Track Two Diplomacy Transfer in the Middle East Peace Progress

Abstract

This paper focuses on the role that Track Two diplomacy has played in the Middle East peace process. Specifically the paper addresses the area of the transfer of outcomes from Track Two diplomacy initiatives to the official talks, Track One. The paper begins by discussing the field of Track Two diplomacy and the various terms associated with it, including an analysis of transfer, then moves on to a brief overview of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, its history and key issues. It also looks at Track Two diplomacy within the context of this conflict. The paper then examines two relatively recent Track Two initiatives in the region, the Jerusalem Old City Initiative and one addressing what an international security presence would look like if a peace agreement was reached, to assess their development and how transfer was approached. In both cases the third-party as part of their transfer strategy that used influential participants who had close ties to officials, which has been shown to lead to successful transfer of Track Two outcomes to the official track. Equally positions held by third parties affect the level of transfer that the projects achieved. The lack of official negotiations occurring during the initiatives duration made it difficult to assess the success of transfer.