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Legitimation for turning-point decisions in foreign policy: Israel vis-à-vis Germany 1952 and Egypt 1977

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2009

Extract

Determinist views are prevalent in human thinking. King Solomon's reflection that ‘What has been is what will be done and what has been done is what will be done and there is nothing new under the sun’ seems as valid today as it was three thousand years, ago. The international arena, overrun by scenes of bloody, wars, acute crises and protracted conflicts is a constant reminder of the truthfulness of this pessimistic view.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 1989

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References

1. On the distinction between legitimation, the process of gaining public support, and legitimacy, the outcome of that process, see Merelman, R. M., ‘Learning and Legitimacy’, American Political Science Review, lx (1966), pp. 548561.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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12. Divrei HaKnesset (Official Records of the Knesset) 84–86 (Jerusalem, 1948–82), pp. 1891, 1898.

13. A. L. George, ‘Domestic Constraints on Regime Change in U.S. Foreign Policy’, p. 235; Trout, T. B., ‘Rhetoric Revisited: Political Legitimation and the Cold War’, International Studies Quarterly, xix (1975), p. 256.Google Scholar

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17. Ibid., 10, p. 897.

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19. Ibid.

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24. Ibid., 81, p. 992.

25. Ibid., p. 994.

26. Israeli Foreign Ministry Documents (Jerusalem, 1953), p. 44.

27. Divrei HaKnesset, 84–86, p. 2085.

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29. Divrei HaKnesset, 83, p. 4066.

30. M. Edelman, op. cit., p. 6.

31. Ibid., p. 126.

32. Divrei HaKnesset, 83, pp. 4059–60.

33. Ma'axriv, daily newspaper (Tel-Aviv, 3 March 1979).