International Intervention in Local Conflicts: Crisis Management and Conflict Resolution Since the Cold War

`This is an important book, not only because of the new empirical material presented. but equally, because of its intellectual ambition. It offers the reader clear case studies in the machinations of international intervention by a range of actors, but, just as importantly, an understanding too of how such international munificence has often come to be sacrificed on the altar of regional expediency. Lucid in both argument and exposition, this book will be essential reading for anyone engaged in the study, planning and practice of state intervention in an increasingly interdependent, yet volatile world.' Professor Clive Jones, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds

`This book does a real service by providing a comparative analysis of international efforts to solve local conflicts. While a major focus of the book is on Middle Eastern conflicts, case studies on Cambodia, Somalia, the Balkans and Northern Ireland add a very useful perspective. In my view, this book will be very helpful, not only to scholars who teach courses and do research on conflict management, but also to government officials and other practitioners who have to deal with the reality of such conflicts.'---Professor Robert O. Freedman, Visiting Professor of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University and Peggy Meyerhodd Pearlstone Professor Emeritus, Baltimore Hebrew University

The changes in the international system that emerged following the Cold War have had far-reaching implications for the conduct, management and resolution of local conflicts and have necessitated a fresh examination of the rules and norms of international crisis management and conflict resolution. This book examines the impact of international actors in the resolution of local conflicts sicne the Cold War, as well as the roles of regional and local actors in determining the course of the conflicts, focusing particularly on the world's most turbulent region-the Middle East.

International Intervention in Local Conflicts provides a theoretical framework for understanding the implications of the post -Cold War balance-of-power for crisis management, conflict mediation and conflict resolution. These theoretical discussions are then applied to a broad selection of case studies including: the UN's intervention in Cambodia and Somalia; the efforst of international institutions to prevent the break-up of Yugoslavia; the European Union's management of ethnic conflicts in the Western Balkans; and the roles of the British and Irish governments in the peace process in Northern Ireland.

The recent history of American and European involvement in Middle East conflicts is considered in detail, with close attention paid to the interaction between the international arena, bureaucratic rivalries and internal dynamics within each outside actor, which can affect the conduct of conflict resolution. The book also considers the complex ways in which domestic political considerations and regional factors have influenced international efforts to resolve and mediate conflicts in the Middle East. Taken together, the intervention of the Western powers, the influence of state and non-state actors, and the constraints on local decision makers arising out of domestic conditions coalesce into a `tangled web' of regional conflict in the Middle East.

International Intervention in Local Conflicts is an invaluable guide for students and scholars of international relations and conflict resolution and provides a detailed analysis of conflicts and their resolution in the era since the end of the Cold War.

Dr Uzi Rabi (Ph.D., Tel Aviv University) is Chair of the Department of Middle Eastern and African History, head of the University Institute for Diplomacy and Regional Cooperation, Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Iranian Studies and Vice Director of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for International and Regional Studies at Tel Aviv University. Among his numerous books is The Emergence of States in Tribal Societies: Oman under Sa'id Bin Taymur, 1932-1970 (2006) and he was editor of Iran's Time (2008, in Hebrew).