DOCSLIB.ORG

Agency Via Dialogue: a Pragmatic, Dialogue-Based Approach to Agents

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Agency Via Dialogue: a Pragmatic, Dialogue-Based Approach to Agents PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL FACULDADE DE LETRAS PROGRAMA DE PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO EM LETRAS STÉPHANE RODRIGUES DIAS AGENCY VIA DIALOGUE: A PRAGMATIC, DIALOGUE-BASED APPROACH TO AGENTS Advisor: Prof. Jorge Campos da Costa, Ph.D. Coadvisor: Prof. Felipe de Matos Müller, Ph.D. Porto Alegre 2016 1 STÉPHANE RODRIGUES DIAS AGENCY VIA DIALOGUE: A PRAGMATIC, DIALOGUE-BASED APPROACH TO AGENTS Tese de Doutorado apresentada ao Programa de Pós- graduação em Letras/Linguística, da Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, como parte dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do título de Doutora em Letras. Advisor: Prof. Dr. Jorge Campos da Costa Coadvisor: Prof. Dr. Felipe de Matos Müller Porto Alegre 2016 2 Dados Internacionais de Catalogação na Publicação ( CIP ) D541a Dias, Stéphane Rodrigues Agency via dialogue : a pragmatic, dialogue-based approach to agents / Stéphane Rodrigues Dias. - Porto Alegre, 2016. 202 f. : il. Tese (Doutorado) – Faculdade de Letras, PUCRS. Orientador: Prof. Dr. Jorge Campos da Costa. Coorientador: Prof. Dr. Felipe de Matos Müller. 1. Linguística. 2. Diálogo - Análise. 3. Comunicação. 4. Linguagem. 5. Cognição. 6. Emoções. I. Costa, Jorge Campos da. II. Müller, Felipe de Matos. III.Título. CDD 410 . Ficha Catalográfica elaborada por Vanessa Pinent CRB 10/1297 3 I'm nothing special, in fact I'm a bit of a bore If I tell a joke, you've probably heard it before But I have a talent, a wonderful thing 'cause everyone listens when I start to sing I'm so grateful and proud All I want is to sing it out loud So I say Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing Thanks for all the joy they're bringing Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty What would life be? Without a song or a dance what are we? So I say thank you for the music For giving it to me Mother says I was a dancer before I could walk She says I began to sing long before I could talk And I've often wondered, how did it all start? Who found out that nothing can capture a heart Like a melody can? Well, whoever it was, I'm a fan I've been so lucky, I am the girl with golden hair I wanna sing it out to everybody What a joy, what a life, what a chance! "Thank You for The Music" is track #7 on the album The Album, by Abba. It was written by Andersson, Benny Goran Bror / Ulvaeus, Bjoern K. 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have many agents to thank. This work is a result of much deliberation on the theoretical realm. Core aspects of it have been discussed in conferences and workshops in the area of Linguistics, Dialogue Studies and Philosophy, one of which was held in Lebanon (Beirut, Dialogue Under Occupation VI) another in Portugal (Lisbon, 1st European Conference on Argumentation) and the others in Brazil (especially, in Curitiba, I Workshop de Pragmática; in Fortaleza, 3rd Latin American Analytic Philosophy Conference; in João Pessoa, Projeto 15 da ALFAL, "Estudios del diálogo"; in Porto Alegre, Symposium on Justice and DUO VII) and in the United States (in Los Angeles, 3rd International Conference of the American Pragmatics Association; in Princeton, Penn-Rutgers- Princeton Social Epistemology Workshop 2015). Thus, again, I have many agents to thank. I will make use of the levels of agency I take as central, starting by the members of the group closer to us as individuals, our family. For all love and support, I thank my family members and my husband, Luis. They are the base of my agency as human being, thus being central in all roles I assume as a social kind. I, then, thank my friends; in special Jefferson, Marlon, Daisy, Aline and Nana, for their complicity in life, close or far from each other, we share a motivation. I also thank my advisor, Jorge Costa, who has taken many roles in my social life since I was an Undergrad student: a friend, a professor, a guru. I also thank my co-advisor Felipe Muller for his enthusiasm for this research and his confidence in my work. I thank PUCRS, Rutgers, CNPq, Capes, Fulbright, One to World, as collective agents, by thanking their former and current members. I specially thank Prof. Ernie Lepore, for all his support during my visit at Rutgers University, for making my stay a wonderful period, and also Sue Cosentino and Jo'Ann, whose kindness, help and competence made me feel incredibly happy. At PUCRS, I thank many agents. PUCRS has been my second home for almost 11 years. Many professors, colleagues, friends and secretaries have made a difference. I thank them all, especially Yuri Penz and Tatiana Carré. I want to thank Yuri Penz and Martha Brito for proofreading parts of this material. I am deeply thankful to my evaluation committee for so many enriching comments: Dr. Candida Jaci de Sousa Melo, Dr. Ernie Lepore, Dr. Fábio Rauen and Dr. Carlos Gerbase. It is so rewarding to see our work taken seriously. I also would like to thank Prof. Edda Weigand for reading and making comments on a draft of a paper included here. Finally, I would like to thank Paulo Soares for working on a project of peacemaking that calls artists to unite for a better world. His work motivated me to pursue the proposal I present here. 5 ABSTRACT This work addresses human communicative agency. The competence to instantiate a set of communicative procedures is taken as a component of human rationality that meets a key role of regulating our cognitive environment (a set of mental states, centrally assumptions and emotions), in order to maximize practical goals and sociability. The linguistic-inferential approach offered here for such scope of rationality covers two levels: cognitive and practical, treated hierarchically, according to the assumed regulations. We consider that the cognitive apparatus (the inferential, representational and metarepresentational basis), along with the linguistic apparatus (computation plus interpretable expressions), allows us to operate from the most basic levels of linguistic processing to higher levels (where agents consider assumptions about other minds). In the practical domain, we consider that the linguistic and communicative behavior is used by agents to affect mental states and others’ courses of action, thus being in the basis of our social cognition. In this scenario, we not only interact with agents, but we also create a social agency via language. We, therefore, consider a communicative agency framework in which acts are performed within a dialogical structure. The general thesis is that communication requires the use of skills that incorporate practical rationality parameters. This regulation would be dependent on a cognitive and practical structure of agency in which human cognition represents three types of agents: individuals, group members and groups (collectives or representatives). Each of these levels presents characteristic features of communicative agency. In all of them, however, there is the possibility of disagreement among agents, cognitive or practical, in dialogue situations. We illustrate this aspect with a scenario of conflict between agents that are supposed to reach a peace agreement. The illustrative analysis focuses on real negotiation dialogues between group members and representatives of the State of Israel and of Palestine. We observe how practical goals of agents of these types regulate their cognitive and dialogical goals. As a result, we present an alternative proposal to the standard scenario of negotiation, or conflict mediation. As a theoretical benefit, ad hoc pragmatic issues (relevance to the individual qua agent, conflicts between agents) are given prominence and effective treatment. As a practical benefit, the model can be applied to the area of conflict mediation, given the downsizing of a biosocial disposition: our cognitive states are particularly affected by stimuli from a class of agents (artists), with potential effect on individual and collective agencies. Keywords: Agency. Dialogue. Rationality. Social facts. Conflict mediation 6 RESUMO Este trabalho tem como tema agência comunicativa humana. A competência para instanciar um conjunto de procedimentos comunicativos é tomada como um componente da racionalidade humana que cumpre a função central de regulação de nosso ambiente cognitivo (um conjunto de estados mentais, destacadamente suposições e emoções) tendo em vista maximizar metas práticas e sociabilidade. A abordagem linguístico-inferencial desse escopo de racionalidade que oferecemos abarca dois níveis: cognitivo e prático, tratados hierarquicamente em função das regulações supostas. Primeiramente, consideramos que o aparato cognitivo (base inferencial, representacional e matarrepresentacional), junto com o aparato linguístico (computação mais expressões interpretáveis), nos permite operar do nível mais básico de processamento linguístico a níveis mais altos (em que se consideram suposições sobre outras mentes). No domínio prático, por sua vez, consideramos que o comportamento linguístico-comunicativo é usado por agentes para agir sobre estados mentais e/ou cursos de ação de outros, estando na base de nossa cognição social. Nesse domínio, não apenas interagimos com agentes como também criamos uma agência social via linguagem. Consideramos, assim, um quadro de agência comunicativa em que atos são performados dentro de uma estrutura dialógica. A tese geral é a de que a comunicação exige o uso de habilidades que incorporam parâmetros de racionalidade prática. Essa regulação estaria dependente de uma estrutura cognitiva e prática de agência, segundo a qual a cognição humana representaria agentes de três tipos: indivíduos, membros de grupos (integrantes) e grupos (agentes coletivos ou representantes). Cada um desses níveis apresenta traços de agência comunicativa característicos. Em todos eles, porém, há a possibilidade do desacordo, cognitivo ou prático, em situações de diálogo. Ilustramos esse quadro com um cenário de conflito entre agentes que supostamente visam a chegar a um acordo de paz. A análise ilustrativa se foca em diálogos reais de negociação entre membros de grupos e representantes do Estado de Israel e da Palestina que estão encarregados do processo de paz.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • SOL STERN Misdirected Palestinian Rage a Political Demonstration
    SOL STERN Misdirected Palestinian Rage A political demonstration keeps Palestinians focused on the wrong issues. 25 February 2011 Palestinians on the West Bank were summoned by their government to attend a “Day of Rage” demonstration last Sunday. What were the demonstrators so angry about? Curiously, the Day of Rage wasn’t directed against the tyrannical regimes currently brutalizing Muslim and Arab protestors in a half dozen Middle East countries. Nor did the Palestinian demonstrators express rage over the fact that they don’t yet have an independent state of their own. Rather, it seems that Palestinian leaders are angry because the Obama administration dared to vote against a United Nations Security Council resolution declaring that Israel’s settlements on the West Bank are “illegal.” U.S. leaders “are liars who pretend to support democracy and peace,” said Al Fatah official and former Palestinian intelligence chief Tawfik Tirawi, in calling for the demonstration. Here in a nutshell is everything that is wrong with the Obama administration’s approach to the Israel-Palestine conflict and the so-called “peace process.” When Obama arrived in office in January 2009, he was aware that just four months earlier Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert had offered Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas an independent state on a silver platter. With land swaps from Israel, the Palestinians would have received the equivalent of all the territory the Arabs controlled before the 1967 war, and they could have built their capital in East Jerusalem. Only one significant concession was demanded of President Abbas in return—a declaration that the Palestinians were giving up the “right of return” to Israel for the refugees from the 1948 war and their millions of descendants.
    [Show full text]
  • Pia Jansen Phd Thesis.Pdf
    THE CONSEQUENCES OF ISRAEL’S COUNTER TERRORISM POLICY Pia Therese Jansen A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St. Andrews 2008 Full metadata for this item is available in the St Andrews Digital Research Repository at: https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/439 This item is protected by original copyright This item is licensed under a Creative Commons License The Consequences of Israel’s Counter Terrorism Policy Pia Therese Jansen Degree of PhD at University of St. Andrews Submitted on May the 25 th 2007 I, Pia Therese Jansen, hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately ………..words in length, has been written by me, that it is the record of work carried out by me and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. Date …………………. Signature of candidate …………………………………….. I was admitted as a research student in ……….. and as a candidate for the degree of PhD in ……..; the higher study for which this is a record was carried out in the University of St. Andrews between ……….. Date …………………. Signature of candidate …………………………………….. I herby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolution and Regulations appropriate for the degree of PhD in the University of St. Andrews, and that the candidate is qualified to submit this thesis in application for that degree. Date …………………. Signature of supervisor …………………………………….. In submitting this thesis to the University of St. Andrews I understand that I am giving permission for it to be made available for the use in accordance with the regulations of the University Library for the time being in force, subject to any copyright vested in the work not being affected thereby.
    [Show full text]
  • General Assembly Distr.: General 3 October 2001 English Original: English/French
    United Nations A/56/428 General Assembly Distr.: General 3 October 2001 English Original: English/French Fifty-sixth session Agenda item 88 Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories Note by the Secretary-General* The General Assembly, at its fifty-fifth session, adopted resolution 55/130 on the work of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories, in which, among other matters, it requested the Special Committee: (a) Pending complete termination of the Israeli occupation, to continue to investigate Israeli policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem, and other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, especially Israeli lack of compliance with the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, and to consult, as appropriate, with the International Committee of the Red Cross according to its regulations in order to ensure that the welfare and human rights of the peoples of the occupied territories are safeguarded and to report to the Secretary- General as soon as possible and whenever the need arises thereafter; (b) To submit regularly to the Secretary-General periodic reports on the current situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem; (c) To continue to investigate the treatment of prisoners in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem, and other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967.
    [Show full text]
  • For Regional Supremacy Strategic Implications for the Middle East
    IRAN'S RACE FOR REGIONAL SUPREMACY STRATEGIC IMPLICATIONS FOR THE MIDDLE EAST Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs 1 © 2008 Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs 13 Tel Hai Street, Jerusalem, Israel Tel. 972-2-561-9281 Fax. 972-2-561-9112 Email: [email protected] www.jcpa.org ISBN : 978-965-218-064-3 Production Director: Adam Shay Associate Editor: Noah Pollak Production Coordinator: Pablo Tittel Graphic Design: Studio Rami & Jaki Photos Credit: AP Photo 2 Contents Foreword: Iran’s Race for Regional Supremacy . .6 Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Moshe Yaalon Introduction: The Diplomatic Implications of the Growing Iranian Threat . .14 Dr. Dore Gold The Second Lebanon War: From Territory to Ideology. 24 Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Moshe Yaalon Iranian Strategic Vulnerabilities: Implications for Policy Options to Halt the Iranian Nuclear Program . 38 Maj.-Gen. (res.) Aharon Zeevi Farkash Iran’s “Second” Islamic Revolution: Its Challenge to the West . 44 Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Dr. Shimon Shapira and Daniel Diker The Global Range of Iran’s Ballistic Missile Program . 62 Uzi Rubin Hamas: “Glocal” Islamism . 68 Prof. Martin Kramer The Hamas Regime in the Gaza Strip: An Iranian Satellite that Threatens Regional Stability. 74 Lt.-Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi About the Authors. 82 About the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. 84 Maps Rocket Threats Emanating from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip Iranian Political-Military Involvement Across the Middle East and South Asia The Global Reach of Iranian-Sponsored Terrorism Shiite Populations ֿin the Middle East Iran’s Growing Missile Capabilities: Domestic Production and Foreign Procurement Dore Gold 3 Acknowledgments The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs expresses its profound thanks and appreciation to Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Arafat and the Anatomy of a Revolt 47 Arafat and The
    Arafat and the Anatomy of a Revolt 47 Arafat and the Anatomy of a Revolt ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Yezid Sayigh In October 2000, at the onset of the latest intifada, key political and security officials on both the Palestinian and the Israeli side still considered an Israeli– Palestinian peace deal to be politically realisable. Some of the substance of a mutually acceptable deal finally emerged at the bilateral talks held in the Red Sea resort of Taba in late January 2001, but by then it was too late to alter the course of events. Although the basic political parameters of the Palestinian– Israeli relationship have not changed, new political dynamics on both sides make it virtually impossible to arrive at a durable diplomatic solution in the medium term, say two to four years. It is highly unlikely that a Palestinian state will emerge in this time-frame. The present situation of low-intensity conflict will almost certainly persist for the rest of 2001, and in all likelihood for at least another year beyond that. The combination of physical and human attrition locally and of forceful diplomatic intervention by the principal outside parties might eventually prove sufficient to shift political attitudes and bring about acceptance of terms leading to a genuinely equitable and durable peace. The alternative is a ‘balkanisation’ of the conflict, as social civility and rule of law on both sides of the ‘Green Line’ give way to ethno-nationalist confrontation between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and to a deepening divide over the political status and legal entitlements of Arab citizens in Israel.1 Palestinian Authority (PA) President Yasser Arafat bears much of the responsibility for this precarious state of affairs, though not for the reasons cited by official Israeli sources.
    [Show full text]
  • Iran's Race for Regional Supremacy Strategic Implications for the Middle East
    IRAN'S RACE FOR REGIONAL SUPREMACY STRATEGIC IMPLICATIONS FOR THE MIDDLE EAST Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs 1 © 2008 Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs 13 Tel Hai Street, Jerusalem, Israel Tel. 972-2-561-9281 Fax. 972-2-561-9112 Email: [email protected] www.jcpa.org ISBN : 978-965-218-064-3 Production Director: Adam Shay Associate Editor: Noah Pollak Production Coordinator: Pablo Tittel Graphic Design: Studio Rami & Jaki Photos Credit: AP Photo 2 Contents Foreword: Iran’s Race for Regional Supremacy . .6 Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Moshe Yaalon Introduction: The Diplomatic Implications of the Growing Iranian Threat . .14 Dr. Dore Gold The Second Lebanon War: From Territory to Ideology. 24 Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Moshe Yaalon Iranian Strategic Vulnerabilities: Implications for Policy Options to Halt the Iranian Nuclear Program . 38 Maj.-Gen. (res.) Aharon Zeevi Farkash Iran’s “Second” Islamic Revolution: Its Challenge to the West . 44 Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Dr. Shimon Shapira and Daniel Diker The Global Range of Iran’s Ballistic Missile Program . 62 Uzi Rubin Hamas: “Glocal” Islamism . 68 Prof. Martin Kramer The Hamas Regime in the Gaza Strip: An Iranian Satellite that Threatens Regional Stability. 74 Lt.-Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi About the Authors. 82 About the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. 84 Maps Rocket Threats Emanating from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip Iranian Political-Military Involvement Across the Middle East and South Asia The Global Reach of Iranian-Sponsored Terrorism Shiite Populations ֿin the Middle East Iran’s Growing Missile Capabilities: Domestic Production and Foreign Procurement Dore Gold 3 Acknowledgments The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs expresses its profound thanks and appreciation to Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Will US, Canadian & EU Trained Palestinian Forces Turn on Israel?
    Palestinian Authority forces conduct exercise in Hebron in 2008 Study: Will US, Canadian & EU Trained Palestinian Forces Turn on Israel? David Bedein, CEO, Center for Near East Policy Research, Beit Agron Press Center, 37 Hillel Street, Jerusalem, Israel. Publication Made Possible by Research Grant From “The Middle East Forum” 1 Executive Summary On the surface, the Palestinian Authority has scored a major achievement over the last five years with the development of its own security force. Crime in the West Bank is at their lowest point in years. Feudal chiefs who led the Palestine Authority security agencies are quietly being replaced by those mentored by the United States, Canada and the European Union. Yet beneath the surface, the Palestine Authority security forces represent a loaded weapon that could explode in the near future. Former Palestine Authority security Chief Mohammed Dahlan himself has warned that Palestinian security forces could splinter into rival militias and attack Palestinian and Israeli civilians alike. One reason for this concern is that there is little civilian guidance over the Palestine Authority security forces. This has encouraged them to become a separate power base in the West Bank and could result in either the collapse of the Palestine Authority or the erosion of the legitimacy of Palestine Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose term of office formally expired in January 2010. Factions have already been formed within Palestine Authority security services that have resulted in friction as well as the prospect of being taken over by Hamas. With speculation that the Palestine Authority may be heading towards some kind of confrontation with Israel over the next year, cooperation with the Jewish state has declined and became purely tactical – with neither party trusting the other.
    [Show full text]
  • Want to Be an Inspirational, Electrifying and Well-Informed Activist for Israel?
    Want to be an inspirational, electrifying and well-informed activist for Israel? Look no further than "The Insider's Guide to Pro-Israel Activism" We missed the Vietnam War Protests, the First and Second Wave of Feminism and the Civil Rights Movement. Now it's time for our generation to make a difference. For Israel. This booklet was compiled as a supplement for Minnesota's First Student Summit on Pro-Israel, Anti-Terrorism Activism, Organized by Minnesotans Against Terrorism on August 11, 2002 Table of Contents FACT SHEETS Who are the "Palestinian Refugees" and whose responsibility are they? A Brief Overview of the Settlements Is Israel Occupying Palestinian Land Terrorism in the Middle East Palestinian Propaganda and Corruption The Recent Growth of Worldwide Anti-Israeli and Anti-Semitic Sentiment ACTIVISM Starting from Scratch - Creating a Pro-Israel Network on Your Campus Pro-Israel Publicity 101: Getting Your Message out to TV, Radio and Print Media Near Your Campus Media Bias: Action Plan ARTICLES "Terror, Mideast and Hypocrisy" by Mitch Albom "Skewing the Death Tolls" from TerrorPetition.com CONTACTS National and Local Networks you have automatically joined Israeli Consulate National Hillel CRITICAL NEWS AND INFORMATIONAL LINKS CREDITS Who are the "Palestinian Refugees" and Whose Responsibility are They? It is important to note that the world has seen hundreds of millions of refugees. It's a natural and expected end result of wars. The Palestinian refugee problem is rooted in the 1948-49 Arab-Israeli War. In 1947, realizing that the Jewish and Arab communities of Palestine could not live together in one state, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 181, which recommended partitioning Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab.
    [Show full text]
  • The PLO and the Genesis of the Palestinian Authority: the Inside Story
    The PLO And The Genesis Of The Palestinian Authority: The Inside Story Página 1 The PLO And The Genesis Of The Palestinian Authority: The Inside Story THE PLO AND THE GENESIS OF THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY: THE INSIDE STORY By: David Bedein Edited by: Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg Prepared for Publication and designed By Maria Del Pilar Reyes López Página 2 The PLO And The Genesis Of The Palestinian Authority: The Inside Story The PLO and the Genesis of the Palestinian Authority By: David Bedein Edited by: Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg BEHR Publishing House, Inc. 5 Fairhill Road Edison, NJ ISBN-13: 978-1523496310 ISBN-10: 1523496312 © 2017 All rights reserved Readers should feel free to reprint, distribute and use the material herein, with citation and reference to the book and author. Página 3 The PLO And The Genesis Of The Palestinian Authority: The Inside Story Table Of Contents PROLOGUE ......................................................................................................................... 11 SECTION 1: CHAPTER 1 – PLO / PA HISTORY AND BACKGROUND ................................... 14 Arafat‟s Police Have Become a Dangerous Force”… Trained in Philadelphia, PA ..................................................................................................................................... 14 Red Lights & Green Lights: Weapons Control in the Palestine Authority? ........... 17 U.S. Intelligence Training for the PLO ...................................................................... 19 Analysis: Reconsideration of Our
    [Show full text]
  • Palestine and America's
    Palestine and America’s ‘Global War on Terror’: A History 2000-2008 Jeannette Greven Department of History and Classical Studies McGill University Montreal Final Submission - 11 December 2018 © Jeannette Greven A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 1 Acknowledgements This thesis is the product of many years of research and relationships between Montreal and Palestine, and I am thankful for the assistance of a number of people in this process. First and foremost, my primary adviser, Professor Laila Parsons in the McGill Department of History, has been endlessly generous with her time, providing rigorous guidance and feedback both during my comprehensive exams and at every stage of the thesis. I am immensely grateful for Laila’s help in navigating academia and Palestine alike, and teaching me to be a much better writer. Also in the Department of History, Professor Lorenz Lüthi provided thoughtful editorial comments and support throughout the thesis, and I am thankful for his insights in contextualizing my project in the broader sweep of diplomatic history. Professor Rex Brynen provided the initial spark for this project, by suggesting I examine the Palestine Papers in full, and offered feedback on early chapters of this thesis. Professor Malek Abisaab directed me toward several valuable sources in my reading. I was financially supported by the McGill Department of History and Classical Studies, and especially the Peter Cundill Fellowship and several Arts Travel Grants. I thank Mitali Das for her help deciphering all things McGill, and her patience.
    [Show full text]
  • Injustice, Indignation and the Construction of Intractable Conflict
    Concessions for Concessions Sake: Injustice, Indignation and the Construction of Intractable Conflict in Israel-Palestine Philippe Assouliney and Robert F. Trageryy February 17, 2017 In intractable conflicts, where issues appear indivisible, what factors lead populations to ac- cept negotiated outcomes? We show that population preferences are determined in important respects by affective responses to the conflict process rather than by exogenous material fac- tors. The framing of the conflict by political elites determines the legitimacy of a proposed settlement. In particular, when there is a perception of past injustice committed by a negoti- ating adversary, populations respond to cues that suggest that the scales of justice have been balanced. To examine these issues, we conduct a survey experiment on a representative sam- ple of the Jewish Israeli population and a companion experiment on a representative sample of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. We find that holding the negotiated settlement outcome constant, approval of the settlement is strongly influenced by whether it is framed as a negotiating defeat for the Israeli or the Palestinian side if and only if respondents are primed to be indignant, and that these effects are strongly mediated by perceptions of the fairness of the settlement outcome. Moral indignation produces a desire for concessions for concession's sake. Thus, the acceptance of a political settlement depends not only on its concrete details, but in large part on the political cues that frame judgments of fairness. Such conflicts over political framing violate fundamental assumptions of the rationalist literature on conflict processes. We are grateful to Andrew Coe, Songying Fang, Susan Hyde, Andrew Kydd, Jason Lyall, Bruce Russett, Kenneth Schultz, Dustin Tingley, Alex Weisiger and seminar participants at USC and Yale for insightful comments.
    [Show full text]