April 28, 2020

International Politics and Conflict Resolution

Licínia Simão

This thesis deals with the contradiction between the existence of long-term peace processes and the persistence of violence in societies involved in protracted conflicts, taking Israel and Palestine as a case study. The relevance of this research concerns the effects of protracted peace processes to the very protracted nature of conflict. It aims to explain how different representations of success and failure of the protracted peace processes, as well as its associated policies, narratives, norms and practices, affect the maintenance and/or transformation of the cultural component of violence, defined as dehumanization or peace-less reconciliation. By placing identity as the central factor explaining the mutually reinforcing dynamics of protracted conflicts and protracted peace processes - what is called the cycle of protractedness -, the thesis argues that the policies connected to peace processes have operated mainly at the level of political elites, reflecting a largely negative and state-centric approach to peace that fails to address the underlying causes of conflict. This reinforces divisions within and between societies, risking unintentionally strengthening dehumanization processes and allowing for a deepening of the status quo, thus benefiting the strongest party of the conflict and reinforcing asymmetric power relations. However, with the passing of time, the very protracted character of the peace process gives way to the appearance of empirically observable activities and practices that open new avenues for positive conflict transformation. Even though dehumanization dominates in ongoing conflicts, it is possible to identify activities undertaken by local and international actors in the societal level that have developed alongside - as a consequence -, and within the very framework - as a desired outcome - of the protracted peace process. Therefore, peace has been subcontracted insofar as the evolution of policies and practices connected to peacebuilding have rendered a more important role and increasing support for local organizations to engage in conflict transformation.

Although the role of identity is of the essence in the framework of protracted social conflicts, more attention has been given to the construction and transformation of its positive dimension, i.e. the processes of common identification. Despite being also a constitutive part of conflicts and of narratives that legitimate them, identity's negative component, i.e. the detachment from others, has been insufficiently addressed. De-identification in complex conflict environments can easily become attached to the intersubjective open-ended mechanisms of creating the enemy. As a consequence, it is empirically possible to observe the development of processes of dehumanization of the 'other' within societies in the course of multigenerational conflicts, thus providing a moral justification for violence and contributing to what can be called the cycle of protractedness. Albeit dehumanization is the dominant aspect in many ongoing conflicts, it does not fully portray complex environments such as those of protracted conflicts. Thus, the identification of dehumanization as an identity disturbance that is constructed and reinforced within societies in the form of discursive and material practices through time allows for a twofold approach that considers reconciliation as the other side of the coin. As reconciliation is a term that traditionally refers to post- conflict environments, this thesis uses the terminology 'peace-less reconciliation' to refer to practices of reconciliation in ongoing conflicts.

This thesis aims at contributing to the critical literature on conflict transformation in the field of Peace Studies by providing a deeper understanding of the root causes of conflicts and focusing on historical dynamics in light of identity formation processes that create the context for some violent structures to exist - and persist - in specific situations. It aims to advance debates dealing with the development and application of the concepts of peace, violence and reconciliation, and to add to existing contributions on the development and incorporation of the concept of dehumanization within the framework of protracted conflicts. By closely examining the processes of dehumanization that take place in protracted conflicts, this thesis sheds light on the unseen and forgotten dimensions of identity, which are central features sustaining some conflicts. It also develops a framework to assess and analyze the elements of identity building in protracted conflicts, providing conceptual tools that may enrich the field of Peace Studies. By investigating the deepest effects of conflict and protracted conflicts in societies, it also contributes to existing efforts to understand the social dynamics that enable the perpetuation of conflict over time.

Key-words: Protracted conflicts; Peace Process; Identity; Dehumanization; Reconciliation; Israeli-Palestinian conflict