Explaining cold peace in the Middle East: the cases of Egyptian-Israeli and Jordanian-Israeli peace processes

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2015
Sütalan, Zeynep
This thesis analyzes the Egyptian-Israeli and Jordanian-Israeli peace processes in terms of peace-making, the nature of the peace treaties, and peace-sustaining from the Arab perspective. These peace processes have not gone much further than ‘cold peace’ dashing the hopes for a ‘real peace’ in the region. This thesis argues that the ‘cold peace’ phenomenon evident in the cases of Egyptian-Israeli and Jordanian-Israeli peace processes is the reflection of the autonomy of the state since the authoritarian state structure provides these states with the capacity to act at the expense of the societal forces in the domestic context. In this respect, this thesis highlights ‘domestic state autonomy’ and ‘regional state autonomy’ as enabling factors both in the peacemaking and peace-sustaining processes. Although Jordan enjoys more limited domestic state autonomy when compared with Egypt, both of the states were endowed with enough autonomy which enabled them to make peace with Israel at the expense of their people regardless of the efforts by the Egyptian and Jordanian state to sell the decision of making peace with Israel by propagating the peace dividends. The stalled peace-building processes in the Egyptian and Jordanian cases due to the unachieved normalization of relations with Israel display the fragility of the peace processes. However, these two peace treaties are still valid regardless of the political confrontation between the parties, the prevalent anti-Israeli public opinion, and the anti-normalization campaigns, because sustaining peace with Israel has become a foreign policy orientation and thus a part of regime maintenance policies in both of the two cases.

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Citation Formats
Z. Sütalan, “Explaining cold peace in the Middle East: the cases of Egyptian-Israeli and Jordanian-Israeli peace processes,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2015.