Department of History - Carnegie Mellon University

Faculty

Laurie Zittrain Eisenberg

Rank: Associate Teaching Professor of History
Ph.D.: University of Michigan, 1990
Adjunct Department Member Since: 1992

Prof. Eisenberg is an historian of the modern Middle East. Her areas of research and publication include the Arab-Israeli conflict and peace process and the interaction of multiple Middle East actors, particularly Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinians. Current undertakings include a forthcoming second edition of her co-authored textbook on the Arab-Israeli peace process (with Neil Caplan, Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace, Indiana University Press, 1998 and 2009) and two on-going research projects about the legacy of Jordan's King Hussein, and the June 1967 war.

In the classroom, Prof. Eisenberg emphasizes the interpretation of primary source documents and their importance in original research projects. Her course on the “Arab-Israel Condition” concludes with a three day long Arab-Israeli negotiation simulation, for which students conduct extensive preparatory research and engage in extended role-playing. She also teaches courses on Religion and Politics in the Middle East, American Foreign Policy in the region, and a practicum on Historical Evidence and Interpretation. Her “American-Arab Encounters” course uses video-conferencing technology and takes place in real time, uniting CMU students in Pittsburgh with students at the CMU campus in Qatar. She is also a consultant for ImpactGames, a company which produces “PeaceMaker,” a video game simulating Palestinian-Israeli interactions. www.peacemakergame.com

Publications

“Peace Plans: 1967-1993,” in Joel Peters and David Newman, eds., Handbook of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (forthcoming, Routledge, 2009).

“Israel-Lebanese relations: The influence of the confessional system, 1948-1978,” in Clive Jones and Sergio Catignani, eds., The Israel-Lebanese Conflict: An Interstate and Asymmetric War in Perspective (Routledge, forthcoming, 2009).

With Neil Caplan, Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: Patterns, Problems, Possibilities, revised second edition (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, forthcoming, 2009).

With Neil Caplan, “The Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty of 1994: Patterns of Negotiation, Problems of Implementation,” Israel Affairs, 9:3 (Spring 2003).

“Do Good Fences Make Good Neighbors? Israel and Lebanon After the Withdrawal,” Middle East Review of International Affairs, 4:# (September 2000).

“The Arab-Israeli Conflict: Lessons about Diplomatic Initiatives and Negotiations,” in Mark Tessler, ed., Area Studies and Social Science: Strategies for Understanding Middle East Politics (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999).

With Neil Caplan, Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: Patterns, Problems, Possibilities (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998).

With Neil Caplan, "The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process in Historical Perspective," in Ilan Peleg, ed., The Middle East Peace Process: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Albany: SUNY Press, 1998).

“Israel's Lebanon Policy,” Middle East Review of International Affairs, 3:2 (September 1997).

The Arab-Israeli Peace Process: A Contextual and Textual Analysis, Occasional Paper published by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, June 1996.

My Enemy's Enemy: Lebanon in the Early Zionist Imagination, 1900-1948 (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994).

Restraint or Retaliation? Israel's Response to Iraqi Missile Attacks During the 1991 Gulf War, Pew Case Studies in International Affairs #361, Pew Charitable Trusts, 1994.

“Desperate Diplomacy: the Zionist-Maronite Treaty of 1946,” Studies in Zionism, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Autumn 1992).

“Passive Belligerency: Israel and the Gulf War,” The Journal of Strategic Studies, Vol. 15, No. 3 (September 1992).