This book takes a comprehensive look at the PLO, examining its origins, legal status, goals, and strategies. Jamal R.Nassar investigates the PLO's role in regional and international politics and unveils the dynamics of the power relationships reponsible for the organization's successes and failures. The book discerns patterns and trends in the PLO's activities and studies the conditions under which these patterns and trends develop. Nassar places the PLO in a global perspective, delving into the basis of the organization's legitimacy and its prospects for participation in the peaceful resolution of the Arab-Israeli coverage. Nassar probes the rise of the PLO to its present position as a major actor in the Middle East - one that is no less significant than a number of sovereign states. He shows that the PLO is a complex power that cannot hope to achieve its objectives independently of other regional powers but can prevent these powers from resolving the Arab-Israeli dispute. The book outlines the many peace initiatives that have been foiled by the PLO and reveals how Israel's refusal to talk to the PLO will likely thwart the achievement of peace. Students and scholars of Middle East and Palestinian politics, the Arab-Israeli conflict, terrorism, political ideologies, revolutionary movements, transnational politics, and contemporary history should find Jamal Nassr's book on the PLO a valuable resource.