Author Description

The Arab-Israeli conflict remains one of the longest-running disputes in modern world politics and the search for a lasting peace remains as elusive as ever. The series of wars and disputes starting in 1948 after the arrival of Zionist settlers in Palestine and the creation of the new state of Israel have primarily been about territory, but a number of other issues have exacerbated and prolonged the conflict. Externally, these include superpower rivalry and interventions in the region by Western industrial powers to secure access to the Middle East's huge oil reserves. Internally, issues such as religious animosities, militarized polities, and the traumas of rapid modernization and development, have all contributed to regional instability.The study of the conflict has generated a huge body of literature, some of it factual and evidence-based, some more polemical and provocative. In all cases there is a wide and divergent range of views. An important tool in understanding the conflict and the emotions it generates is to become familiar with such different perspectives and interpretations, and this new four-volume collection from Routledge provides an overview of both the principal topics and the various approaches to the conflict.