The Economic Reconciliation Process: Middle Eastern Populations in Conflict

Middle Eastern Populations in Conflict

Ilan Bijaoui

• Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781137342126
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: International Business
• Index: Business

The Economic Reconciliation Process develops hybrid cross-border models based on the free economic zone, the industrial district, and the cluster to generate a common economic interest between countries and populations in declared or potential conflict in the Middle East.

1

The Economic Peace Theory

Abstract: The first chapter focuses on economic peace theories and their potential implementation in the Middle East, the different models of economic systems, and the economic system in Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Palestine. We emphasize the economic and cultural gaps between those countries that need to be taken in consideration in proposals for economic cooperation.

Bijaoui, Ilan. The Economic Reconciliation Process: Middle Eastern Populations in Conflict. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. DOI: 10.1057/9781137342126.0005.

Peace concepts

Peacebuilding

The term “peacebuilding” first emerged in the 1970s in the work of Johan Galtung (1975), who called for the creation of peacebuilding structures to promote sustainable peace by addressing the “root causes” of violent conflict and supporting indigenous capacities for peace management and conflict resolution.

In 2007, the UN Secretary-General’s Policy Committee agreed on the following conceptual basis for peacebuilding to inform UN practice: “Peacebuilding involves a range of measures targeted to reduce the risk of lapsing or relapsing into conflict by strengthening national capacities at all levels for conflict management, and to lay the foundations for sustainable peace and development” (UN website).

Peacebuilding requires effective communication, peace-enhancing structures, a moral-political climate, and security (Reychler & Paffenholz, 2001) at the local and international levels (Keating & Knight, 2004). Governmental and civil society actors should create economic, social, and cultural cooperation on the ground in order to ensure stability and sustain peace.

Solutions must be adopted by the top and mid-level leadership, and at the grassroots (Lederach, 1997).

The political peacebuilding process must be strengthened by opening up opportunities for communication across the conflict lines, understanding the other party’s interests and desires, confirming one’s own interests, and exploring viable alternative approaches that may meet the needs of both parties.

Peacebuilding initiatives involve cross-cutting or integrative ties, such as people-to-people, business-to-business, and institution-to-institution initiatives.

The economic peace theory proposes that economic interdependence promotes peace and prevents conflicts. Economic interdependence is conducive to peace because economic cooperation between private actors may generate national economic interest.

The “dominant” rival (Israelis) may have an upper hand in the distribution of the essential resources at the heart of the conflict, such as land, water, and energy, which affects the types of concessions that rivals can make toward one another. Moreover, the “underdog” (Palestinians) may regard economic exchange with the rival as exploitative and impeding rather than beneficial, and may not want to engage in economic interaction in the first place.

Killick et al. (2005) subdivided the definition of economic peace into its macro- and micro-implementation and aims. At the macro level, economic peace involves structural reforms to ensure an “enabling environment” for peacebuilding, including low inflation and a low budget deficit. At the micro level, private enterprise development is seen as a tool to encourage conflict resolution through collective action.

Peacemaking, peacekeeping

Peacebuilding should be differentiated from peacemaking and peacekeeping (Galtung, 1975).

Peacemaking deals with conflict resolution through a negotiation process, in which the obvious main reasons of the conflict are raised and solved over time. Peacemaking is the “diplomatic effort to end the violence between the conflicting parties, move them towards nonviolent dialogue, and eventually reach a peace agreement” (Maiese, 2003, para 6).

Peacekeeping maintains the absence of friction and helps implement the results of the peacemaking process.

Reconciliation process

Reconciliation has been associated with the moral basics of the Christian faith (Becker, 2005). Jesus on the cross relieving mankind of the original sin, preaching that one should love one’s enemies, asking God the Father to “forgive them, because they don’t know what they are doing” illustrates a moral attitude that replaces the old ideology of an eye for an eye, with a new ideology of reconciliation. Reconciliation is commonly understood as making peace and forgiving one’s enemies.

In Jewish and Muslim tradition, in Israeli and Palestinian history, the concept of reconciliation is foreign, disconnected from reality. Palestinians consider Israelis as “modern crusaders,” and Israelis consider Palestinians as “terrorists” and invaders of the land promised by God to the Jewish people.

Ledarach (2003) defines reconciliation as change processes that reduce violence, increase justice, and respond to real-life problems.

The task of the society in reconciling the victims may be especially difficult in cases like the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, in which each side considers itself to be the victim of the other.

Conflict resolution must confront structural psychological and socio-cultural aspects of the conflict (Gawerc, 2006). The psychocultural perspective places emphasis on the need to work on ignorance, misperceptions, and fears. It proposes to develop a framework to enable the fulfilling of socioeconomic needs: the ultimate goal of increasing justice, reducing violence, and restoring broken relationships.

Theories of change and conflict management and mitigation (CMM)

Theories of change discuss ways to improve the design, monitoring, and evaluation of programs in environments afflicted by conflicts (Nan & Mulvihill, 2010).

Schon (1983) focused on the need to agree upon the meaning of conscious problems and raise unconscious conflicts of interest before proposing technical expertise to address them. Schon’s reflective practitioner has strongly influenced the acknowledgement in the conflict resolution field of the unconscious assumptions that guide conflict engagement.

The conflict resolution field developed an interest in making its theories of change explicit, so that conscious decisions can be made about the best ways to engage in particular contexts.

The theory of change is attracting greater attention within the conflict studies community (Shapiro, 2002, 2005, 2006; Church & Shouldice, 2002, 2003; Lederach et al., 2007; OECD, 2008). Theories of change are currently guiding conflict resolution practices and are essential for engaging in the evaluation of conflict interventions. Theories of change are crucial if we hope to measure performance and increase understanding of what works (Ashton, 2007).

Theories of change refer to the assumed connections between various actions and the desired result of reducing conflict or building peace. One of the mitigation strategies entails bringing representatives of belligerent groups together to interact in a safe space. The expectation is that the interactions will attach a human face to the other party, foster trust, and eventually lead to the reduction of tensions.

Conflict management and mitigation (CMM) builds a step-by-step process toward a comprehensive integration of the principles of the theories of change by specifying what types of intervention are likely to lead to the desired changes within the context of the conflict.

The CMM matrix of theories of change defines the following stages in the CMM process: Inside-Out Peacebuilding, Attitudes toward Peace, Healthy Relationships, Peace Process, Functioning Institutions, Reform the Elite, and Coming to Terms with the Past.

In June 2010, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) issued a document providing guidelines on Theories of Change and Indicator Development in Conflict Management and Mitigation (USAID, 2010). This report explains the connection between a conflict assessment and a theory of change. An assessment provides an understanding of the dynamics that may, given particular catalysts, lead to or prevent violent conflict. The report suggests developing a theory of change to document expectations of how an intervention could change the conflict. Program managers can use the theory of change to design the indicators needed for measuring the future changes.

Economic peace in Northern Ireland

The Northern Ireland, the peace process witnessed the foundation and dissolution of many bodies and institutions, and many structures have changed at its core (Goldie & Murphy, 2010). This was integral to the peacebuilding project and involved complex political decisions as well as the implementation of structural change (Lederach, 1997).

Public management or administration is quite distinct from public governance. The former focuses on “managerial techniques and value for money.” Public governance focuses on consultation, partnership, and the participation of civil society in building sustainable peace (Bovaird & Löffler, 2003). For Bovaird and Löffler, public governance, in contrast to public management, refers to the way in which stakeholders interact with each other in order to influence the outcomes of public policies.

Economic peace in Northern Ireland was supported by two funds. The International Fund for Ireland (IFI) started its activities in 1986, before the 1994 ceasefire. The IFI aimed to encourage and assist social and economic advancement for Northern Ireland, and to encourage contact and reconciliation between the unionists and nationalists throughout Ireland (Matic et al., 2008). Three initiatives were launched to achieve these objectives: community capacity building, regeneration of deprived areas, and economic development through encouraging investment in large, medium, and small private enterprises (UNPBSO, 2006). The principal focus of these policies was on reducing the economic deprivation faced by both sides through economic cooperation that was beneficial for both parties. The belief was that it would lead to cross-community dialogue and reconciliation in matters initially related to economic development, and later also to sociopolitical issues (Department of Foreign Affairs, 2006a,b).

Between 1986 and September 2004, about 5,236 funded projects created the potential for 55,000 jobs. Over 800 organizations have been assisted in promoting social and economic development, involving more than 9,000 community leaders. In 2006, the perceived success of the IFI led to its announcing a new five-year strategy, entitled Sharing this Space, with the aim of moving away from their traditional role of assisting economic development in favor of policies focusing on reconciliation between the communities (DFA, 2006).

The second fund, the European Union ‘s Peace and Reconciliation Fund (EUPRF), was established after the 1994 ceasefire that was agreed to by the Provisional Irish Republican Army. The funding was directed at Northern Ireland and the six counties in the Republic of Ireland that share its borders (Fitzduff, 2002). The EUPRF focused on economic development initiatives involving cross-community and cross-border cooperation between local communities, based on the belief that the increased contact would have positive spill-over effects into the political and cultural arenas (Byrne et al., 2007). In 2001, Peace II came into effect, which imposed new legal requirements on the relations of dialogue and cooperation between the sides, which had already been mainstreamed by most institutions based on the aforementioned Economic Peace (EP) policies (Fitzduff, 2002).

Economic peace, Israel–Palestine

There are several features of the Israel–Palestine conflict that seriously hamper the applicability of the economic peace theory to this conflict (NATO, 2012). The theory states that economic integration reduces the probability of states’ engaging in a violent conflict, but it does n...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Introduction
• 1  The Economic Peace Theory
• 2  Conflict Environment
• 3  Models of Economic Development
• 4  Hybrid Economic Models in the Middle East
• Conclusions
• Index