Kacowicz, Arie M. 1959- (Arie Marcelo Kacowicz)

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Kacowicz, Arie M. 1959- (Arie Marcelo Kacowicz)

PERSONAL:

Born August 14, 1959. Education: Earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Princeton University, Ph.D., 1992.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of International Relations, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91905 Jerusalem, Israel. E-mail—mskaco@mscc.huji.ac.il; Arie.Kacowicz@huji.ac.il.

CAREER:

Academic. Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel, lecturer, 1993-97, senior lecturer, 1997-2006, director of the Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations, 2003-04, chair of the Department of International Relations, 2005—, associate professor of international relations, 2006—. Goldman Israeli visiting professor at Georgetown University, Washington, DC, 2002-03, and Notre Dame University, Notre Dame, IN; fellow at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, Notre Dame University.

WRITINGS:

Peaceful Territorial Change, University of South Carolina Press (Columbia, SC), 1994.

Latin America on the International Stage, Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace (Jerusalem, Israel), 1996.

Human Rights and Foreign Policy: The Argentine Case, 1976-1983, Leonard Davis Institute (Jerusalem, Israel), 1997.

Zones of Peace in the Third World: South America and West Africa in Comparative Perspective, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1998.

(With Lea Gedalia) Identity Formation Processes in the Transition from War to Peace, Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations (Jerusalem, Israel), 2000.

(Editor, with others) Stable Peace among Nations, Rowman & Littlefield (Lanham, MD), 2000.

Rashomon in Jerusalem: Mapping the Israeli Negotiators' Positions on the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process, 1993-2001, Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations (Jerusalem, Israel), 2004.

The Impact of Norms in International Society: The Latin American Experience, 1881-2001, University of Notre Dame Press (Notre Dame, IN), 2005.

(Editor) Population Resettlement in International Conflicts: A Comparative Study, Lexington Books (Lanham, MD), 2007.

Contributor to periodicals and journals, including International Studies Perspectives, Cooperation and Conflict, and Israeli Law Review.

SIDELIGHTS:

Arie M. Kacowicz is an academic and expert on international relations. Completing his higher education degrees from Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Princeton University, Kacowicz went on to a career in academia, lecturing primarily at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and serving as visiting professor at several universities in the United States. Kacowicz has authored and edited a number of books on international relations.

Kacowicz published Zones of Peace in the Third World: South America and West Africa in Comparative Perspective in 1998. The book takes a comparative approach to international relations among countries in West Africa and South America. Writing in the American Political Science Review, Edmond J. Keller claimed that Zones of Peace in the Third World "does not represent a major contribution to the study of international relations." Keller conceded, however, that "it would serve as a nice device for provoking discussion and debate in courses on comparative international relations." Keller commented that the book's "style is occasionally somewhat cumbersome and the presentation tedious, but there is valuable information throughout and a certain amount of original thinking," adding that "perhaps the greatest limitation is that, by trying to explain extended periods of peace, the author is unable to deal with the implications of the regionalization of international relations following the Cold War." Alina Rocha Menocal, writing in the Journal of International Affairs, described the book as "an ambitious attempt to broaden the theoretical and historical underpinnings of the study of regional peace beyond a Western focus." Menocal stated: "Where the author attempts to be the most innovative theoretically, however, is also where he is the least convincing. In particular, he fails to demonstrate that satisfaction with the status quo is an independent variable that explains continued regional peace." Menocal remarked that the "book is at its best when reviewing the explanations for sustained regional peace offered by the realist and liberal traditions, and testing them against the zones of peace in the Southern Cone of South America and West Africa," adding that, "in particular, Kacowicz offers a compelling critique of the democratic peace paradigm, and he develops a helpful model to understand the conditions under which different levels of peace can be developed and sustained."

In 2005 Kacowicz published The Impact of Norms in International Society: The Latin American Experience, 1881-2001. The book describes how and under what circumstances the norms of politics and international relations affect Latin America. Steve C. Ropp, writing in Perspectives on Political Science, called The Impact of Norms in International Society "an important book." Ropp did question "whether Latin America's unquestioned success in building and maintaining a historical ‘zone of peace’" based on similar Iberian cultural values "will serve the region equally well in an age of growing indigenous nationalism." Ropp concluded, however, that the book "will find a receptive audience among both policy makers and scholars interested in global and regional conflict management." Cameron G. Thies, writing in the Political Science Quarterly, remarked on the book's "useful method of studying norms and their impact," pointing out its versatility. Thies also thought that "scholars of international conflict and Latin American politics will still find much of substantive interest in this book." Thies did point out, however, that "the main drawback of the book is the lack of attention paid to case selection," noting the uniqueness of South America as a region and the significance of the eleven case studies included. Nevertheless, Thies concluded by calling The Impact of Norms in International Society "a fine book that deserves serious attention from scholars and policy makers alike." Arturo Santa-Cruz, writing in Latin American Politics and Society, observed that Kacowicz "does not make clear what the advantage of his longer, more complex normative explanation is. This is not to suggest that his approach does not make an important contribution to the literature—it does—but only to observe that Kacowicz fails to spell out the virtues of the rich methodology he uses. This omission leaves him prey to the usual ‘lack of parsimony’ attack." Santa-Cruz thought that Kacowicz's argument of "placing the neo-Grotian approach on a safe middle ground between positivist and postpositivist approaches is not quite convincing." Santa-Cruz concluded by calling the book a "timely, well-argued, and highly recommendable book, not only for Latin Americanists but for international relations scholars as well."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Political Science Review, September, 2000, Edmond J. Keller, review of Zones of Peace in the Third World: South America and West Africa in Comparative Perspective, p. 769; December, 2001, "Stable Peace among Nations," p. 1038.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, June, 1999, M.O. Anda, review of Zones of Peace in the Third World, p. 1866; July 1, 2006, T.M. Montoya, review of The Impact of Norms in International Society: The Latin American Experience, 1881-2001, p. 2073.

International Affairs, April, 1999, Jacob Bercovitch, review of Zones of Peace in the Third World, p. 397.

Journal of International Affairs, spring, 1999, Alina Rocha Menocal, review of Zones of Peace in the Third World.

Journal of Peace Research, September, 2006, Stephen A. Kocs, review of The Impact of Norms in International Society, p. 636.

Latin American Politics and Society, spring, 2007, Arturo Santa-Cruz, review of The Impact of Norms in International Society.

Notre Dame Magazine, July, 2003, author profile.

Perspectives on Political Science, fall, 2005, Steve C. Ropp, review of The Impact of Norms in International Society.

Political Science Quarterly, spring, 2006, Cameron G. Thies, review of The Impact of Norms in International Society.

Reference & Research Book News, February, 1999, review of Zones of Peace in the Third World, p. 120; August, 2007, review of Population Resettlement in International Conflicts: A Comparative Study.