The "special relationship" between the United States and the State of Israel cannot be fully explained by conventional realist analysis of so-called "hard factors" such as strategic importance and economic; nor can it be fully explained using pluralist theory by the influence of the pro-Israel lobby. The U.S.-Israel relationship, which was initially established as a strategic partnership, has quietly metamorphosed into an alliance that while still nominally rationalized as a strategic has actually becoming deeply rooted in American politics and political culture. In order to fully explain this unique alliance, which has shaped much of American foreign policy in the Middle East and most particularly American policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian peace process over the past several decades it is necessary to consider "soft factors" most especially cultural, historical, moral, political, and ideological components of the relationship. These often-overlooked factors contribute to a political culture which strengthens the alliance between the United States and Israel and further reinforces American values and identity. American strategic priorities in the Middle East are defined by a context of cultural intimacy that has been established between the two countries rather than Israel's actual strategic value to the United States. The result is that American policy in the Middle East has often been inconsistent with America's publicly stated overall strategic goals. Often the alliance has ended up undermining goals like political and economic stability that it was originally intended to enhance. The political imperatives that often seem to govern American commitment to Israel are actually better explained as the results of deeply-rooted cultural and moral interpretations about Israel and its relationships with its neighbors. Thus it is the America's constructed perceptions of the reality of Israel rather than the actual reality of the Middle East that defines the U.S. relationship with the Israel and the broader Middle East. This study is an attempt to analyze how mass political culture influences the ideas and values, and ultimately the actions, of the political elite, which have shaped American policy towards Israel and more broadly the entire Middle East. / text

This thesis aims to analyze the development of the collective policies of the European Union towards the Middle East by focusing on the reasons behind the formulation of these policies, and the degree of success, failure and prospects of these policies. The general success of the European Community in the 1970s created a desire for European states to form a coordinated European foreign policy. Since the 1970s, the Community started to show willingness to shape international events and to strengthen its international role. The Middle East was one of the leading regions to which the Community turned in the early 1970s, an area, which, for historical and geographical reasons, is of vital interest to it. EU has been becoming a coherent and strategic actor in the Middle East since the 1990s. It has secured an important presence in the Middle East Peace Process and it has further strengthened its role in the Middle East through the adoption of a common, comprehensive regional strategy called the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and developed it with the initiation of the European Neighborhood Policy. However, the European Union&rsquo / s presence is still limited due to its institutional weaknesses, the lack of political unity among its member states, lack of political instruments and military capabilities.

2 Abstract Thi di er a ion e plore he e of coercion in he EU liberal peaceb ilding frame ork in Palestine. Palestine has a long- anding hi or of foreign ac or in ol emen . Since he 1993 O lo Accord , he EU peaceb ilding role a one of Pale ine main financial donors has increased. There is scholarly disagreement and a lack of understanding on the role of coercion in peacebuilding practices. While scholars argue that coercion is a core element for human organisations, others do not recognise the negative impact of coercion in peacebuilding when this does not entail the use of force. Furthermore, the peacebuilding scholarship offers little to no conceptualisation of coercion. Therefore, this dissertation explores how coercion manifests in peacebuilding practices, looking at the case of the EU liberal peacebuilding activities in Palestine. In doing so, the research emphasises on how local Palestinian recipients perceive coercion. The current liberal approach of the EU is built upon the economic dependency of Palestinians, which essentially constitutes a coercive structure. The asymmetric power relations between different actors in the region allows space for the contestation of coercion. This dissertation argues that coercion in this context goes beyond its traditional understanding, and therefore requires...

This thesis seeks to answer the following question: How and to what extent does identity and Self-Other perception influence the foreign policy of the EU and Russia toward the establishment of a sovereign and viable Palestinian State? The thesis scrutinises the assumption that identity and Self-perception as well as perception of ‘otherness’ play a vital role in defining foreign policy-making, with policy toward the Middle East being no exception. The investigation focuses on how the EU’s and Russia’s desire to reinforce their ‘global actorness’ on the international stage informs their involvement in the Middle East peace process. This assumption brings into the analysis the dynamic of constructivism in the shaping of foreign policy. Through a constructivist approach, the thesis attempts to explore how Self-Other perception informs foreign policy-making, specifically by the EU and Russia, in relation to Palestinian statehood. Thus the thesis problematises existing views about the role of established IR schools in understanding foreign policy-making (namely, in terms of peace-making). The study seeks to deepen our understanding of the role of identity and Self-Other perception in EU and Russian foreign policy-making by going beyond conventional understanding of foreign policy-making that are fixated on ‘power’, with special reference to the question of Palestinian statehood. In this vein, I advance the argument that, contrary to the old assumptions of schools such as realism and liberalism, there is a role played by identity and ideas that needs to be assessed in the context of EU and Russian peace-making in the Middle East. The thesis tests these assumptions using a qualitative methodology to investigate the making of foreign policy by the EU and Russia. Discourse analysis is the main method employed to interpret the role of identity and Self-Other perceptions. This is done through a study of discourse made up of official documents and statements as well as interviews with diplomats with current and past involvement in the formulation of EU and Russian foreign policy.

The purpose of the thesis is to analyze the role of the EU as a foreign and security policy actor in the post-9/11 international security environment. The thesis investigates the congruity between the role that the EU aspires to play as a foreign and security actor (role conception) and its actual foreign and security policy actions and decisions (role performance) in a specific case of the Middle East Peace Process (MEPP) in the post-9/11 era. The role conceptions of the EU are identified by analyzing the content of the general foreign policy speeches delivered by the principal EU foreign policy officials and the EU official documents concerning foreign and security policy of the EU. The congruity between EU&rsquo / s self-defined role conceptions and its actual role performance is tested in the case-study of the MEPP. As a result of the analysis, it is concluded that although the EU encountered some constraints when performing some of its self-proclaimed roles, this moderately weakened its effectiveness and international credibility as a foreign and security policy actor in the post-9/11 era, all in all, as observed in the case of the MEPP, the decisions and actions carried out by the EU while enacting its self-identified roles outweighed its deficiencies in its role performance. Despite some inconsistency problems the EU has encountered while performing its self-identified roles, its overall balance sheet as a foreign and security policy actor in the post-9/11 era is fairly positive.

The objective of this thesis is to analyze the place of Syria in the Arab-Israeli conflict and in the Middle East peace process in the period between the 1948 war and 2000. In this context, the aim is to find out an answer to the question of how Syria acquired its central place in the conflict and a critical role in the peace process. Accordingly, the thesis consists of three main parts. In the first part of the study, the central place of Syria in the wars against Israel is examined. In the second part of the study, the challenges Syria faced during the 1980s and 1990s, and how these challenges affected the Syrian position in its relations with Israel are discussed. In the third part, the critical role of Syria in the bilateral negotiations between Syria and Israel is scrutinized. Finally, this thesis is concluded in with the developments occured in the Middle East in the period between 2000 and today.

Jordan due to its geographical location is located at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict. This fact significantly affects its domestic policy, foreign policy and economic development. An important aspect of Jordan's development is also the presence of Palestinians, who currently make up approximately half of the population. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the influence of internal and external factors on political and economic development of Jordan and especially on the formation of its foreign policy and then to assess the position of Jordan in actual international relations. Jordan's foreign policy is based on balancing between the relations with neighboring Arab states and the strategically important relationship with the Western powers, particularly the United States of America. Jordan is also a key participant in the Middle East peace process and is one of the few Arab countries that signed a peace treaty with Israel and maintains with Israel full diplomatic relations.

This diploma thesis applies the theoretical concept of Europeanization on a research of the Czech foreign policy and its changes in relation to the presidency of the EU Council. As a case study, it analyses different Czech and EU's positions towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and then by comparison of both levels it determines the misfit between Czech and the EU's policies in the mentioned agenda. From historical point of view and from contemporary perspective as well, the Czech Republic is famous for very pro-Israeli attitudes. On the other hand, the EU is significantly focused on supporting of the Palestinians and building the Palestinian state. The research is divided into three periods: before the Czech Presidency of the EU in the years 2004-2008, during the Czech Presidency and then after the presidency until the end of 2010. The aim of the research is to evaluate changes of the misfit between the Czech domestic attitudes and the EU's positions by the example of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict's issues and then to find out whether the Czech foreign policy has been europeanized during the studied period. The main question of the thesis asks whether the Presidency of the EU Council has an impact on longer-term Europeanization of domestic foreign policy. The thesis has proved that the...

Il progetto si è proposto di dimostrare l’evoluzione della valenza strategica nella relazione bilaterale tra Stati Uniti ed Egitto durante le presidenze di Anwar al-Sadat e Hosni Mubarak. Sebbene si sia a lungo contraddistinta per un marcato rapporto di reciprocità e di stabilità locale e trans-regionale, da alcuni decenni a questa parte la relazione vive un particolare momento di riconsiderazione a causa della compresenza di più fattori che ne hanno limitato il valore complessivo, necessitando quindi di nuovi fondamenti e obiettivi per essere rivitalizzata. Riprova di ciò sono proprio gli accordi di Camp David, cuore pulsante delle strategie comuni di Stati Uniti ed Egitto, nonché centro nevralgico delle dinamiche di cooperazione, per lo più di sicurezza, tra statunitensi, egiziani e israeliani. Analizzando gli elementi caratterizzanti la politica estera egiziana in relazione, anche e non soltanto, alle interazioni con Stati Uniti e Israele, prendendo come riferimento una prospettiva storico-diacronica che tenesse conto delle evoluzioni politiche dentro e fuori il Paese arabo, all’interno di un più ampio panorama geopolitico e strategico regionale e internazionale, il presente lavoro ha pertanto puntato a far emergere il carattere tattico del rapporto stesso, il quale è stato fortemente influenzato dal perseguimento di un interesse nazionale da entrambe le parti. / The thesis analyses the evolution and impact of U.S.-Egypt relations under the Sadat and Mubarak’s tenure in terms of geopolitical and strategic attitudes through a historical-diachronic perspective. Although it has been characterized for decades by a marked reciprocity in terms of local and (trans-)regional dynamics, for about twenty years this link has been experiencing a particular moment of reconsideration due to the presence of several factors that have limited its overall significance. The bilateral relationship needs new foundations and objectives. In fact, the thesis argues that the Camp David agreements, the beating heart of the common strategies of the United States and Egypt, as well as the political core of several dynamics (mostly in security dimension) between the Americans, Egyptians and Israelis, it is the key element to understand the interconnection between Egyptian domestic state and its regional state autonomy. In this respect, the thesis highlights these factors characterizing the Egyptian foreign policy in connection, even and not only, with United States and Israel, as enabling factors both in the national political developments and the evolution in the Arab stage, within a wider geo-political and strategic regional and international panorama. In conclusion, this work aim to bring out the tactical nature of the bilateral relationship between Egypt and the United States, which was heavily influenced by the pursuit of a different perception of national interest. Therefore, the biggest challenge between Washington and Cairo consists in managing a much less special and complex relationship than in the recent past, which essentially sees the overcoming of Camp David, while maintaining the stability of the region as a cornerstone on both sides.