Trust is possible among bitter enemies

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), April, 2006

It is possible to establish trust among the world's oldest and most bitter enemies, contends a political science professor from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., in Building Trust: Overcoming Suspicion in International Conflict.

Aaron M. Hoffman examines how American, Middle Eastern, and European governments overcame their suspicion of one another and fostered trust at pivotal moments in their relationships. These include the Constitutional convention that originally launched the U.S., 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 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 overcome their suspicion of one another successfully do so by tackling security issues first. Hoffman indicates that the formative period of the European Community, now known as the European Union, is a case in point.

"Early on, France, Germany, and other member-states cooperated uneasily," Hoffman points out. "The government feared their vital interests would be damaged if they let their guards down. The Single European Act changed all that because it established a decisionmaking 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 decisionmaking 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 laments. 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.

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