CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2017
| Author | Sahagian, Avraham |
|---|---|
| Title | Realism, Power, & the Third Wheel: The EU Mediation in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict |
| Summary | The focus of this thesis is two-fold: firstly, to understand the realist conception of power in the 21st century and secondly, to observe that power in play. The importance of understanding what power entails is to understand how actors utilize it in the international system. To observe the utilization of power, I employ mediation because it provides a forum wherein actors have interests and power to safeguard those interests. I trace the conceptual evolution of the realist school of thought regarding the international system. Subsequently, I establish that in the 21st century, the conceptions of realism must accommodate a structured regionalized international system that includes valid non-state actors that possess smart power resources. Smart power is the effective utilization of diverse resources and leverages an actor possesses. I build the theoretical model of conflict mediation as a forum to observe power at play. I argue that smart power is effective for a mediator because it provides the mediator with a diverse set of tools to influence the mediation and the disputant parties. The directive strategy to influence the substance of negotiations is the most suited for a mediator utilizing smart power. In the 21st century, mediation is often multiparty, and thus while the participation of other mediators can cause inconvenience for the prime mediator, the possession of smart power suggests that it can bypass the difficulties of the mediation and influence the disputant parties in other ways. My empirical case is EU mediation in the IsraeliPalestinian conflict one of the best studied cases of international relations. My inquiry into EU’s smart power and mediation strategies leads to the following conclusions: 1. The EU’s lack of a united foreign policy interest undermines its utilization of hard-smart power such as disincentive leverages 2. The EU’s lack of direct communication with a primary disputant (ie Hamas) prevent it from utilizing smart power resources in a more directive strategy 3. The US-led mediation rounds limit the affordability of the EU to utilize its smart power resources, and imposes the EU to settle on short-term interest such as short-term stability. Nonetheless, due to its smart power resources, the EU is able to bypass the difficulties of the mediation and still assert action for its strategic interest of long-term stability. Accordingly, the EU persists in building a network of NGO’s and civil society projects in Israel-Palestine to influence the outcome of the conflict. Additionally, the EU maintains its normative power, which the disputant parties take into consideration as a source of legitimacy |
| Supervisor | Sata, Robert |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2017/sahagian_avraham.pdf |
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