everywhere although content and meaning differ. Within this context, the book provides an overview on structural factors, settings and the phenomenology of violent conflicts in fourteen countries of the Middle East and an insight into the variety of types of traditional and modern conflict resolution applied largely in parallel in the region from different perspectives of social, legal and political sciences.

How will the growing Islamic resurgence affect the political stability of the Middle East? What are the prospects for democracy in the area? How will the continued Iranian-Saudi and Israeli-Syrian rivalries affect political stability in that area? What are the prospects for the deceleration of the arms race? Are the Kurds likely to enjoy continued autonomy in Iraq? These questions are answered in this study.

As the cold war comes to an end, world attention focuses even more on tensions in the Middle East. This timely and important book examines both the U.S.-USSR and Arab-Israeli conflicts since 1948 and uses the history of their negotiations--one successful, the other less so--to establish principles that will be helpful in resolving international conflicts now and in the future. Written by an authority on conflict resolution, the book is the first to emphasize the entire process of peacemaking instead of just one of its aspects. Examining the many de-escalation efforts in the U.S.-USSR and Arab-Israeli conflicts, Louis Kriesberg analyzes why initiatives are taken, why some initiatives are followed by negotiations and others are not, why some negotiations conclude in explicit agreements and others do not, and why some agreements become the basis for additional peacemaking moves and others do not even endure. Applying insights from theories of conflict resolution and international relations, Kriesberg builds and tests a general theory of the process of conflict termination, deepening our understanding of specific efforts toward peacemaking and drawing inferences about de-escalation strategies for policy making. In an epilogue, Kriesberg discusses the war in the Persian Gulf and shows how its resolution illustrates the relevance of the insights he provides.

This study of conflict management in the Middle East covers general conflict resolution in Islam, sociological roots of conflict resolution in the Arab World and conflict resolution and the Arab state. The Western perspectives presented are then critiqued from a non-Western standpoint.

In recent decades, Saudi Arabia has committed itself to playing the part of mediator in intra-national and international conflicts in the greater Middle East region. Examples include the two Saudi-introduced Arab Peace Initiatives of 1982 and 2002, mediation attempts between Algeria and Morocco in the West Sahara conflict, Iraq and Syria during the Iran-Iraq War and Iran and Iraq towards the end of their military conflict. Saudi Arabian Foreign Relations provides a new insight to current studies on Saudi foreign policy and mediation in international relations. The book offers a detailed analysis of Saudi Arabia’s intermediary role in the intra-state conflicts in Yemen, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, and the successes and limitations of each. Additionally, it provides an updated examination of Saudi Arabia’s role towards resolution of the larger Arab-Israeli conflict. Saudi Arabian Foreign Relations contributes to a far deeper understanding of Saudi foreign policy, and therefore will be of great interest to students and scholars of Middle East Politics and International Relations.