GUY BEN-PORAT is a lecturer in the Department of Public Policy and Administration at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. He is the author of Global Liberalism, Local Populism: Peace and Conflict in Israel and Northern Ireland (2006).

Introduction; G.Ben-Porat Israeli Flags Flying Alongside Belfast's Apartheid Walls: A New Era of Comparisons and Connections; A.Guelke PART 1: STRUCTURAL EXPLANATIONS The State-to-Nation Balance: A Key to Explaining Difficulties in Implementing Peace - The Israeli-Palestinian Case; B.Miller Consociational Theory and Peace Agreements in Pluri-National Places: Northern Ireland and Other Cases; J.McGarry & B.O'Leary Ending Apartheid: The Relevance of Consociationalism; R.Taylor Realism, Liberalism and the Collapse of the Oslo Process: Inherently Flawed or Flawed Implementation?; J.Rynhold PART 2: THE DYNAMICS OF PEACE Sponsors or Spoilers: Diasporas and Peace Processes in the Homeland; R.Schwartz People's Diplomacy and People's Vigilantism: Israeli Grassroots Activism 1993-2003; T.Hermann Passive Reconciliation in the Context of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict; R.Nets-Zehngut Identity Shift in Settlement Processes: The Northern Ireland Case; J.Todd PART 3: SUCCESS AND FAILURE Oslo: Liberalization and De-Colonization; Y.Peled Mandela in Palestine: Peacemaking in Divided Societies; H.Adam Conclusion; G.Ben-Porat

This volume examines the gap between agreements and actual peace. It offers different explanations for the successes and failures of the three processes - in South Africa, Northern Ireland and Israel-Palestine - and provides historical and comparative perspectives on the failure of the Middle East peace process.