October 18, 2021
Examine the events that led the United States and the Soviet Union to convene high-level delegations from Israel and all of its immediate Arab neighbors, as well as other regional parties, in Madrid for a Middle East peace conference from Oct. 30 to Nov. 1, 1991. Factors include the Israel skepticism of President George H.W. Bush’s administration, especially from Secretary of State James Baker; the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and impending breakup of the Soviet Union itself under President Mikhail Gorbachev; and the shakeup of regional alliances after the Persian Gulf War of 1991.
The Madrid conference marked the first time that Israeli and Palestinian leaders officially sat at the same table to discuss peace. Although the conference did not directly succeed, it did pave the way for the back-channel talks that produced the Oslo Accords of 1993.
