Summer Reading on the Peace Process

There are so many volumes written on the conflict in the Middle East that it is often difficult for readers to discern an appropriate starting point. A recent article by Steven A. Cook in Foreign Affairs aims to boil the genre down to some classics, and favorites, for interested readers.

For those looking to examine the perennial problems that hinder a resolution of the conflict, try:

Peace Process: American Diplomacy and the Arab-Israeli Conflict Since 1967. By William B. Quandt. University of California Press, 2005

Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East. By Daniel C. Kurtzer and Scott B. Lasensky. United States Institute of Peace Press, 2008.

Quandt's book is a thorough account of America's role in the conflict, beginning with June 1967. According to Cook, Quandt's section on the 1970's is most interesting, as he served as a senior staffer on Zbigniew Brzezinski's National Security Council throughout the decade. Kurtzer and Lasensky's narrative is more focused on the 1990s, encompassing primarily the 1989-2000 range. Kurtzer, a former ambassador to Egypt and Israel, and Lasensky, a Middle East expert currently working for the U.S. Institute of Peace, offer interviews with prominent and involved parties from the U.S., Israel, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, the United Nations, and the European Union.

For a good memoir, try:

The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace. By Dennis Ross. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004.

Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East. By Martin Indyk. Simon & Schuster, 2009.

The Much Too Promised Land: America's Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace. By Aaron David Miller. Bantam, 2008.

Ross, Indyk and Miller are three well respected authorities on the peace process. Ross, a former director of policy planning and chief Middle East negotiator at the State Department during the George H.W. Bush administration and special Middle East coordinator during the Clinton years, is now a face of the Obama administration as well. Ross' book is great for those with a particular interest in the Clinton years, and the complexities surrounding the 2000 Camp David Summit. Martin Indyk has held the posts of senior Middle East expert on the National Security Council, assistant secretary of state for the Near East, and U.S. ambassador to Israel. Indyk's book is also recommended for those with a particular interest in the Clinton years. Aaron David Miller has served at the Department of State as an advisor to six secretaries of state. Miller's account traces the conflict from the days of Henry Kissinger's shuttle diplomacy, through the George W. Bush administration. Miller explores both the highs and lows of the State Department's work, and is especially committed to illuminating the mistakes made in the past as a sort of educational tool for both experts and laymen.

For those looking for an account of the conflict as told by an Israeli, try:

Waging Peace: Israel and the Arabs, 1948-2003. By Itamar Rabinovich. Princeton University Press, 2004.

For a good read through a Palestinian lens, try:

The Question of Palestine. By Edward W. Said. Vintage, 1992.

Building a Palestinian State: The Incomplete Revolution. By Glenn E. Robinson. Indiana University Press, 1997.

Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993. By Yezid Sayigh. Oxford University Press, 1998.

For even more summer reading, check out IPF's bookstore for titles by these, and other, authors.