2 - The environment of conflict in the Jordan basin

Summary

In two seminal articles from the 1950s, Harold and Margaret Sprout discuss the importance played by the environment, or milieu, in international politics. They argue that to make sense of the political behavior of states and of individuals requires understanding the environment, or context, in which actors operate and the variety of constraints and possibilities it poses. In response to geopolitical theories of international behavior which assumed the pre-eminence of geographic variables — in vogue from World War I until mid-century — the Sprouts posit an integrated, holistic view of the environment, taking account of both physical and non-physical features. The environment is a multi-dimensional system in which no one variable occupies a pre-eminent position. And because human activity is affected by environmental factors, broadly defined, politics can only be understood by exploring the multiplicity of “man—milieu relationships.”

However, the Sprouts caution that it is not enough to study objective environmental conditions to make sense of political behavior. Perceptions of the environment — what the Sprouts refer to as the “psychomilieu” — are themselves important objects of study and analysis. Indeed, it is on the basis of perceptions that decisions are made and policy carried out. Nonetheless, the outcome of decisions is conditioned by the actual environment, or, “operational milieu.”