Negotiating Agency in Intractable Conflict

This book examines how Israeli ex-soldiers negotiate agency through the ways they position themselves within biographical narratives before, during, and after military service in the context of an intractable conflict. At the centre of the study lies the question of how young former soldiers articulate themselves in relation to dominant discourses of solidarity, military service, citizenship, and moral responsibility, and how these discourses shape possibilities for self-understanding, interpretation, and action. Judith Butler’s concept of subjectivation and Stuart Hall’s notion of articulation provide the theoretical framework for understanding biographical narratives as sites where individual experience and collective meaning intersect. Danny Kaplan’s concept of solidarity serves as a central analytical perspective, shifting the focus from national identity towards solidarity as a social practice of belonging and responsibility. Methodologically, the study combines discourse analysis and biographical research. Based on narrative interviews with Israeli ex-soldiers conducted during their post-army travels in India and Mexico, the analysis reconstructs how dominant discourses are reproduced, negotiated, and transformed through biographical narratives. The study contributes to debates on subjectivation, agency, solidarity, and biographical research under conditions of an intractable conflict.