DOCSLIB.ORG

Chapter 2: the Territorial Integrity Norm: from Revolutionary in Theory to Transformative in Practice…………………………………………….………

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Chapter 2: the Territorial Integrity Norm: from Revolutionary in Theory to Transformative in Practice…………………………………………….……… UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Vanishing Peace: Why Belligerents are Increasingly Reluctant to Make Formal Concessions Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/65045473 Author Brown, Cameron Shepherd Publication Date 2014 Supplemental Material https://escholarship.org/uc/item/65045473#supplemental Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO The Vanishing Peace: Why Belligerents are Increasingly Reluctant to Make Formal Concessions A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science by Cameron Shepherd Brown Committee in charge: Professor David A. Lake, Chair Professor Jesse Driscoll Professor Erik Gartzke Professor Gershon Shafir Professor Branislav Slantchev 2014 Copyright Cameron Shepherd Brown, 2014 All rights reserved. The Dissertation of Cameron Shepherd Brown is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Chair University of California, San Diego 2014 iii DEDICATION To my parents, Robert and Sherry, who poured my foundation; To Miriam and Boris, my parents through marriage, who built my roof; To my wife, Rinat, who fills that home with love; And to Eli and Rafael, my boys, who fill my home with joy. iv EPIGRAPH וְכִתְתּו … וְהָיָה בְַאחֲרִ ית הַיָמִים And it shall come to pass in חַרְ בֹותָם לְאִתִים, וַחֲנִיתֹותֵיהֶם לְמַזְמֵרֹות the end of days… and they ֹלא-יִשָא גֹוי אֶל-ּגֹוי חֶרֶ ב, וְֹלא- — shall beat their swords into יִלְמְדּו עֹוד מִלְחָמָה. plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, and they shall learn ישעיהו ב:ב-ד .war no more Isaiah 2:2-4 v TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page ………………………………………………….…………....... iii Dedication ………….…………………………………………….…………… iv Epigraph …….………….………………………………….………………….. v Table of Contents ………………………………………….………………… vi List of Tables ………………………………………………………………..... xiv List of Figures………………………………………..……….……………….. xvi List of Supplementary Files…………………………..……….………………. xvii Acknowledgements .………………….……………………………………..... xviii Vita …………………………...…………….………………………..………... xxiv Abstract of the Dissertation ..………………………………………………….. xxv Chapter 1: Why Has Peace Become Elusive?………………………………..... 1 The Puzzle……………………………………...………………………….. 1 The Argument..………………………………...………………………...… 6 Literature Review…………………………...……………………………. 13 The Assumption of Functional Equivalence……………………………. 13 vi Potential Alternative Explanations……………………………………… 16 1. International law in general has become more important….………. 16 2. Reputation………………………………………………………..... 19 3. Neo-Realists: End of Great Power War ………………….….…….. 21 4. Changes in War…………………………………….……….…….. 23 5. Domestic Politics, part 1: Diversionary Foreign Policy….……… 23 6. Domestic Politics, part 2: Democracy, Accountability and the Schelling Conjecture………………………….…….………………… 24 7. The Advent of Nationalism..……………………………………….. 26 8. Conquest No Longer Pays………………………………....……….. 27 Overview of the Dissertation……………………………..………………... 28 Chapter 2: The Territorial Integrity Norm: From Revolutionary in Theory to Transformative in Practice…………………………………………….………. 32 The Right of Conquest…………………………………………………….. 36 De Jure Concessions were Superfluous…………………………………. 42 Evolution of the territorial integrity norm…………………………………. 44 Precursors………………………………………………………………... 44 vii ‘Uti possidetis of 1810’ and the Berlin Congo Conference of 1884-85…. 48 Origins of the Territorial Integrity Norm……………………………..…. 53 Post-World War I Developments and Failures...……………………….... 60 Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928 and the Stimpson Doctrine…………….. 61 The Territorial Integrity Norm Falters………………………………. 65 World War II…………………………………………………………….. 68 Soviet Expansionism: Poland, Iran, and Turkey……………………........ 72 The Soviets test the waters: Iran and Turkey (1940-1947).................... 74 Beyond Direct Superpower Confrontation................................................. 85 A New Recipe for UN Intervention…………………………………….... 89 Potential Caveats to the Territorial Integrity Norm……………………… 93 Goa, The Falklands/Malvinas, and East Timor: The anti-colonialism trump card?................................................................................................. 94 Conquest in the Case of Self-Defense…………………………………… 105 Chapter 3: How the Territorial Integrity Norm Impacts War Initiation and War Termination………………………………………………………………. 109 Why states comply with norms……………………………………............. 110 viii Avoiding the negative reactions of others………………………………. 111 Norm accords with the actor’s interests………………………………………….11 3 Implicating Identity……………………………...................................................11 5 Caveats……………………………....................................................................11 7 On Norm Strength……………………………....................................................1 19 The Theory…………………………….................................................................12 2 Definitions……………………………...............................................................12 2 Assumptions……………………………............................................................12 3 War Initiation……………………………..........................................................12 6 When enforcement is uncertain……………………………..............................129 War Termination and Post-Conflict Bargaining……………..................... 131 When enforcement is uncertain…………………………….................. 135 Chapter 4: How Wars End………….………….……………………………… 137 The Data…………….............................……………................................... 139 Dependent Variables…………….............................…………….............. 139 Independent Variables…………….............................……………........... 148 ix Control Variables …………….............................……………............. 150 Analysis and Results…………….............................……………................. 156 Hypothesis 4: Getting to Peace…………….............................……….. 156 Descriptive Statistics…………….............................……………......... 156 Regression Analysis…………….............................…………….......... 160 Hypothesis 5: The Terms of Peace…………….............................……… 170 Descriptive Statistics…………….............................……………......... 170 Regression Analysis…………….............................…………….......... 171 Conclusion…………….............................……………................................ 176 Chapter 5: How Wars Begin………….………….………….……….………... 178 Research Design………….………….………….……….………………… 180 Dependent Variable…………….............................……………............... 180 Independent Variables…………….............................………..…............. 183 Control Variables…………….............................………….................. 187 Results and Analysis…………….............................……………................ 191 Hypothesis 1…………….............................…………….......................... 191 x Hypothesis 2…………….............................…………….......................... 202 Hypothesis 3…………….............................…………….......................... 206 Conclusion…………….............................……………................................ 208 . Chapter 6: Flirting with Annexation: Israel in 1956 and 1981……..….……… 209 Introduction…………….............................…………….............................. 209 Theories, Counterfactuals, and Alternative Hypotheses…………………. 211 Methodology…………….............................……………............................. 215 Measuring Norms: A Qualitative Approach……………........................... 215 Leveraging Quasi-Experiments…………….............................…………. 217 Least Likely Cases…………….............................……………................. 220 Data…………….............................……………........................................ 223 The Suez War (1956)……………..................................………................... 224 Background……………............................................................................. 224 Pre-empting the Inevitable……………................................................. 227 Invasion…………….............................……………............................. 230 Flirting with Annexation……………........................................................ 237 xi Domestic Reaction…………….............................……………............ 248 The International Reaction to Ben-Gurion’s Speech……………......... 251 Explaining Suez…………….............................……………........................ 264 The Territorial Integrity Norm…………….............................………….. 264 Alternative Hypotheses……………................................……................... 270 Domestic politics…………….............................……........................... 270 The Norm against Interstate Aggression……………............................ 272 The Norm of Self-Determination and Conquest No Longer Pays……. 273 Realpolitik…………….............................……………......................... 275 The Golan Law (1981)……………...........................……………............... 278 Background…………….............................……………............................ 278 . The Golan Law……………...........................…………….......................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • War and Insurgency in the Western Sahara
    Visit our website for other free publication downloads http://www.StrategicStudiesInstitute.army.mil/ To rate this publication click here. STRATEGIC STUDIES INSTITUTE The Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) is part of the U.S. Army War College and is the strategic-level study agent for issues relat- ed to national security and military strategy with emphasis on geostrategic analysis. The mission of SSI is to use independent analysis to conduct strategic studies that develop policy recommendations on: • Strategy, planning, and policy for joint and combined employment of military forces; • Regional strategic appraisals; • The nature of land warfare; • Matters affecting the Army’s future; • The concepts, philosophy, and theory of strategy; and, • Other issues of importance to the leadership of the Army. Studies produced by civilian and military analysts concern topics having strategic implications for the Army, the Department of Defense, and the larger national security community. In addition to its studies, SSI publishes special reports on topics of special or immediate interest. These include edited proceedings of conferences and topically-oriented roundtables, expanded trip reports, and quick-reaction responses to senior Army leaders. The Institute provides a valuable analytical capability within the Army to address strategic and other issues in support of Army participation in national security policy formulation. Strategic Studies Institute and U.S. Army War College Press WAR AND INSURGENCY IN THE WESTERN SAHARA Geoffrey Jensen May 2013 The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, the Department of Defense, or the U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Interstate Peacekeeping: Causal Mechanisms and Empirical Effects
    INTERSTATE PEACEKEEPING: CAUSAL MECHANISMS AND EMPIRICAL EFFECTS Virginia Page Fortna* Department of Political Science & Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies Columbia University permanent address 420 W. 118th Street New York NY 10027 w. 212 854-0021 h. 212 662-5395 f. 212 864-1686 AY 2004-2005 address Hoover Institution Stanford University Stanford CA 94305 w. 650 723-0746 c. 503 548-7429 f. 650 723-1687 email: [email protected] Version: September 14, 2004 * The author owes debts of gratitude to more people than can be listed here for help and feedback with the project of which this paper is a part. She thanks in particular, Nisha Fazal, Hein Goemans, Lise Howard, Bob Jervis, Bob Keohane, Lisa Martin, Jack Snyder, Alan Stam, Barb Walter, and Suzanne Werner. This research was made possible by grants from the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. INTERSTATE PEACEKEEPING: CAUSAL MECHANISMS AND EMPIRICAL EFFECTS ABSTRACT Peacekeeping is perhaps the international community’s most important tool for maintaining peace in the aftermath of war. Its practice has evolved significantly in the past ten or fifteen years as it has been used increasingly in civil wars. However, traditional peacekeeping between states is not well understood. Its operation is under-theorized and its effects under-tested. This article explores the causal mechanisms through which peacekeepers keep peace, and examines its empirical effects after interstate wars. To take the endogeneity of peacekeeping into account, it also examines where peacekeepers tend to be deployed.
    [Show full text]
  • Autonomy As State Prevention: the Palestinian Question After Camp David, 1979–1982
    Autonomy as State Prevention: The Palestinian Question after Camp David, 1979–1982 Seth Anziska Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Development, Volume 8, Number 2, Summer 2017, pp. 287-310 (Article) Published by University of Pennsylvania Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/hum.2017.0020 For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/665530 Access provided by University College London (UCL) (26 Sep 2017 09:59 GMT) Seth Anziska Autonomy as State Prevention: The Palestinian Question after Camp David, 1979–1982 Introduction Scholars have long explored the legal and institutional continuities that inhere in the transition from the era of late empire to the rise of nation-states, underscoring how external rule produced particular trajectories of Arab state formation.1 Extensive violence in Iraq and Syria today has directed much of that attention to the influence of British and French mandatory rule on the emergence of nation-states in the region.2 One striking feature of this transition was the rhetoric of self-determination and purportedly time-limited, developmental intervention that the mandatory powers used to extend control over local populations after the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1918. In asserting a role as protector of nations emerging from the postwar partitions, the League of Nations helped neutralize local struggles for independence.3 The conceptual framework of “transformative occupation” in the modern Middle East illuminates the techniques of foreign rule within these wider imperial histories while linking them to ambitious programs of development.4 Whether in the name of civilization or modernity, whether by a colonial or mandated power, imposing the practices of Western governance on “backward” peoples and space characterized trans- formative occupation regimes.5 In this essay, I examine how a particular practice within the political and diplomatic repertoire of transformative occupation—the promotion of local autonomy—was successfully deployed in the Israeli-Palestinian arena.
    [Show full text]
  • The Colonial Past Is Never Dead. It's Not Even Past: Histories of Empire
    Matthew G. Stanard The colonial past is never dead. It’s not even past: Histories of Empire, Decolonization, and European Cultures after 1945 Abstract: History writing about empire is thriving, although few could have pre- dicted this in the 1980s, when the field was moribund. This article examines the history and historiography of post-1945 empires and decolonization, observing how international and economic developments, combined with changes to the history profession, revived the field in the 1990s. From this resurgence emerged the “new imperial history,” with its focus on imperialism and culture, although some debate whether Europe ever developed a “colonial culture.” The essay assesses recent works on the legacies of empire and decolonization that indicate what we know about colonial culture at this juncture, and how it should be studied. It also identifies obstacles like missed collaborations between postcolonial studies and history writing, and terminological issues, including problems with the label “new imperial history.” The essay concludes by indicating directions for future research: into the forms of decolonization; toward greater inclusion of the “smaller” empires; toward fuller comparison of cultures and empires; and into migration’s effects on Europe. Stepping off the tram at one downtown stop in Brussels back in 2002 or 2003, I noticed two men in a scuffle, one black, one white. It don’t know what started it, but my impression was that an accidental bump on the crowded platform set the white man off. I couldn’t hear their exchange as they confronted each other before parting ways, but there was no doubt what the white man yelled at the black man as he walked off, no more than a few meters away: “macaque!” – “monkey!” One could interpret the white man’s outburst as a remnant of Belgium’s colo- nial past, meaning Europe’s “age of empire” had somehow lived on into even the 21st Century.
    [Show full text]
  • Economic Equality and Victory in War: an Empirical Investigation
    Economic Equality and Victory in War: An Empirical Investigation James K. Galbraith, Corwin Priest, & George Purcell The University of Texas Inequality Project The University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas 78712 UTIP Working Paper #37 June 13, 2006 Abstract: This paper tests a simple hypothesis: that given the occurrence of war between two countries, the country that is more egalitarian at the moment of military decision is likely to emerge the victor. First, we examine cases where comparative economic inequality can be measured directly, using the nearly comprehensive global data-sets of the University of Texas Inequality Project for the years 1963-1999. Second, we examine cases where reasonable inferences about comparative economic inequality may be drawn by analogy to UTIP measurements or from other political and economic evidence, including both bi-national wars and larger wars where there existed clear pair-wise fronts. Third, we discuss selected cases where inferences may be drawn from literary or historical sources. We find, all in all, that the evidence for an egalitarian victory proposition is remarkably strong. Corresponding author: James K. Galbraith, [email protected] Comments welcome. 1 Introduction This paper tests a simple hypothesis: that given the occurrence of war between two countries, the country that is more egalitarian at the moment of military decision is likely to emerge the victor. In pioneering work, Reiter and Stam (2002) argue that political democracies have a “fourth virtue”: victory in war. They attribute this primarily to better choices of when to initiate wars, to better military leadership and to better morale and stronger commitment among the fighting men.
    [Show full text]
  • War As a Constitutive Moment
    Dodging a Bullet: Democracy’s Gains in Modern War* Paul Starr That war drives state-building is virtually a truism of historical sociology, summed up in the late Charles Tilly’s well-known aphorism that states make war, and war makes states. (Tilly, 1990) But if war and state-building merely reinforce each other, why have liberal democracies flourished and proliferated during the past two centuries when war reached unprecedented dimensions? Why not militaristic autocracies? What role, if any, has war played in the formation and spread of liberal democratic regimes? To raise these questions is not to suggest that war is one of democracy’s primary causes, but rather to ask how democracy and, more particularly, liberal democracy dodged a bullet--a bullet that, according to many ancient and plausible theories, might well been fatal. The belief that democracy is a liability in war has been a staple of political thought, beginning with Thucydides. If liberalism and democracy had been sources of severe military disadvantage during the past two centuries, liberal democratic regimes should have perished in wars as they were conquered and eliminated by other states, or when their own populations rose up to overthrow them in the wake of defeat, or because they were forced to abandon their institutions in order to survive. That this was not their fate suggests a range of possibilities. At a minimum, their institutions have not been a disabling handicap in war, and no consistent relationship may exist between war and democracy. Alternatively, war may have contributed to the spread of democratic regimes if democracy itself or features correlated with democracy have increased the chances of a regime’s survival in war, or if war has promoted changes favorable to democratic institutions.
    [Show full text]
  • Wars Since 1945: an Introduction
    Wars since 1945: An Introduction Beatrice Heuser1 While most Europeans lived through an exceptionally peaceful period of histo- ry, termed ‘The Long Peace’ by John Lewis Gaddis,2 the populations of other continents were decidedly less fortunate. What was a ‘Cold War’ for the Euro- peans was anything but ‘cold’ for the Koreans, Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians, for most Arab peoples, the Afghans, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, and Indians, the populations of the Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea, and of most of Latin America. How, then, can one be so sanguine as to characterise this period as that of a ‘Cold War’ or a ‘long peace’? The reason is that the long-expected Third World War has not (yet?) taken place. It was the prospect of such a Third World War, a ‘total’ and in all probability nuclear war, that attracted the attention of con- cerned minds in Europe and North America, the cultures that over centuries produced most publications on the subjects of war, strategy, military affairs and international relations. 1. An overview Admittedly, Americans, Britons, Frenchmen, Belgians, Portuguese and the Dutch were soon reminded of the existence of a world outside the Europe- centric East-West conflict. Almost immediately after the end of the Second World War, Britain and France became involved in decolonisation wars in Asia and Africa, and America woke up to the enduring reality of lesser wars with Korea. American strategists like Robert Osgood turned to Clausewitzian con- cepts to define these: they called them ‘limited wars’, since no nuclear weapons were used, and because they did not escalate to global war.3 While many of them recognised the continuing occurrence of such non-nuclear, non-global wars, Americans (and indeed Britons and Frenchmen) tended to see them as part of the larger framework of the Cold War.
    [Show full text]
  • El Salvador1 El Salvador Is a Small Central American Country
    Background- El Salvador1 El Salvador is a small Central American country (population about 6.3 million in 2016) that was devastated by a 1979 to 1992 civil war that featured repeated, large-scale massacres of civilians. Since the 1500s, El Salvador has been dominated by a small plantation-owning elite and has had repeated conflicts with its neighbors. The Spanish arrived in 1524 and started cocoa and later indigo plantations farmed by members of various small Indian tribes related to the Maya and Aztec. Although Salvadoran planters were wealthy and politically powerful within El Salvador, they felt frustrated by the regional dominance of Guatemalan merchants and clergy and repeatedly fought with Guatemala. In 1821, El Salvador joined the rest of Central America in declaring independence from Spain but, by 1841, attempts to form a united Central America had failed and Central America broke down into separate independent states. Within El Salvador, tensions between the planters and the working class were exacerbated in the late 1800s by the development of artificial dyes and the resulting crash in the indigo market. Although planters successfully switched to coffee, the switch entailed taking most of the indigenous tribes’ remaining land and violently putting down the resulting rebellions. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, tensions between the Salvadoran working class and elites boiled over into a communist revolt, setting the stage for a series of military dictatorships. In 1929, the Wall Street collapse caused coffee prices to crash, intensifying Salvadoran’s existing dissatisfaction with the unequal distribution of wealth. In response, the military lead a coup in 1931 and the Salvadoran Communist Party led a revolt in 1932.
    [Show full text]
  • Football and the Military in Contemporary Britain: an Exploration of Invisible Nationalism
    Football and the Military in Contemporary Britain: An Exploration of Invisible Nationalism Penn, R., & Berridge, D. (2018). Football and the Military in Contemporary Britain: An Exploration of Invisible Nationalism. Armed Forces and Society, 44(1), 116-138. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X16682784 Published in: Armed Forces and Society Document Version: Peer reviewed version Queen's University Belfast - Research Portal: Link to publication record in Queen's University Belfast Research Portal Publisher rights © 2017 The Author. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. Please refer to any applicable terms of use of the publisher. General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Queen's University Belfast Research Portal is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The Research Portal is Queen's institutional repository that provides access to Queen's research output. Every effort has been made to ensure that content in the Research Portal does not infringe any person's rights, or applicable UK laws. If you discover content in the Research Portal that you believe breaches copyright or violates any law, please contact [email protected]. Download date:05. Oct. 2021 Football and the Military in Contemporary Britain: An Exploration of Invisible Nationalism Roger Penn, Queens University Belfast Acknowledgements All the pictures used in the text were taken by the authors apart from Photographs F, G and H which were provided courtesy of Bolton Wanderers FC by Phil Mason, the Club’s Chaplain and Photograph I which was supplied courtesy of Carlisle United FC by their Head of Media, Andy Hall.
    [Show full text]
  • A Western Or Eastern Nation the Case of Israel
    32nd ANNUAL MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR ISRAEL STUDIES A WESTERN OR EASTERN NATION THE CASE OF ISRAEL JUNE 20-22, 2016 JERUSALEM Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi | Menachem Begin Heritage Center With the support of the Research Insitute for Zionism and Setlement, Jewish Naional Fund (KKL) YAD IZHAK BEN-ZVI Institute for Research on Eretz Israel Association for Israel Studies - 32nd Annual Conference A WESTERN OR EASTERN NATION? THE CASE OF ISRAEL Jerusalem, June 2016 Program Committee First Term Board Members, 2015-2019: Arie Naor, Chair Dr. Yael Aronof (Michigan State University) Judith Goldstein & Michael Feige, Anthropology Dr. Oded Haklai (Queen’s University) Tamar Horowitz & Len Saxe, Communal Studies Dr. Badi Hasisi (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) Yoram Peri & Oranit Klein Shagrir, Communicaion Dr. Amal Jamal (Tel Aviv University) Na’ama Shei & Rachel Harris, Film and Theatre Dr. Paula Kabalo (Sede Boqer, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) Shula Reinharz & Sylvie Fogel-Bijaoui, Gender Studies Dr. Derek Penslar (University of Oxford) Ilana Szobel & Ranen Omer-Sherman, Hebrew Literature Dr. Joel Peters (Virginia Tech) Alon Kadish & Meir Chazan, History Dr. Sandy Kedar (University of Haifa) Galia Golan & Joel Peters, Internaional Relaions Dr. Arieh Saposnik (Sede Boqer, BGU) Gur Alroey & Theodore Sasson, Israel-Diaspora Relaions Dr. Orna Sasson-Levy (Bar-Ilan University) Pnina Lahav & Mohammed Watad, Law Dr. Mohammed Watad (Zefat Academic College) Ariel Ahram & Oren Barak, Naional Security Oded Haklai & Mustafa Abbasi, Non-Jewish Minoriies Ami Pedahzur & Assaf Meydani, Poliical Science Second Term Board Members, 2013-2017: Boaz Huss & Mordechai Inbari, Religious Studies Sammy Smooha & Russell Stone, Sociology Dr. Michael Brenner (American University and University of Alan Dowty & Tamar Hermann, The Arab-Israeli Conlict Munich) Colin Shindler & Reuven Gafni, Zionism Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Avi Shlaim ISRAEL BETWEEN EAST and WEST, 1948–56
    xxx cj853a-07 July 20, 2004 18:39 Int. J. Middle East Stud. 36 (2004), 657–673. Printed in the United States of America DOI: 10.1017.S002074380436407X Avi Shlaim ISRAEL BETWEEN EAST AND WEST, 1948–56 The two main issues in Israel’s foreign policy are relations with the Arab world and relations with the Great Powers, and there is extensive literature on both. But whereas the literature on relations with the Great Powers is marked by a broad consensus, the literature on relations with the Arab world is dominated by a deep and often acrimonious debate. A major landmark in the evolution of this debate was the emergence in the late 1980s of a school of “new,” or revisionist, Israeli historians. Among the members of this group were Simha Flapan, Benny Morris, Ilan Pappe, and the present author.1 We were called the “new historians” because we challenged the traditional Zionist narrative of the birth of Israel and of the first Arab–Israeli war. The momentous events that unfolded in 1948 were the main focus of the debate.2 Subsequent books by some of these authors extended the critique of Israel’s policy in the conflict to the post-independence period.3 The debate between the “old” and the “new” historians has been going on for nearly two decades, and it is still going strong. By contrast, the literature on Israel’s international orientation has been much less con- tentious and much less controversial. While differences on specific issues and episodes undoubtedly exist, there is no alternative school of thought about the shift in Israel’s posture from non-alignment in 1948 to close alignment with the West by 1956.
    [Show full text]
  • The 1967 Arab-Israeli War Origins and Consequences
    The 1967 Arab-Israeli War Origins and Consequences The June 1967 War was a watershed moment in the history of the mod- ern Middle East. In six days, the Israelis defeated the Arab armies of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan and seized large portions of territory includ- ing the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights. With the hindsight of four decades and access to recently declassified documents, two veteran scholars of the Middle East bring together some of the most knowledgeable experts in their fields to reassess the origins of the war and its regional reverberations. Each chapter takes a different perspective from the vantage point of a different participant, those that actually took part in the war, and the world powers – the United States, Soviet Union, Britain, and France – that played important roles behind the scenes. Their conclusions make for sober reading. At the heart of the story was the incompetence of the Egyptian high command under the leadership of Gamal Abdel Nasser and the rivalry between various Arab players who were deeply suspi- cious of each other’s motives. Israel, on the other side, gained a resound- ing victory for which, despite previous assessments to the contrary, there was no master plan. Wm. Roger Louis is the Kerr Professor of English History and Cul- ture at the University of Texas at Austin and Honorary Fellow of St. Antony’s College, Oxford. A past President of the American His- torical Association, he is the editor-in-chief of The Oxford History of the British Empire.
    [Show full text]