Political Approaches to International Conflicts, their Management and Resolution

Dr. Sapir Handelman

The course will survey a wide variety of political approaches and strategies for managing and resolving international conflicts. It will begin with a discussion of the causes of international conflicts according to major theoretical perspectives of international relations and how these perspectives suggest managing and resolving such conflicts, with modest approaches to conflict management through deterrence and security regimes, and more ambitious strategies through democratization, the promotion of trade or constructing international institutions. The approaches will be illustrated with examples of conflict management in Europe and in the Arab - Israeli conflict. Finally we will analyze how theoretical approaches can contribute to resolving the Arab - Israeli conflict, and to what extent the various conflict resolution strategies that succeeded in Europe may be applicable to it.