Understanding Territorial Withdrawal

In Understanding Territorial Withdrawal, Rob Geist Pinfold focuses on what causes occupying states to either abandon occupation or further entrench themselves. He looks primarily at Israel and constructs a generalizable framework for understanding territorial withdrawal. He then applies this framework to the episodes he examines: Israel's withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula between 1974-1982; its "unilateral" withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000; and its "unilateral disengagement" from the Gaza Strip in 2005. A powerful analysis of a central concern for the studies of international security, territorial conflict, and the Arab-Israel conflict alike, this book provides a critical intervention to show why occupying powers sometimes stay, and why they sometimes leave.