Markets and Fences: Illusions of Peace

Abstract

The resolution of long-term and protracted conflicts requires peace builders to address the underlying structural, relational, and cultural roots of the conflict. But, operating within a two-level game of domestic and international crosspressures, policymakers may opt for shortcuts that would circumvent the major issues in contention and postpone engagement with the root causes of conflict. Analyzing the operation of Israeli policymakers, this paper identifies two policy paradigms employed in the Palestinian peace process: the neo-liberal reliance on market economy and the realist position of partition, by agreement or unilaterally. While these paradigms seem to mirror-image each other, it is argued here that both attempted to circumvent the major issues of peace and neglected the structural causes of conflict.