Hilde Waage

Last updated • 4 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Norway was . . . also an active mediator. . . . But its mediation role did not involve being on equal terms with each of the involved parties. . . . No evidence has been found showing or even suggesting that the Norwegians argued in the same way towards the Israelis as they did towards the Palestinians. . . . There appears to have been a striking lack of even-handedness on the part of the Norwegians in terms of attempts to persuade the Israeli actors to see the Palestinian point of view or revealing to the PLO where the Palestinians might have had their best negotiating chances. . . . The result achieved in 1993, the Oslo Agreement, was not an ordinary peace agreement. In essence, it was more of a timetable, a point of departure with many vaguely formulated intentions. PLO leader Arafat's willingness to accept the Oslo Accord, with all its shortcomings and compromises, was clearly a result of his fear of being permanently marginalized. [4] :165–6

Waage also comments about the real power that Norway had in the meetings. She in the last paragraph of her paper "Postscript to Oslo" says that:

Without the power to impose solutions, and above all dependent on the stronger party, the weak state mediator in unequal contests must rely heavily on “process symmetry,” where the two sides are treated with absolute equality, provided with exactly the same accommodations, allotted exactly the same amount of time to make their case, and so on. The Norwegians went to great lengths to achieve this symmetry (as did the Americans in their mediating efforts between Palestinians and Israelis, albeit for different reasons). The problem with process symmetry is that it cannot address the power asymmetry that inevitably distorts the outcome of negotiations. Process symmetry and the entrie [sic] facilitative exercise can create a sense of equality between adversaries and the illusion of genuine communication, even trust. The Norwegians believed that through dialogue and a gradual building of trust, an irreversible peace dynamic would be created that could push the process forward to solution. The problem with this entire approach is that the issue is not one of trust, but of power. The facilitative process masks that reality. In the end, the results that can be achieved by a weak third-party facilitator are no more than the strong party will allow. Short of unusual generosity or truly far-sighted vision, such a solution can only be unbalanced and unfair, and therefore ultimately unsustainable. The question to be asked is whether such a model can ever be appropriate. [5]

Critics

Waage was criticized both by With Israel for Peace [6] and in Twitter for her moderate approach of how security forces should deal with terrorists. [7]

Selected bibliography

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References

  1. University of Oslo Archived 2006-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Hilde Henriksen Waage, Peacemaking Is a Risky Business: Norway’s Role in the Peace Process in the Middle East, 1993–96 (Oslo: PRIO, 2004)
  3. 1 2 Postscript to Oslo: The Mystery of Norway's Missing Files Archived 2009-03-18 at the Wayback Machine , Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 1 (Autumn 2008)
  4. Waage, Hilde Henriksen (2007). "The 'Minnow' and the 'Whale': Norway and the United States in the Peace Process in the Middle East". British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. 34 (2): 157–176. doi:10.1080/13530190701427917. JSTOR   20455504. S2CID   218602801.
  5. "Postscript to Oslo: The Mystery of Norway's Missing Files | The Institute for Palestine Studies". www.palestine-studies.org. Retrieved 2016-08-05.
  6. "What if Norwegian police will kill stabbing terrorists?". www.miff.no. 2015-10-18. Retrieved 2017-06-06.
  7. "Norwegian Professor Hilde Henriksen Waage with tips to London police". www.twitter.com. Retrieved 2017-06-06.
Professor

Hilde Henriksen Waage
Alma mater University of Oslo
Scientific career
FieldsHistory
Institutions Peace Research Institute Oslo
Acting Director of Peace Research Institute Oslo
In office
1992–1993