The Transformative Ambitions of the Abraham Accords: Trust-Building Mechanisms as a Pathway to Regional Cooperation

The 2020 Abraham Accords are a landmark normalization of relations between Bahrain, Israel, Morocco, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates, facilitated by the United States.While prevailing scholarly opinion has sought to characterize these agreements as mere bilateral agreements, this study views the Abraham Accords as part of a broader vision to transform the diplomatic landscape of the Middle East.Rather than treating normalization as a binary concept, this research situates it on a spectrum of interlinking cooperation.At the forefront of this analysis is minilateralism: a diplomatic approach that enables focused cooperation among a small number of like-minded states.This study analyzes how the Abraham Accords strengthen political and economic ties through initiatives such as the Negev Forum and I2U2 Group.By comparing these dynamics to historical agreements, specifically the Israel-Egypt and Israel-Jordan peace treaties, the research delineates the unique qualities of the Accords.Unlike the "cold peace" of earlier treaties, the Accords emphasize transparency and public engagement, fostering a more integrated and collaborative regional environment.Situating the Accords within the context of past multilateral initiatives, this study illustrates how the diplomatic Overton window has shifted to facilitate a modern discourse on regional cooperation that transcends previous frameworks.This study aims to demonstrate that the frameworks established by the Abraham Accords offer significant opportunities for confidence-building and heightened cooperation among signatory states and the broader region, contributing to a more resilient and interconnected Middle Eastern political landscape.publicly engaging with Israel, as evidenced by the "Three Noes of Khartoum" at the 1967 Arab League Summit (4th, n.d.).At that summit, Arab heads of state agreed to the principles of no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, and no negotiations with Israel unless it withdrew from the territories it occupied after the Six-Day War.While Israel and its Arab neighbors continued to interact privately -through business ventures and happenstance meetings at political summits -such engagements were often clandestine and faced public backlash when exposed (Cablegate, 2007).The significance of the Abraham Accords lies not merely in the initiation of official cooperation with Israel but in the unprecedented public acknowledgment of such cooperation.While the Abraham Accords consist of Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates normalizing relations with Israel, this thesis largely focuses on Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.This is for several reasons.Unlike Bahrain or the UAE, Morocco previously had limited official diplomatic relations with Israel.Under Kings Hassan II and Mohammed VI, Morocco maintained a liaison office in Tel Aviv.However, it was closed in response to the outbreak of the Second Intifada in 2000 (Berman, 2021).In the years since the closure, some 50,000 Israelis traveled annually to Morocco, but very few Israelis were able to travel to Bahrain or the UAE (Rabinovich, 2020).Furthermore, a key reason why Morocco joined the Abraham Accords was to increase its control over the Western Sahara.In exchange for Morocco recognizing Israel, Bahrain, the UAE, and the United States recognized its claim over the Western Sahara region, which is not recognized by the United Nations (Simon, 2014).Additionally, Morocco and Sudan are distinct because they had previously been at war with Israel during the Yom Kippur War and Six-Day War, respectively while Bahrain and the UAE never had been in their histories (Touchard, 2022;Warburg, 1992).In addition, Sudan is unique