This thesis looks at the conflict transformation processes, which took place in the Syrian conflicts with Turkey and Israel during the 1990s. The aim is to understand the reasons behind the different outcomes of these conflict transformation processes of Syria with Turkey and Israel. This thesis argues that the high-level of ripeness conditions in the Syrian-Turkish conflict, compared to the conditions in the Syrian-Israeli conflict, was the determinant of effectiveness, that is, for the signing of an agreement that symbolized the transformation in relations. More theoretically, the interaction between objective and subjective conditions of ripeness is more evident in the Syrian-Turkish case than in the Syrian-Israeli conflict, and this is the explanatory factor for the differing outcomes in these transformation processes.

Thesis (M.A.)--Western Washington University, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-124).

Thesis--Lund. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 249-254).

Thesis (MA)--University of Montana, 2009. / Contents viewed on December 4, 2009. Title from author supplied metadata. Includes bibliographical references.

In the 1990s Palestinian refugees sought to secure a seat in negotiations alongside the PLO and Israel in talks to resolve their situation. Their efforts raise a number of basic questions concerning the right to political participation and the negotiation of durable solutions to refugee situations. First and foremost is the question of whether peace negotiations comprise a conduct of public affairs under international law entailing a concomitant right to take part. Second and related is the question of whether citizens, refugees in particular, have a right to take part in the conduct of public affairs when they are outside their country of citizenship voluntarily or otherwise. This study examines these questions through legal analysis of the right to political participation under international treaty law, jurisprudence and soft law and through empirical analysis of all negotiated settlements to armed conflict between 1990 and 2000. The study concludes that while refugees did not have a "right" to take part in the negotiation of durable solutions during the period under consideration, the PLO and Israel may have nevertheless had an obligation to facilitate the participation of refugees in a manner that would have allowed for substantial influence on decisions affecting their lives with the objective of shared ownership of agreements reached. The study also finds that between 1990 and 2000 few refugees appeared to take part directly in the direct negotiations to their situation. The implementation of durable solutions and agreements reached along with unofficial or indirect peacemaking mechanisms appeared to comprise the primary or most common domains for political participation. The study concludes that the negotiation of durable solutions for refugees is nevertheless a developing area of law and practice which has arguably strengthened in the decade since Israel and PLO sought to achieve a negotiated solution to the Palestinian refugee issue.

Many contemporary states and historic political entities walled their borders stressing the idea that these barriers would protect their homelands from external threats and thus, achieve security. Although this security argument has prevailed, the political science literature fails to offer a systematic empirical examination of the relationship between barriers and cross-border threats. This research attempts to bridge this gap by answering the question: What are the actual security outcomes of physical barriers on borders? And thus, under what conditions do barriers succeed/fail to achieve security? This paper posits that, in some cases, building barriers on borders to stop non-state actors’ attacks escalate conflict. It demonstrates that when militants have supply institutions, they will manage to increase their attacks and shift to new tactics despite the barrier. It also studies the Israeli Gaza Strip Fence and offers an analysis based on patterns of the relationships between features of the barrier and the Gaza attacks. these patterns are derived from a quantitative dataset built by the researcher and are also supplemented by qualitative data about the case. / text

No description available.

Based on nineteen months of ethnographic field research in Israel/Palestine (including participant observation and in-depth interviews), this study presents an analysis of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition (ICAHD). First formed in 1997, it is a coalition of social movement organizations (SMOs) in the Israeli radical left peace and human rights movement. This project traces significant organizational, and wider movement, dynamics from the time of ICAHD's inception until the outbreak of the second Palestinian Intifada in September 2000. / While countless scholars investigate historical and contemporary aspects of the political conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, relatively little research attention is directed towards the efforts of Israeli and Palestinian activists towards conflict resolution. Following a brief description of the development of the Israeli peace movement, this study identifies and analyzes several mobilization issues relevant to organized activist forces in the Israeli radical movement in the final years of the Oslo peace process. / Building on recent collective action theories, this dissertation endorses analytical openness to the structuralist, rationalist, and culturalist dynamics of contentious politics. ICAHD members, as well as its organizational constituencies, are characterized by wide ideological and strategic heterogeneity, and in the first three years of its existence, this informal movement organization faced several overlapping strategic dilemmas. Investigating the historical and day-to-day dynamics of the committee, this study analyses various factors that influenced the strategic choices individual, and teams of, activists made during multiple types of mobilizations. By examining the impact of ICAHD's constituencies on how core leaders and activists engaged with dilemmas of organizational structure, strategic vision, inter-organizational alliances, mobilizing and funding opportunities, and overall goal selection, this dissertation identifies mechanisms (structural, organizational and cultural) that affected strategic decisions regarding mobilization, and outcomes of contentious politics. / The study concludes with a discussion of the relevance of its findings for the sociological study of collective protest. It suggests the extension of future research on these themes in more transnational and macro-theoretical directions.

No description available.

The news media serve as the Canadian public’s main source of information about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This thesis examines the ways in which the Canadian media portray the conflict, through a lens of Habermas’ (1962) public sphere theory, Foucault’s (1926 – 1984) ideas on discourse, and Rawls’ (1921 – 2002) conceptions of equality and justice. Building on these theories, Noelle-Neumann’s Spiral of Silence theory (1974), Said’s Orientalism (1978), and d’Arcy’s (1913 – 1983) conception of the right to communicate are examined to arrive at a framework for analyzing Canadian news. Looking at ideological representations, power manifestations, issue framing, and social responsibility within the media, this thesis explores whether the Canadian media portray the conflict in such a way that fosters a downward spiral of opinions within the Canadian public. A Critical Discourse Analysis of coverage in two national English Canadian newspapers, The Globe and Mail and the National Post, during three separate timeframes of increased violence in Israel and Palestine between 2000 and 2009 reveals that newspaper representations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are often entrenched in predefined ways of portraying the Other, fostering an Israeli-Palestinian spiral of silence in Canadian media.