Learning From Bad Experiences

Abstract

Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East. Edited by Daniel C. Kurtzer, Scott B. Lasensky. United States Institute of Peace Press, 2008. 291 pp., $16.500 (ISBN 978-1-6012730-6). The authors of this small but remarkable book provide a concise assessment of US efforts since the end of the Cold War to bring peace between Arabs and Israelis, and the lessons to be garnered from that assessment. They begin with the assertion that an analysis of those diplomatic efforts “reveals an alarming pattern of mismanaged diplomacy. Missteps in US diplomacy have been strategic and tactical” (p. 4). The analysis of this “devastating failure” was made by a distinguished study group of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). The study group was co-directed by Daniel Kurtzer, former US Ambassador to Egypt and to Israel, and by Scott Lasensky, USIP senior research associate. Three area experts constituted a core team for the study group: William Quandt, Steven Spiegel, and Shibley Telhami. Starting in 2006, members of the study group met with more than a hundred current and former officials, academics, and civil society leaders with experience related to Israeli-Arab conflicts; they included Americans, Arabs, Israelis, and Europeans. The authors report matters of general consensus and also note some differences within the study group and among the persons they consulted. This is the first product of the project, …