Description: Co-opting the PLO analyzes the Oslo Accords, the interim self-government agreements signed between the government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, using a theoretical framework based on the work of Gilles Deleuze and Michael Hardt. Guided by these theoretic...
Review Quotes:
"By bringing contemporary theories of power, agency, and social control to bear on recent events, Peter Weinberger shows that the story of the Oslo Accords and the creation of the Palestinian Authority might not be what we are so often told it is. Neither a first step in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to establish reciprocal recognition between equal partners nor a premeditated neo-colonial plot, it reflects more general trends in the development of modern and postmodern power. Weinberger's work shows us the need for a politics that remains staunchly critical and pluralist, a politics that recognizes how shifting power relations infiltrate all levels of political negotiation and governance and responds with creative reworkings of political identities and their relations to difference." --Nathan Widder, University of Exeter
"Peter E. Weinberger's book is a brilliant application of the theoretical application of the works of Gilles Deleuze and Michael Hardt to the concrete example of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations during the 1990s. He convincingly shows that the Oslo Peace Accords were part of an Israeli strategy to co-opt the Palestinian leadership and forestall the movement towards Palestinian statehood. This book is a must read for any scholar investigating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and it serves as an important resource for scholars trying to analyze international events via critical social theories." --Carlos L. Yordan, Drew University "[Peter Weinberger] argues that the works of Gilles Deleuze provide a critical key to unlocking the real meaning of the accords, notably in the notion of a "complex co-optation."" --Choice Reviews "[an] astute and serious book..." --2008, Journal of Palestine Studies "Peter Weinberger's provocative analysis of the Oslo Process effectively combines theoretical sophistication, moral vision, and rigorous attentiveness to detail and nuance. His well-researched account provides a long-overdue challenge to conventional wisdom, and offers some daringly unconventional suggestions about the prerequisites for a just, generous, and lasting peace. This book should be required reading among students of international conflict resolution, area specialists, and policymakers...." --Nathan C. Funk, The University of Waterloo "Peter Weinberger's provocative analysis of the Oslo Process effectively combines theoretical sophistication, moral vision, and rigorous attentiveness to detail and nuance. His well-researched account provides a long-overdue challenge to conventional wisdom, and offers some daringly unconventional suggestions about the prerequisites for a just, generous, and lasting peace. This book should be required reading among students of international conflict resolution, area specialists, and policymakers." --Nathan C. Funk, The University of Waterloo