In focusing on four major wars in the Arab-Israeli conflict from 1947 to 1979, all of them ending in agreed ceasefires, truces, or armistices, this book concentrates on the external efforts after each war to help resolve the conflict. The account of each war follows the same format: the prelude to the fighting, a description of the main actors, the fighting and its aftermath, extracts from key documents and a select bibliography which includes all items cited three or more times in the footnotes. The last section comprises a critical analysis of the post-hostilities peace efforts, with special attention to those aspects which appear to challenge or contradict the conventional wisdom about the art and science of mediation.