Competing Approaches to the Israel–Palestine Conflict: Sun Tzu Meets Western International Relations Theory

Abstract

The article examines Israel's strategic use of archaeology as a political instrument in Jerusalem, analysing this conduct through two complementary analytical frameworks: Western International Relations (IR) theory and the classical strategic philosophy of Sun Tzu. The Western tradition encompassing the realist and neo-realist scholarship of Thucydides, Machiavelli, Morgenthau, Waltz, Mearsheimer, and Zakaria constitutes the dominant paradigm in IR analyses of the Israel–Palestine conflict, identifying power, threat perception, and systemic anarchy as the principal drivers of inter-state behaviour. This article argues, however, that Sun Tzu's concept of indirect war subduing an adversary without direct military engagement offers a complementary and analytically indispensable perspective for understanding Israeli conduct in Jerusalem in the post-1967 period. Employing a qualitative research design and drawing on primary legal instruments, institutional reports, and secondary historical scholarship, the study demonstrates that Israel's systematic exploitation of archaeological excavations, expropriation law, demographic engineering, and non-state proxies constitutes a form of institutionalised indirect warfare consistent with Sun Tzu's doctrine of deception and strategic subversion. The findings indicate that Israel's approach to the annexation of Jerusalem operates through the gradual erosion of Palestinian historical claims and the juridical–spatial transformation of the city, thereby avoiding the costs of open military confrontation. This interdisciplinary analysis contributes to both Middle East conflict studies and the comparative scholarship of classical strategic thought.