Author: Geoff Berridge
Cursed is the Peacemaker: The American Diplomat Versus the Israeli General, Beirut 1982
2002
This book is a detailed account of how – continuing heart problems notwithstanding and to his great delight – the Reagan administration brought him out of retirement to serve as a special envoy in the Middle East. First he was given the task of negotiating a settlement of two dangerous Arab-Israeli skirmishes in 1981. Then he was charged with a peaceful resolution of the Israeli siege of the PLO positions in West Beirut in 1982, following the invasion of Lebanon by Israeli forces under the military – and to all intents and purposes political – command of the defence minister, Ariel Sharon. It is with this last responsibility that this book is chiefly concerned.
Sharon was determined to destroy the PLO, drive out the Syrians, and create an Israeli puppet state in Lebanon under the Maronite leader, Bashir Gemayel. However, having cornered the PLO in Beirut he found the prospect of street-fighting no more attractive than did the Phalangist allies upon whom he had previously been relying to execute this unpleasant task. As a result, he reluctantly made a deal with the Americans to allow the PLO to depart behind the shield of a multinational force including US Marines, Washington being anxious to avoid a bloodbath in the city which would seriously damage Israel’s reputation and – by association – its own. However, Sharon hated having to let the PLO go and was determined to make their departure as costly and humiliating as possible. This, among other things (e.g. finding states that would accept their fighters), rendered Habib’s task difficult, to put it mildly. (It also brought relations between the Marines and the Israeli Defence Force to an extraordinary – indeed combustible – low.) His eventual success was a personal triumph and he was awarded the US Medal of Freedom, though his reputation was subsequently tarnished when – to his intense fury – his guarantee of the safety of the Palestinians left behind proved worthless. The Phalangists, with the connivance of Sharon, conducted appalling massacres in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.
John Boykin, a freelance writer, has written a very good account of these affairs. It is based on voluminous documentary sources and many interviews with participants, though unfortunately not in any sustained way with Habib himself, who died in 1992, shortly before the author started work on his manuscript. The book has a somewhat journalistic style, it is true, and Boykins’s penchant for reporting conversations as they allegedly took place leaves the professional historian in me feeling a little uneasy. Nevertheless, he has a frank and substantially reassuring note on this aspect of his methods in ‘Sources and Bibliography’. Boykin is also frank about his bias: pro-Habib and very strongly anti-Sharon, though there is nothing wrong with that – as far as it goes. It is perhaps a pity, though, that Boykin is so determined to give us only the world through the eyes of Habib that he quite deliberately sets out to advance no opinions of his own. One consequence of this is that he does not succeed entirely in clarifying Habib’s negotiating methods, let alone subject them to criticism (though he reports the comments of others). For example, at one point Boykin notes Habib’s stated preference for proceeding from the particular to the general (p. 108), though in his subsequent description of his ‘plan’ makes abundantly clear that in reality his approach was – as might be expected – exactly the opposite (p. 129). Nevertheless, the main features of Habib’s methods stand out strongly enough from Boykin’s lively and well-organized narrative. This is an American account of an American diplomatic hero. The lives and achievements of such people need to be given prominence, especially at the present juncture in world affairs.
You may also be interested in
To End a War
The Peace Brokers: Mediators in the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1948-79
Conflict resolution and peace building (disseration by Unisa Sahid Kamara)
Unisa Kamara's dissertation seeks to give an account of the Sierra Leone conflict and the different measures and strategies including diplomatic attempts and efforts that were employed by various parties in trying to secure a peaceful and durable solution to it. The paper discusses the peace building measures and activities that were employed in sustaining the Sierra Leone peace process after the attainment of a negotiated settlement.
The Role of Nigeria in Restoring Peace in West Africa
Remmy Nweke attempts a search into the rationale behind Nigeria‟s decision to make Africa the cornerstone of her foreign policy.
From U Thant to Kofi Annan: UN Peacemaking in Cyprus, 1964-2004
2004 marked the fortieth anniversary of the United Nations presence in Cyprus. Since March 1964, the UN has been responsible for addressing and managing both peacekeeping and peacemaking efforts on the island.
Governance and conflict in the Mano River Union States: Sierra Leone a case study
The MRU states (Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone) experienced more than two decades of bitter conflicts. With the exception of Guinea which was spared a full-scale civil war, the other three neighbouring MRU states went through violent civil conflicts which resulted in massive human suffering, social dislocation and the destruction of the region's economy.
Mediation in the Yugoslav Wars: The Critical Years, 1990-95
Peace Negotiations and Time: Deadline Diplomacy in Territorial Disputes
Barriers to conflict resolution in Africa: Mediating beyond power and ethnicity in the EAC and SADC countries through a Kenyan case study
This paper assesses the relevance of ethnicity and power in conflicts occurring in the EAC and SADC regions through a case study of Kenya. It engages with elites’ power contestation and the manner in which power has historically caused violence and instability in Kenya. Further, an account of researches on ethnicity and its inducing of violence is made. Through this, one discovers the importance of ethnicity beyond that of being a channel for the upsurge of violence.
Keeping the Peace in the Cyprus Crisis of 1963-64
After some difficulties, a UN force was established in Cyprus (UNFICYP) following the collapse of the bicommunal independence constitution of this former British colony - a constitution which the Greek Cypriots had always felt too favourable to the Turkish minority - at Christmas 1963. In this book, Alan James, Professor Emeritus of Keele University and leading authority on peacekeeping, provides what is likely to be regarded as the definitive history of the creation of this force.
Action-Forcing Mechanisms
Regional water cooperation in the Arab – Israeli Conflict: A case study of the West Bank
The conflict between Israel and Arab countries, with several devastating wars, is about territory and land, and maybe just as crucially on the water that flows through that land. This dissertation, an analysis of the management of water in the West Bank, as a case study, seeks to underline the possibility of using soft power diplomacy, in addition to mediation and water cooperation, for a more collaborative kind of approach to the conflict.
Do the Experts Mean What Their Metaphors Say? An Exploration of Metaphor in Mediation Literature
An Examination of the Role of Women in Conflict Management: Sierra Leone Case Study
This paper examines the role of women in conflict management, using Sierra Leone as a case study.
Herding Cats: Multiparty Mediation in a Complex World
This massive book is divided into three main parts, each of the chapters in which is a case study of a particular mediation written by an individual who played a key role in it. The three parts correspond roughly with a central concept of the book, the 'conflict cycle'. Thus the first part deals with cases of conflict prevention and management, for example 'Canada and the Crisis in Eastern Zaire' (Gordon Smith and John Hay). The second covers instances of the ending of violent conflict, such as 'The Road to Madrid' (James Baker). And the third treats cases of settlement and implementation, for...
The Norwegian ‘model’ for conflict resolution
Virtual Reality and the Future of Peacemaking (Briefing Paper #14)
Diplomacy Before and After Conflict
Intractable Syria? Insights from the Scholarly Literature on the Failure of Mediation
This Side of Peace: A Personal Account
Cyprus: the search for a solution
Lord Hannay, a senior British diplomat with great experience of multilateral diplomacy, retired in 1995 but was then persuaded to accept the position of Britain’s Special Representative for Cyprus. In this role he played an influential part in the UN-led effort to broker a settlement to the Cyprus conflict until the negotiations temporarily foundered in May 2003, when, with a mixture of relief and regret, he stepped down. (There is a postscript on the referendums held on the island in 2004 on the fifth version of Kofi Annan’s settlement plan.) He has written a brilliant account of the cour...
The Role of the United Nations in Making Progress Towards Peace in Burundi
The Embassy: A story of war and diplomacy
This book tells the story of the vital role played by the US Embassy in Monrovia in helping to mediate an end to the brutal, 14-year civil war in Liberia in 2003.
Mediation in International Relations
Peacemaker’s Toolkit
Intermediaries: impartiality, multiple mediation and other questions
High Noon in Southern Africa: Making Peace in a Rough Neighbourhood
Conflict Resolution and Peace Building: The Case of Sierra Leone
Diplomacy, international intervention and post-War Reconstruction
This paper focuses on interactions between states, international organisations and local authorities in the implementation of the Dayton Accords for Bosnia and Herzegovina. It stresses the importance of reassessing the very mechanism of functioning of the international community and its efforts for post-war reconstruction, including the issues of mutual cooperation, elaboration of existing structures and vision and perspective for the future.
Camp David: Peacemaking and Politics
The Search for Peace
Humanitarian Negotiations with Armed Groups: A Manual and Guidelines for Practitioners
Switzerland’s good offices: a changing concept, 1945-2002
Herding Cats: Multiparty Mediation in a Complex World
Review by Geoff Berridge
Multistakeholder processes in conflict resolution
In this paper, Anush Begoyan presents a summary of multistakeholder processes in conflict resolution, conducted for DiploFoundation; it provides a brief theoretical introduction to current developments within the international system, to changes in the reality and the conceptualization of the nation-state, and to resultant changes in the security system and the notion of national (state) interests.
Secret Channels: The Inside Story of Arab-Israeli Peace Negotiations
Intervening in Africa: Superpower Peacemaking in a Troubled Continent
Peacemaking 1919
EU Support to peace mediation: developments and challenges
Cursed is the Peacemaker: The American Diplomat [Philip Habib] Versus the Israeli General, Beirut 1982
Track I Diplomacy
Ripeness theory and the Oslo talks
The Mediation Process: Practical Strategies for Resolving Conflict
Cursed is the Peacemaker: The American Diplomat Versus the Israeli General, Beirut 1982
Philip Habib, a Brooklyn-born son of Lebanese immigrants, joined the US Foreign Service in 1949. Tough, direct, highly intelligent, and a gifted negotiator, by 1965 he had achieved the position of political counsellor in the hottest of all US embassies, Saigon. Thereafter – with an interlude as ambassador to South Korea – he rose quickly to the top of the bureau of East Asian and Pacific affairs. In 1976 he was appointed undersecretary of state for political affairs, the number three job in the State Department. Such was his diplomatic reputation by this time that, despite having been appo...
Female leadership in conflict prevention, diplomacy and UN peacekeeping initiatives
Mediation and artificial intelligence: Notes on the future of international conflict resolution
Over the last years AI has emerged as a hot topic with regard to its impact on our political, social, and economic lives.
