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Compass or Relative Wind: Navigating Israeli Third Party Negotiations
Abstract
Israel navigates negotiations and third party mediation efforts with unparalleled success. Adopting a rational actor game theoretic approach to successful negotiations from 1979 Camp David Agreement on, Israel perfects the art of talking while conceding little. By identifying and prioritizing state level preferences often at odds on the internal domestic state level Israel’s success at avoiding sub-optimal state preferences revealing themselves at the state –to-state level highlights the successful mechanisms of a within-state coalition regime. Drawing on the US Institute for Peace’s publication “How Israelis and Palestinians Negotiate”’ (2005, Tamara Cofman Ed.) This paper considers the institutional, organization, procedural and precedent forming policies adopted and adapted by successive Israeli Government coalitions overtime. Examining the ways in which Israel perfects a regime based on hard and soft power manifestations of the norms and guiding principles of the state’s politically relevant military and bureaucratic elites. The success of the Israeli coalition regime is examined through a series of negotiating games (Camp David 1979, Oslo 1993, Camp David 2000, Sharm el Sheikh 2001/2) where Israel exercises the capacity to substantiate, support, sabotage or successfully spoil efforts at third party mediation. Finally, using archive documents, first person interviews and secondary sources, the paper addresses the opportunities provided to mediators and the benefits evident to third parties in pursuing an iterated analysis of a series of negotiations charted overtime.
Discipline
International Relations/Affairs
Geographic Area
All Middle East
Sub Area
Conflict Resolution