Contemporary History and International Relations Research Seminar: The Arab-Israeli Peace Process

Searching for a Just and Lasting Peace? Britain, the United States and the Arab-Israeli Peace Process after the Six-Day War
In the wake of the June 1967 Arab-Israeli War, the Johnson Administration initially led attempts to foster an Arab-Israeli peace process. However, the negotiations at the United Nations led by the US’s Ambassador Arthur Goldberg ran into difficulties which were engendered largely by Arab mistrust of US intentions. Ultimately, it was the British delegation, led by Lord Caradon and supported by Foreign Secretary George Brown which secured the unanimous passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 on 22 November 1967. The land-for-peace formula enshrined in the resolution remains the foundation for any comprehensive settlement of the conflict. This paper will explore how and why the British emerged as the vital brokers in the peace process at this key juncture.

Nigel Ashton
Professor Ashton has a PhD from Cambridge and his Professor of International History at the LSE. His main fields of interest are contemporary Anglo-American relations and the modern history of the Middle East. His second book, The Irony of Interdependence, Kennedy, Macmillan  and the Cold War (Palgrave, 2003) won the Cambridge Donner Book Prize. His most recent book, King Hussein of Jordan: A Political Life, was published by Yale University press in 2008.

For more information and updates, please visit the event on the website of Leiden University.