Bouris, Dimitris (2011) The European Union's Role in the Palestinian Territory: State-building through Security Sector Reform? [Conference Proceedings]
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to shed light on the distinctive role of the EU as a state-builder in the case of the Palestinian Territory and examine how state-building can be conducted in a still on conflict society. Following the Oslo Accords, the EU engaged actively in the state-building project in the Palestinian Territory taking a number of initiatives on the ground. Ever since, security has been at the centre of Israeli-Palestinian relations as well as at the international community‟s effort to build a state called “Palestine”. Security has been a key issue in all Israeli-Palestinian agreements concluded during the interim period up to 1999 and then, during the second intifada (2000), security became a cornerstone of all internationally-sponsored diplomatic initiatives and peace plans. Security also became synonymous with Palestinian statehood and it topped the diplomatic agenda in the recent re-launch of direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians on October 2, 2010. To this end, the central aim of this paper is to examine the distinctive initiatives that the EU has taken in order to help the Palestinian Authority reform both its security and judiciary sectors as part of its broader state-building strategy towards the Palestinian Territory, as well as provide explanations on why these policies had so little impact. In doing so, the paper seeks to provide answers to the following questions: what conclusions can we gather from a detailed study of EU initiatives on the ground? Has the EU been an effective and coherent actor in the Palestinian Territory as far as security and judiciary sector reform is concerned? How are all these initiatives on the ground linked to the “high politics” of this conflict?
Actions (login required)
![[img]](http://aei.pitt.edu/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png)
![[feed]](/images/feed-icon-32x32.png){kind=icon}
