Conflict Resolution

KEY PEOPLE

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Through the Conflict Resolution Forum, chaired by Baker Institute Founding Director Edward P. Djerejian, the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy is actively involved in the formulation of policy analysis, proposals and consultations with decision makers. The program seeks to advance conflict resolution efforts with a special focus on the broader Middle East.

Armenia and Azerbaijan

Historically, the Baker Institute has been involved in the Caucasus on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. In 1999, representatives from the institute and the United States Institute of Peace collaborated on a second-track diplomacy mission on which they met with the top leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia, and provided specific recommendations on how negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue could move forward. The institute has remained engaged also on efforts aimed at Armenian-Turkish reconciliation.

Israeli-Palestinian Peace

In February 2010, the Baker Institute published “Getting to the Territorial Endgame of an Israeli-Palestinian Peace Settlement,” which offers concrete recommendations to U.S. negotiators on the territorial component of an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement. The report draws on nearly two years of discussions held by a working group of Israelis and Palestinians chaired by Djerejian, who previously served as the U.S. ambassador to Israel and to Syria, as well as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. Specifically, the report determined that a United States territorial bridging proposal — based on the line of June 4, 1967, with agreed-upon swaps and modifications — could enable gradual progress. The contours of such a proposal are outlined in the report, as well as the need to prepare the necessary planning tools to achieve a successful outcome.

The report’s findings provide policymakers in Washington, Jerusalem and Ramallah with the results of a “bottom-up” approach highlighting differences and areas of possible agreement between the Israeli and Palestinian positions on the key territorial issues. A primary assumption underlying this report is that the territorial component of peace cannot be negotiated and addressed in isolation of other final status issues, including Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees and security.

Previous workshops have been held in Houston at the Baker Institute; in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt; in Athens, Greece; and in Jerusalem.

In addition, the “Trilateral Action Plan for Roadmap Phase I Implementation” policy report, published by the Baker Institute in December 2005, is based on recommendations made by the Israeli-Palestinian working group, and follows an initial policy report that the institute published, “Creating A Roadmap Implementation Process Under United States Leadership,” in February 2005. Ambassador Djerejian chaired post-disengagement working sessions in the region in August and November 2005. An additional workshop was held in Houston in February 2006, following the Palestinian elections that took place the previous month.

Iraq

The Baker Institute is one of several think tanks that were an integral part of the Iraq Study Group, a congressionally mandated, bipartisan effort to take a fresh look at the current and prospective situation on the ground in Iraq, its impact on the surrounding region and the consequences for United States interests. The group was led by James A. Baker, III, 61st secretary of state and honorary chair of the Baker Institute, and former U.S. Congressman Lee H. Hamilton, director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The Iraq Study Group Report was released to the public on Dec. 6, 2006.

Prior to the Iraq War in 2003, the Baker Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations jointly published the report “Guiding Principles for U.S. Post-Conflict Policy in Iraq.”

Syria

From 2002 to 2005, Ambassador Djerejian convened a U.S.-Syria dialogue under the auspices of the Conflict Resolution Forum. The dialogue brought together current and former officials representing the United States and Syria, as well as academics and private and public sector representatives. Meetings were held both in Houston and in Damascus. Participants included then-Syrian deputy foreign minister His Excellency Walid Al-Moallem and The Honorable William Burns, then-assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs.

As the Baker Institute’s first Isaac and Mildred Brochstein Fellow in Middle East Peace and Security in Honor of Yitzhak Rabin, Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Uri Sagie authored the study “The Israeli-Syrian Dialogue: A One-Way Ticket to Peace?”

A new initiative on U.S.-Syrian relations is under consideration in 2010.

PUBLICATIONS
2010: Borders Key to Peace Talks
May 23 2010

Edward P. Djerejian; Getting to the Territorial Endgame of an Israeli-Palestinian Peace Settlement
Feb 02 2010

Edward P. Djerejian
2008: Danger and Opportunity: An American Ambassador's Journey Through the Middle East
Sep 09 2008

Edward P. Djerejian; Video Briefing Transcript: Prospects for Peace in the Middle East
Feb 25 2008

Edward P. Djerejian
2007: Final Status: Jerusalem and Refugees
Dec 19 2007

Sari Nusseibeh; Final Status: Jerusalem and Return
Oct 24 2007

Sari Nusseibeh; Preemptive and Preventive War: A Preliminary Taxonomy
Feb 28 2007

Joe Barnes, Richard Stoll; When You Have Not Decided Where to Go, No Wind Can Take You There: A Strategy to Achieve a Comprehensive Israeli-Arab Peace
Jan 31 2007

Yair Hirschfeld; Statement of the Co-Chairs of the Iraq Study Group
Jan 10 2007

James A. Baker, III, Lee H. Hamilton
2006: The Iraq Study Group Report
Dec 05 2006

James A. Baker, III, Lee H. Hamilton, Lawrence S. Eagleburger, Vernon E. Jordan, Edwin Meese III, Sandra Day O'Connor, Leon E. Panetta, William J. Perry, Charles S. Robb, Alan K. Simpson; From Conflict Management to Conflict Resolution
Oct 31 2006

Edward P. Djerejian; Humanitarian Conditions in the Palestinian Territories: Short- and Long-Term Perspectives on a Developing Crisis
May 31 2006

Mohammed El-Samhouri; On the Role of Commercial Projects in U.S.-R.F. Proliferation Cooperation
Apr 30 2006

Rose Gottemoeller
2005: Trilateral Action Plan for Road Map Phase I Implementation
Nov 30 2005; Radical Islam in Southeast Asia and Its Challenge to U.S. Policy
Sep 30 2005

Fred R. von der Mehden

EVENTS

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Conflict Resolution