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Book Reviews 151 Beyond Peace: The Search for Security in the Middle East, by Robert Bowker. Boulder, co: Lynne Rienner, 1996. 210 pp. $49.95. Robert Bowker's book, Beyond Peace: The Search for Security in the Middle East, focuses on the relationship between security and political culture and evaluates the possibility ofachieving cooperative security in the Middle East. Bowker is no stranger to the region. Currently he is the director of the Middle East and North Africa section of Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; previously he served as the Australian ambassador to Jordan and Tunisia and was posted in Saudi Arabia and Syria as well. Security is theoretically a complex concept to define, and even more problematic is its actual implementation. Bowker's WOl'k departs from the realist school's statecentered and narrow definition and examines five different perspectives of security, following Barry Buzan's model; these are military, political, economic, societal, and environmental. The development of security is dependent on peace among states, but also on relations between and within societies. Choosing a multidimensional approach, as Bowker does, necessarily risks a lack ofprecision, especially when efforts are made to translate its premises into concrete choices for policy makers, but (especially) in the post-Cold War era and (especially) in the Middle East it is a challenge that must be taken. The idea of "cooperative security" implies that security is not necessarily a zerosum game between states but something that "should be sought with others, not against them" (p. 10), based on "reassurance rather than deterrence," and being "inclusive rather than exclusive." How relevant are these ideas to the Middle East? Bowker is somewhat careful to express optimism, yet more than a year after the book was published there are good reasons to remain skeptical of the prospects of cooperative security in the region. The book provides an overview of the political culture-"the beliefs, attitudes and values that play part in the shaping of societies" (p. 23)-of the Middle East protagonists. Bowker finds the Arab world anxious from the need to cope with the changing world and the threats it presents to primordial identities. Arab leaders are facing a reluctant constituency with regard to to normalization of relations with Israel, but the often highly vocal and critical media commentary on the behavior of Israel rarely appears to disturb the pragmatic foreign policy leadership (p. 34). In Israel, a society with relatively open participation, fundamental divisions exist over the future boundaries ofthe state and the unavoidable choice to be made between territories and peace, divisions culminating in the assassination of a prime minister. Bowker points to the Palestinian uprising (Intifada) as an eye-opener for many Israelis, bringing them to the realization that existing visions of a "larger Israel" can no longer be sustained. Missing from his analysis is a wider reading of the socio-economic 152 SHOFAR Summer 1998 Vol. 16. No.4 changes that are turning Israel into a Western-like society busy with the pursuit of individual interests, and hence reluctant to sacrifice its well-being as before. While there may be at first glance some optimism for Middle East peace after the treaties with Egypt and Jordan and the Oslo accord, the main issues-Jerusalem, the Golan, and the West Bank settlements-are far from being resolved. A realistic though far from modest goal for the Arab-Israeli peace process, according to Bowker, may be to "lay the foundations for relationships within the region that, like those among the European nations, are neither wholly competitive nor wholly cooperative" (p. 53). Time is short and problems grow large. Radical Islam is advancing, being able through its grassroots activities to compete with secular alternatives, most of which have failed to improve the living standards ofthe population. The non-oil exports ofthis 260-millionpeople region are less than those of Finland, and the economic future is even more dismal, with a forecast of urbanization, unemployment, agricultural shortage, and air and water pollution. While the Arab-Israeli conflict has somewhat shrunk to its original core of IsraeliPalestinian intercommunal strife, its resolution is no less vital. The contact between Israelis and Palestinians has produced a...

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