The International Self: Psychoanalysis and the Search for Israeli-Palestinian PeaceState University of New York Press, 2012 M02 1 - 244 pages The International Self explores an age-old question in international affairs, one that has been particularly pressing in the context of the contemporary Middle East: what leads long-standing adversaries to seek peace? Mira M. Sucharov employs a socio-psychoanalytic model to argue that collective identity ultimately shapes foreign policy and policy change. Specifically, she shows that all states possess a distinctive role-identity that tends to shape behavior in the international realm. When policy deviates too greatly from the established role-identity, the population experiences cognitive dissonance and expresses this through counternarratives—an unconscious representation of what the polity collectively fears in itself—propelling political elites to realign the state's policy with its identity. Focusing on Israel's decision to embark on negotiations leading to the 1993 agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Sucharov sees this policy reversal as a reaction to the unease generated by two events in the 1980s—the war in Lebanon and the first Palestinian Intifada—that contradicted Israelis' perceptions of their state as a "defensive warrior." Her argument bridges the fields of conflict resolution, Middle East studies, and international relations. |
Contents
1 | |
2 Psychoanalysis and International Relations | 17 |
3 The Israeli Self | 41 |
4 The Security Ethic of the IDF | 69 |
5 Israel and the Lebanon War | 89 |
6 Israel and the Intifada | 113 |
Other editions - View all
The International Self: Psychoanalysis and the Search for Israeli ... Mira M. Sucharov Limited preview - 2006 |
The International Self: Psychoanalysis and the Search for Israeli ... Mira M. Sucharov No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
1992 elections actions actors aggressive Arab Arab-Israeli attack attempt Author's interview Aviv Bank and Gaza Bar-On behavior Beirut Ben-Gurion chapter clashed cognitive dissonance country’s culture David defensive warrior defensive-warrior role-identity Diaspora enemy force Foreign Policy Gaza Strip Hebrew Holocaust identity IDF’s international relations theory Intifada Israel Israel Defense Forces Israel’s role-identity Israeli military Israeli society Israeli soldiers Israeli-Palestinian Conflict issue Jerusalem Post Jerusalem Report Jewish Jews June Knesset Labor Party land Lebanon Likud Masada massacre ment Middle East Military Doctrine moral narrative negotiations occupation Oslo agreement Palestine Palestinians peace movement peace process peacemaking percent perspective policy shift political Prime Minister protest psychoanalysis revisionist role security ethic self-image settlement Shamir Sharon Shimon Peres Six Day Six Day War social stance state’s talks territories Tessler tion unconscious counternarratives University Press uprising Uri Savir West Bank Yitzhak Rabin York Yossi Beilin Zionist