A native of Montreal, Neil Caplan received an MA in Canadian Studies from Carleton University, Ottawa, and a Ph.D. in Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London). Since retiring from teaching in 2008 he has held an affiliate position in the Department of History of Concordia University and is Scholar-in-Residence at Vanier College, both in Montreal. An internationally respected researcher and scholar of the Arab-Israel conflict, he is the author of numerous scholarly articles and eight books, including
Futile Diplomacy, a documentary history of Zionist-Arab and Arab-Israeli negotiations, 1913-1956 (4 vols., re-issued 2015, Routledge Library Editions). He has co-authored, with Laura Z. Eisenberg,
Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: Patterns, Problems, Possibilities (2
nd ed. 2010, Indiana UP). With Yaakov Sharett, he co-edited and translated
My Struggle for Peace: The Diary of Moshe Sharett, 1953-1956 (3 vols. 2019, Indiana UP). Sharett was Israel’s first Foreign Minister and its second Prime Minister. Caplan’s latest book is the second edition of
The Israel-Palestine Conflict: Contested Histories (2019, Wiley-Blackwells) -- a book-length expansion of his 2004
tolerance.ca essay, ''Israelis and Palestinians: Victims versus Victims.''