ABSTRACT
This study offers an alternative approach to the study of international peacekeeping that evaluates the long-term effects of peacekeeping on state behavior, and concomitantly, the effects of varying state behavior on an international regime. Evidence in the preceding chapters supports the thesis that the individual peacekeeping missions conducted in the Middle East in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict can be conceptualized as components of a broader Middle East peacekeeping regime, which in turn is a subset of, and operates within, the policy spaces defined by an international peacekeeping regime. By reducing the universe of peacekeeping missions to a well-defined subset-specifically those international peacekeeping missions conducted between 1948 and 1994 that involved Israel and one or more of the neighboring Arab states-it becomes possible to make a closer examination of their relation to each other in time, and their collective impact on Israel’s behavior. This methodology also facilitates examining the effects varying state behavior-particularly Israel’s-had over time on the evolution of a regime. The findings of this study, summarized below, provide new perspectives on the significance of a peacekeeping regime’s role in influencing state behavior in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the effects of varying state behavior on regime evolution, the relative importance of regimes, and the utility of regime analysis in explaining the importance of international institutions.
