Camp David Accords of 1978

The Camp David Accords of 1978 consisted of a peace treaty between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. These secret negotiations were taken place at Camp David, MD., during President Jimmy Carter administration. This secret negotiations where eventually signed and witness by the world at a White House. In this paper I will discuss some of the negotiations tactics and techniques used by both parties and the role of a mediator, President Carter and his administration.

The Camp David Accord was a working negotiation in progress from the previous administration of President Gerald Ford’s Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Henry Kissinger’s involvement in the negotiation of the Sinai Accords was a direct affect of the accords on the Arab-Israeli conflict. The Sinai I and II Accords between Egypt and Israel in 1974 and 1975 were largely the result of negotiation efforts made by U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in his step-by-step process named “shuttle diplomacy” between the two countries (Burr, 2006).

During diplomacy and international relations, shuttle diplomacy is the action of an outside party in serving as an intermediary (U.S.) between principals in a dispute, without direct principal-to-principal contact. Originally and usually, the process consist successive travel (shuttling) by the intermediary (Kissinger), from the working location of one principal (Egypt), to that of another (Israel). According to Lewski & etc., the role of the intermediary is to approach, to resolving disputes; the parties may chose to focus their attention on one or more of these basic factors of interest, rights and power such as Egypt and Israel.

Kissinger spent over three years intervening between Egypt and Israel eventually finding concessions which resulted in Israel’s occupying army withdrawing from parts of the Egyptian Sinai. After Kissinger’s retirement in 1977, progress in the Middle East seemed to stall and negotiations were...