Challenges in the conceptualization and implementation of normalization: insights from Egyptian–Israeli Relations

On 26 March Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty after years of bloody conflict–a major milestone in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The countries agreed to Normalize relations yet each interpreted and perceived normalization differently. The transition from conflict to peace poses a great challenge to scholars of conflict resolution, and yet the subject of normalization has received little attention in existing IR literature. This study seeks to propose different meanings of normalization and their practical implications for bilateral and regional relations in the Middle East. To achieve that goal, we chose the four-decade-old Egyptian-Israeli stable peace as our case study. Based on multilingual first-rate primary and secondary source materials and interviews, our study proffers two new forms of normalization of relations: One is material/strategic normalization which may be defined as partial normalization; The other is people-to-people / cultural normalization which demonstrates complete reconciliation expressed in full normalization.