Why have numerous peace agreements not led to peace? Peacemaking evolves within a specific social, political and economic context involving different actors, numerous issues, and domestic and international constraints. However, political leaders ultimately prioritize the interests of the nation, politicize issues, and initialize policies. The study proposes, first, that the belief system and perceptions of political leaders play an important role in the making of peace by directly influencing the political environment during the implementation phase of peace agreements. Second, the main obstacle to peace may lie within the leaders' failure to transform the political environment into one more conducive to peace. A theoretical model attempts to bridge the gap between leaders, implementation phases, and outcome, or impact on the political environment. The process of transformation results from three factors: trust, increased direct communication, and a positive alteration of the image of the opponent. This provides the necessary foundation for both leaders and populations to begin the difficult and shaky process of belief alterations and perception corrections. The cases of the Camp David Agreements leading to the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty of 1979, and the Oslo Accords of 1993 provide the basis for "probing" into the relevancy of these propositions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.32909 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Creators | Fontaine-Skronski, Kim. |
| Contributors | Brecher, Michael (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of Political Science.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001846400, proquestno: MQ75226, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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