The Impact of Protracted Peace Processes on Identities in Conflict: the case of Israel and Palestine

This work, published by Palgrave Macmillan, authored by CEIS20 researcher Joana Ricarte, deals with one of the most relevant and pressing issues on contemporary international peace and security: the protracted and permanent character of conflicts, in which negotiation processes, also permanently postponed or prolonged in time, fail to achieve peace. The book examines how protracted peace processes affect patterns of otherness construction in protracted conflicts over time and how this relates to the maintenance and deepening of violence. Using Israel and Palestine as case studies, the book maps the different representations of success and failure of the protracted peace process, as well as its politics, normative narratives and practices, in order to analyse their impact on the (re)construction of identities and their consequent contribution to the maintenance and/or transformation of cultural violence in this conflict.

On the one hand, and from an interdisciplinary perspective supported by International Relations, History and Social and Political Psychology, the book proposes an analytical framework for a better understanding of the specificities of the process of identity construction in protracted conflicts. Dehumanisation and reconciliation practices in ongoing conflicts are identified as the main elements influencing the construction of otherness and violence in this type of conflict. On the other hand, the book offers an empirical historical analysis on how the protracted peace process has impacted the construction of identities and the representations made of the 'other' in the case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the late nineteenth century to the present day.

The work is published in open access by Palgrave Macmillan. The pdf version can be downloaded here.