Date of Award

1-1-2015

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

Josef Korbel School of International Studies

First Advisor

Karen A. Feste, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Martin Rhodes

Third Advisor

Timothy Sisk

Keywords

Israel, Palestine, Palestinian liberation organization, Social movements, Statehood, Zionism

Abstract

This study examines the road to statehood for the Zionist and Palestinian movements. There are three components which frame this investigation: 1. social movements and the practices in which they engage that are aimed at establishing statehood for a people; 2. distinctive configurations of the international system and the manner in which both the material and ideational foundations of that system pulls units towards conformity and predictable behavior; and finally, 3. the role of agency, that is, the way in which instrumentally rational individuals attempt to push the structure in which they are embedded towards a configuration that is better suited to their interests and objectives

The most influential factor guiding these struggles for national liberation are those forces which emanate from the prevailing structure of the international system. Not only was it demonstrated that the established material and ideational preferences of existing states have strong bearing on a movement’s ideological orientation and by consequence its chosen course of struggle, but hegemonic order configurations also define political cleavages and in so doing present movement leaders with both tactical and strategic opportunities by harnessing or exploiting those cleavages. From the agency perspective, the cases showed that the leadership of each movement was highly influential in the determination of a movement’s success or failure.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Martin S. Widzer

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

212 p.

Discipline

International Relations, Middle Eastern Studies

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