Description
The Abraham Accords of 2020 shocked regional and world opinion and have played a key role in the transformation of the politics of the Middle East. They also pose a challenge to traditional understandings in international studies of the use of constructive ambiguity to shape relations between Arab states and Israel.
This paper develops a new approach to the rise and collapse of the policy of non-recognition of Israel by Arab states. By deploying an innovative Hegelian understanding of ambiguity, and tracing the causal mechanisms which compelled the Abraham Accords, it demonstrates how long-standing Arab state orientations towards Israel shifted. In so doing, it challenges many assumptions about the conditions under which the Abraham Accords were achieved, and their consequences.
This research will be of interest to scholars working in the Middle East, Israel and Palestine, state recognition, multipolarity, constructive ambiguity and the foreign policy of the Trump administration, besides others. It engenders debates about path-dependency and causation, as well as the meaning and nature of diplomatic reconciliation between states.
