Fall 2010 SSN 1082-7307 Volume 17, Number 2 Peace and Conflict Studies • An Anatomy of Conflict Resolution in Africa’s Civil Conflicts George Klay Kieh, Jr. • Who is More Humane? An Ethnographic Account of Power Struggles in Jewish-Palestinian Dialogue Encounters Nava Sonnenschein and Zvi Bekerman • The “Public” in “Public Peace Process” and in “Mini-Publics:” A Dialogue between Democratic Theory and Peace Studies Amit Ron • On the Cusp of Water War: A Diagnostic Account of the Volatile Geopolitics of the Middle East Ahmed Abukhater • Letters of Intent, Costly Signals, and Local Peacemaking in the Georgian-Abkhaz Conflict Spencer B. Meredith, III EDITORIAL STAFF Editor-in-Chief: Honggang Yang Senior Consulting Editor: Howon Jeong Advisory Editor: Sean Byrne Managing Editor: Robin Cooper Editorial Team: Elena Bastidas, Dustin Berna, Jason Campbell, Mark Davidheiser, Cheryl Duckworth, Laura Finley, Alexia Georgakopoulos, Patrick Hiller, Neil Katz, Solomon Losha, Terry Morrow, Hamdesa Tuso, Marcie Washington Associate Editors: Alice Ackermann, Christopher Burnett, Joseph Folger, Loraleigh Keashly, Jim Hibel, Katy Hayward Assistant Editors: Julia Bilia, Natasha Rider, Richard Toumey EDITORIAL BOARD Sami Adwan, Bethlehem University, Palestine Joseph Nevo, University of Haifa, Israel Chadwick Alger, Ohio State University, USA Hanna Newcombe, Peace Research Institute, Dundas, Scott Appleby, University of Notre Dame,USA Brendan O’Leary, University of Pennsylvania, USA Paul Arthur, University of Ulster-Coleraine, UK Canada Frederic Pearson, Wayne State University, USA Jacob Bercovitch, University of Canterbury, New Zealand Brian Polkinghorn, Salisbury State University, USA Celia Cook-Huffman, Juniata College, USA Dean Pruitt, State University of New York, Buffalo, USA John Darby, University of Notre Dame, USA Luc Reychler, University of Leuven, Belgium Morton Deutsch, Columbia University, USA Janet Rifkin, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA Franklin Dukes, University of Virginia, USA Paul Rogers, University of Bradford, UK Matthias Finger, Graduate Institute of Public Admin., Switzerland Florence Ross, NGO on Aging, United Nations, USA Ronald Fisher, American University, USA Marc Howard Ross, Bryn Mawr College, USA Linda Forcey, State University of New York, Binghamton, USA Robert Rubinstein, Syracuse University, USA Johan Galtung, TRANSCEND, Norway Dennis Sandole, George Mason University, USA Vasu Gounden, University of Durban, South Africa Jessica Senehi, University of Manitoba, Canada Adrian Guelke, Queen’s University of Belfast, UK Martin Shaw, University of Sussex, UK Tamar Hermann, Tel Aviv University, Israel Timothy Shaw, Dalhousie University, Canada Herbert Kelman, Harvard University, USA Janice Stein, University of Toronto, Canada Caroline Kennedy-Pipe, University of Sheffield, UK Lawrence Susskind, MIT, USA Louis Kriesberg, Syracuse University, USA Ramesh Thakur, United Nations University, Japan John Paul Lederach, University of Notre Dame, USA Vibeke Vindeløv, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Richard Little, University of Bristol, UK Raimo Vayrynen, University of Notre Dame, USA Neil MacFarlane, Oxford University, UK Kathleen Maas Weigert, Georgetown University, USA George McCall, University of Missouri-St. Louis, USA Tom Woodhouse, University of Bradford, UK John McGarry, Queen’s University, Canada Mitja Zagar, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Dominic Murray, University of Limerick, Ireland William Zartman, John Hopkins University, USA. Michael Nagler, University of California, Berkeley, USA ABOUT PEACE AND CONFLICT STUDIES (PCS) Peace and Conflict Studies (PCS--ISSN1082-7307) is committed to interdisciplinary explorations on conflict resolution, peace building, humanitarian assistance, and other alternative mechanisms that seek to prevent and control violence. PCS is also interested in articles focusing on social change and nonviolence: sustainable development, ecological balance, community revitalization, reflective practice, action research, social justice, human rights, gender equality, intercultural relations, grassroots movements and organizational transformations. Manuscripts may address various human experiences, social issues, and policy agendas that are connected to the research literature, practice, and experiential learning in the fields. As a semiannual academic journal, PCS is published in an online format (http://shss.nova.edu/pcs/). Views expressed in articles and other contributions that appear in PCS may not necessarily reflect endorsement by the Editorial Board or Staff. PCS provides opportunities and forums for dialogs over various ideas, assessments, recommendations, and critiques. Peace and Conflict Studies is indexed and/or abstracted in Peace Research Abstracts Journal, Public Affairs Information Service, Sociological Abstracts, Psychological Abstracts, PsychINFO, Political Science Manuscripts, International Political Science Abstracts and Worldviews. Fall 2010 Volume 17, Number 2 PEACE AND CONFLICT STUDIES Table of Contents An Anatomy of Conflict Resolution in Africa’s Civil Conflicts 277 George Klay Kieh, Jr. Who is More Humane? An Ethnographic Account of Power Struggles 307 in Jewish-Palestinian Dialogue Encounters Nava Sonnenschein and Zvi Bekerman The “Public” in “Public Peace Process” and in “Mini-Publics:” A 347 Dialogue between Democratic Theory and Peace Studies Amit Ron On the Cusp of Water War: A Diagnostic Account of the Volatile 378 Geopolitics of the Middle East Ahmed Abukhater Letters of Intent, Costly Signals, and Local Peacemaking in the 420 Georgian-Abkhaz Conflict Spencer B. Meredith, III Issue Authors: George Klay Kieh, Jr. is Professor of Political Science at the University of West Georgia and Senior Research Fellow in the Program in Ethnic and Federal Studies, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He has written quite extensively on various issues relating to peace and conflict studies in Africa. His most recent book is Liberia’s First Civil War: The Crises of Underdevelopment, Peter Lange Publishing, 2008. Email: [email protected] Nava Sonnenschein is Founder of The School for Peace and was its director for many years. She has been involved in developing much of its methodology and good practice, which have contributed to its international reputation for excellence in conflict analysis and transformation. The method was published in the book Identities in Dialogue in 2004 by Rutgers University Press. She has trained hundreds of Arab and Jewish facilitators to facilitate groups in conflict in Israel, Palestine and in other areas of conflict in the world. She has taught the subject at the Tel Aviv University over the last 21 years. She got her PhD from Hebrew University in 2006. The dissertation was published in the book called Dialogue Challenging Identity (in Hebrew). Email: [email protected] Zvi Bekerman teaches anthropology of education at the School of Education and the Melton Center, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is a faculty member at the Mandel Leadership Institute in Jerusalem. His research interests are in the study of cultural, ethnic, and national identity, including identity processes and negotiation during intercultural encounters and in formal/informal learning contexts. In addition to publishing papers in a variety of journals, Bekerman is the coeditor (with Seonaigh MacPherson) of the refereed journal Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education: An International Journal. He has also recently edited a number of books, including, with Diana Silberman-Keller, Henry A. Giroux, and Nicholas Burbules, Mirror Images: Popular Culture and Education (2008); with Ezra Kopelowitz, Cultural Education- Cultural Sustainability: Minority, Diaspora, Indigenous and Ethno-Religious Groups in Multicultural Societies (2009); with Claire McGlynn, Addressing Ethnic Conflict through Peace Education: International Perspectives (2007). Email: [email protected]. Amit Ron is an assistant professor of political science in Arizona State University at the West campus. He works on democratic theory and particularly on the relationship between legitimacy, deliberation, institutions, and social power. He recently published another article that explores the relationship between peace processes and the public sphere in The International Journal of Peace Studies (2009). Email: [email protected] Ahmed Abukhater holds a Ph.D. in Community and Regional Planning from the University of Texas at Austin with a focus on water resources management and conflict resolution and mediation, a Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Bachelor’s degree in Architectural Engineering. Being a native Palestinian from the Gaza Strip and raised during the Palestinian Intifada in a region engulfed in a weighty political power struggle, Mr. Abukhater became cognizant of the genuine value of water as the sustainer of life and peace. Email: [email protected] Spencer B. Meredith, III is a professor of political science at Regent University, a Fulbright Scholar, and has been a frequent lecturer for the US State Department on conflict resolution, democratization, and religion in international relations. He has conducted research in Eastern Europe, South and East Asia, the Middle East and Southern Africa, most recently as part of an edited volume on the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident (Lexington Books). Email: [email protected]. An Anatomy of Conflict Resolution in Africa’s Civil Conflicts George Klay Kieh, Jr. Abstract The crises of the post-colonial