Publication

This paper attributes the continuous failures of Arab-Israeli peace negotiations to different political expectations, cultural perceptions and negotiating cultures. It contrasts goal- and process-oriented negotiating cultures, explores the link between negotiating strategies and social structure and points to resulting types of agreements. Subsequently, the authors discuss the implications of different negotiating cultures in the Arab-Israeli context and suggest conceptual pluralism as an approach to bridge the differences. They argue that attempts by one side to act solely according to its perceptions and conceptions are unlikely to succeed.