Book: Nations must build trust to end feuds

Aaron M. Hoffman

"Building Trust: Overcoming Suspicion in International Conflict," (State University of New York Press, $55) by assistant professor Aaron M. Hoffman, examines how American, European and Middle Eastern governments overcame their suspicion of one another and fostered trust at pivotal moments in their relationships. The examples he highlights in the book are the Constitutional convention that launched the United States, creation of the Single European Act that set the course for the European Union and negotiations between Israel and Jordan over water resources in the Middle East.

While many authorities focus on resolving tensions gradually, Hoffman says that step-by-step diplomacy often results in arm's-length cooperation only. The problem, he says, is that incremental approaches do not require the parties to sacrifice enough when the stakes are relatively low to reassure each other as the stakes increase. Instead, countries that successfully overcome their suspicion of one another to do so by tackling security issues first. Hoffman says that the formative period of the European Community, now known as the European Union, is a case in point.

"Early on, France, Germany and the other member-states cooperated uneasily," Hoffman says. "The governments feared their vital interests would be damaged if they let their guards down. The Single European Act changed all that because it established a decision-making process in the European Union that affirmed every nation would have a say over all European Union policies.

"Establishing the principle that every state could have a voice in the European Union's decision making increased everyone's security and made them more willing to entrust their interests to one another."

Yet, diplomats continue to rely on peace-building strategies that are incapable of preserving each side's security and domestic political positions vis-a-vis their constituents, Hoffman says. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the most important example of this because as long as Israelis and Palestinians fear that cooperating with one another places their survival at risk, efforts at confidence-building are not going to succeed, Hoffman says.

"Only when both parties are certain that their continued existence is not at issue can the peace process produce its desired result."

Hoffman's work is funded by the Department of Political Science.

Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, (765) 494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu

Source: Aaron Hoffman, (765) 496-6775, ahoffman@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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