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Social‐psychological Contributions to Peacemaking and Peacebuilding in the Middle East
Author(s) -
Kelman Herbert C.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
applied psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.497
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1464-0597
pISSN - 0269-994X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1464-0597.1998.tb00010.x
Subject(s) - humanities , political science , sociology , philosophy
On présente ici un programme de recherche‐action consacréà la résolution des problèmes d'intéraction, ainsi que son application au conflit israélopalestinien. Dans cet article sont résumés les présupposés sociopsychologiques sous‐tendant cette approche: (1) le moment où, dans le processus d'intéraction sociale des conflits internationaux l'individu devient l'unité d'analyse pertinente; (2) la dimension intergroupe du conflit international et sa solution: (3) le conflit en tant que processus pourvu d'une dynamique croissante auto‐entretenue; (4) la nécessité de faire appel à un large éventail de processus d'influence dans les relations internationales conflictuelles; et (5) le conflit comme phénomène dynamique marqué par l'existence et la possibilité du changement. Dans la description de la méthode d'intervention, on met l'accent sur les ateliers de résolution de problèmes qui accueillaient des Israéliens et des Palestiniens politiquement influents. Puis on analyse les développements récents, la contribution des ateliers à la percée de septembre 1993 dans les négociations israélo‐palestinienne et enfin les contributions potentielles de ce travail à l'élaboration de la paix. An action research programme devoted to the development of interactive problem solving –an unofficial third‐party approach to resolution of international and intercommunal conflicts–and its application to the Israeli‐Palestinian conflict are described. The article summarises the socialpsychological assumptions underlying the approach, referring to (1) the point in the societal and intersocietal process of international conflict at which the individual is the appropriate unit of analysis; (2) the intersocietal character of international conflict and its resolution; (3) conflict as an interactive process with an escalatory, self‐perpetuating dynamic; (4) the need to use a wide range of influence processes in international conflict relationships; and (5) conflict as a dynamic phenomenon, marked by the occurrence and possibility of change. Next, the intervention methodology is described, focusing on the problemsolving workshops with politically influential Israelis and Palestinians that the author and his colleagues have been organising. Recent developments in the work are then presented, including a continuing workshop that met from 1990–93, and a current joint working group on the final‐status political issues in the Israeli‐Palestinian negotiations. The article concludes with an analysis of the contributions that these and other unofficial efforts have made to the breakthrough in Israeli‐Palestinian negotiations of September 1993, and of the potential contributions of this work to the peacebuilding that must accompany and follow the peacemaking process.