ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book argues that "the foreign policy orientations of Israel and its responses to external actions and initiatives are directly related to domestic social and political currents." It discusses the complexity of political and security interests as well as economic concerns which affect the consequences of using an economic resource such as oil as a political weapon. The book shows that the task of pursuing an Arab-Israeli peace "far exceeds the dimensions of traditional state-to-state diplomacy." It examines the Arab-Israeli peace process in the context of global change as a step toward laying the foundations for a broader Middle East peace process in the wake of the 1991 Gulf war. In few places is that need greater or more urgent than in the Middle East following the Gulf crisis and war of 1990-1991.
