Revisiting George Bush's Middle East Peace Initiative of 1991: Lessons Learned After 22 Years

Abstract

This study aims to revisit and analyze George Bush's Middle East Peace initiative of 1991 and the lessons that could be learned after 22 years of its initiation. This paper argues that since Bush’s Middle East peace initiative of 1991 was successful in the sense that it generated a comprehensive peace process between concerned Arab parties and Israel for the first time, many lessons would be learned. Chief among them is the importance and the necessity of active American involvement, the importance of inclusiveness, significance of the pre-negotiation stage, the importance of timing and the regional and international context as well as the importance of motives and willingness. The major bulk of this study is a discussion to Bush's peace proposal of 1991, motives of the concerned parties to accept such initiative as well as key conditions behind the success of this peace initiative. To achieve such end this paper has employed a case study approach that would analyze primary and secondary literature on this subject matter so to understand different variables and dynamics that influenced this initiative. This paper concludes that since Bush’s Middle East peace initiative of 1991 was successful, many lessons would be learned such as: the importance and the necessity of active American involvement, the importance of inclusiveness, significance of the pre-negotiation stage, the importance of timing and the regional and international context as well as the importance of motives and willingness.