| Abstract [eng] |
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most contentious issues in today’s global political discussion and one in which other political forces frequently interject. There are already some studies analysing this phenomenon, but there is little analysis of the EU’s and its policies’ role in the process of affecting the conflict and the conflicting countries. As a result, the subject of this master’s thesis includes the role of the European Union in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The paper aims to investigate to what extent and how the conflict between Israel and Palestine is influenced by the power of the European Union. In order to achieve the above aim, the following objectives have been set: 1. To examine the nature of the European Union’s power using the theoretical framework of the literature. 2. To determine the European Union’s implemented policies towards Israel and Palestine in order to analyse the interdependence between the EU, Israel, and Palestine. 3. To evaluate the EU’s influence as power in connection with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The master thesis consists of 65 pages (introduction, theoretical framework, methodology, empirical part, conclusion, summaries), 1 table, 8 figures, 108 sources of scientific literature and 37 sources of information were used. The first part of the study discusses the theory and notion of International Relations, it focuses on the characteristics and variations of power as an influence, including soft and hard power conceptualisation, as well as, it identifies the general power of the European Union which is expressed through Normative Power. A historical perspective is used to examine the development of the conflict and actions undertaken by the EU. The empirical study of this work includes a discussion of the EU’s policies towards Israel and Palestine and the EU’s influence on the IsraeliPalestinian conflict. The research is based on the documents developed by the EU and the chosen countries. After the qualitative analysis of the European Union’s policies and activities toward Israel and Palestine, it was concluded that the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is the EU’s primary tool of influence when dealing with conflicting nations. Through it, both nations profit politically or economically in exchange for upholding democratic principles and respecting human rights. The EU employs normative power (NPE) through financial influence techniques to Israel, while its aid stipulates modernization and adaptation to all humanitarian needs in Palestine. According to this study, the EU appears to have a considerable influence on the conflict. Due to measures adopted, the EU is one of the key upholders of the status quo in the problematic region and one of the factors contributing to the escalation of the confrontations between Israel and Palestine. |
