Daring to Deal!: Carter's Legacy, Clinton's Lessons, and Trump's Critical Path Achieving Genuine Peace in the Middle East

Why do some American peace initiatives succeed while others fail-and what can the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton teach Donald Trump about negotiating peace in the Middle East?Daring to Deal! examines the American role in Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking through three presidencies and three very different approaches to diplomacy. Drawing on the historic breakthrough achieved by Jimmy Carter at Camp David in 1978, the difficult negotiations pursued by Bill Clinton at Camp David in 2000, and Donald Trump's efforts to reshape the diplomatic landscape of the Middle East, Peter E. Sabella asks a fundamental question: What makes an effective mediator?Rather than treating peace agreements simply as products of political opportunity, Sabella examines the conditions that allow mediation to succeed. He explores the relationship between power and legitimacy, the importance of preserving hope, the role of justice and international law, the ripeness of a conflict for negotiation, and the conduct of the mediator himself.Carter's diplomacy demonstrates how sustained presidential engagement, carefully constructed negotiating parameters, and a willingness to challenge both sides can transform an apparently intractable conflict. Clinton's experience reveals a different set of lessons: the dangers of asymmetry, deteriorating trust, disputed reference points, and negotiations conducted under intense political and temporal pressure.The book then turns to Donald Trump and a Middle East transformed by the Abraham Accords, changing regional alliances, continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the growing strategic importance of Arab-Israeli normalization. Can American diplomacy convert these shifting realities into a credible path toward peace?Combining historical analysis with the perspective of peace and conflict studies, Daring to Deal! is both an examination of American mediation and an argument about the conditions necessary for diplomacy to work. Carter's legacy and Clinton's lessons are not merely history. They offer a framework for understanding the choices confronting any American president daring to deal with one of the world's most enduring conflicts.