On 26 April 2026, Libby Leher successfully defended her thesis on 'The political-development nexus of economic peace in the Middle East: Paris Protocols to the Oslo Accords'.
Her research focused on the 1993 Oslo I Peace Accord aimed to promote economic development in the Palestinian Occupied Territories by enhancing economic interdependence, as the way forward to overcome the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and achieve a lasting peace.
As part of the Oslo I Accord, the agreement regulating the interim economic arrangement between Israel and Palestine was signed on 29 April 1994. This agreement, The Protocol on Economic Relations to the Oslo Accords (commonly known as Paris Protocol) established the legal framework of the bilateral economic relations between the conflicting sides, and in many ways regulated the de facto economic regime already in place since the 1967 Occupation into a de jure one.
She presented a pathway to peace through an economic diplomacy framework that incorporates economic interdependence and incentives, and international law, i.e., positive sanctions and international law.
Photos of the defence
Rewatch Libby Leher's defence introduction
