Book Notes
| Author | Cecilie Hellestveit,Nicholas Marsh,Gregory Reichberg,Ellen Stensrud,Henrik Urdal,Jostein F. Tellnes,Kristian Berg-Harpviken,Trevor Findlay,Pavel Baev,Sven Gunnar Simonsen,Dieter Janssen,Hilde Henriksen Waage,Emilie Hafner-Burton,Are Hovdenak,Jo Thori Lind,Birgit Brock-Utne,Iselin Frydenlund |
| Published date | 01 November 2004 |
| Date | 01 November 2004 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0022343304047436 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
751
Aruri, Naseer Hasan, 2003. Dishonest Broker:
The US Role in Israel and Palestine. Cambridge:
South End Press. 288 pp. ISBN 0896086879.
The main argument in this thorough analysis of
US Middle East policy since 1967 is that the
strategic alliance between the United States and
Israel has ruled out the role of honest brokering
for the United States. The USA’s insistence on
being the sole arbiter in the conflict has, accord-
ing to Aruri, not only had the effect of excluding
a role for the UN and other more neutral medi-
ators. Reviewing the policy of every US adminis-
tration since 1967, Aruri finds that they all
thwarted international approaches for settlement,
protected Israel from international scrutiny and
promoted the marginalization of the UN. This
was the case in the aftermath of the Six Day War,
when the USA promoted separate, bilateral
Egyptian–Israeli talks at the expense of a UN
approach. Furthermore, during the 1990s, the
Oslo process allowed Israel and the USA to
formally nullify the entire international frame-
work of law related to Palestinian rights. Pales-
tinian negotiators’ reference to international law
and UN resolutions was repeatedly condemned as
signs of ‘intransigence and obstructionism’. Aruri
argues that the US diplomatic monopoly has
served as ‘the single most effective means to
accomplish Israel’s goals’, including retaining
most of the occupied territories, preventing the
emergence of a Palestinian state and marginaliz-
ing the Palestinian refugee issue. Following the
Palestinian uprising of 2000 and the events of 11
September 2001, the United States has com-
pletely accepted the Israeli portrayal of Palestin-
ian violence as part of international, Islamic terror
and thus provided cover and support for Israel’s
war to crush the Palestinians. By pointing out the
main obstacles for a balanced arbitrary role for the
United States, this well-written book offers a way
forward and advice for future policymakers in
Washington.
Are Hovdenak
Basu, Kaushik, 2000. Prelude to Political
Economy: A Study of the Social and Political Foun-
dations of Economics. Oxford: Oxford University
Press. xv + 288 pp. ISBN 0199261857.
Basu motivates his book as a critique of the use
of economic methodology in other social
sciences, particularly in positive political
economy. After a brief overview of the funda-
mentals of game theory, he provides a critical dis-
cussion of rationality, with emphasis on
unintuitive outcomes of dynamic models and
assumptions on knowledge. He then explains and
justifies his principal claim, that all social norms
and institutions should be seen as focal points in
games of multiple equilibria. Instead of the con-
ventional view that norms change the rules and
payoffs of the game, he understands them as
changing the focal point, and hence equilibrium
outcome, within a larger game. One application
is that a law is sustained because the players
believe that some of the other players, the law
enforcers, will punish them if they break the law.
Further, these enforcers believe that they will be
punished for not punishing. Another application
is a justification for the existence of the state. The
reasoning may also be applied to power relations.
Dictatorships may be sustained by rulers with
little direct access to coercion, and a person may
be ‘well connected’ as a consequence of an equi-
librium where everybody believes she is. Overall,
the book is well written and both interesting and
convincing, but it is somewhat lacking as a
critique of positive political economy. It argues
for taking a broad view and using an encompass-
ing model. Other approaches in the literature
may be seen as merely studying a partition of this
game. In some cases, only analyses of the grand
game are satisfactory, but in others, an analysis of
a partial game will be more illuminating.
Jo Thori Lind
© 2004 Journal of Peace Research,
vol. 41, no. 6, 2004, pp. 751–761
Sage Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA
and New Delhi) www.sagepublications.com
DOI 10.1177/0022343304047436 ISSN 0022-3433
BOOK
NOTES
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