Barbara Tuchman, in her outstanding book,
The March of Folly, defines folly as the pursuit of policy contrary to
self-interest, “a perverse persistence in a policy demonstrably unworkable or
counterproductive”.
Failure, in contrast, is the lack of
success of a well-thought out, well-planned policy, based on a thorough,
objective analysis of comprehensive pertinent information.
This book strives to provide an
answer to the question of whether the Oslo peace process was the result of
unforeseeable circumstances that led to its failure, or the foreseeable result
of unmitigated folly.