Dynamics of Israeli-Palestinian Relations

BEN SOETENDORP is Associate Professor of International Relations, Department of Political Science, Leiden University, the Netherlands.

• Introduction: Untying the Gordian Knot A First Lens: Governments Do Not Act, Individuals Act A First Cut: The Importance of Leadership A Second Lens: International Politics Are Rooted in Domestic Politics A Second Cut: Choosing Stalemate A Third Lens: The Underlying International Structure and Rules A Third Cut: Conflicting International Pressures Conclusion: More Than One Story to Tell

"Drawing on Waltz and Allison, Soetendorp summarizes an enormous amount of theoretical literature and organizes it into individual, state-level, and systemic explanations of foreign policy behavior. He then shows how each of these three "lenses" yields different plausible explanations of Israeli and Palestinian actions in the partition of Palestine in 1948 and the acceptance and ultimate failure of the Oslo Accords, doing a micro-level analyses of these cases. This book will be very useful for courses in international relations, decision-making, foreign policy, conflict resolution, and Middle Eastern politics." - Roy Licklider, Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University