Yale's Ian Shapiro, Sterling Professor of Political Science and Global Affairs, hosts Nicholas Strong, Yale College Class of 2018, for this session of the DeVane Lecture series course Power and Politics in Today's World. The talk examines Breaking the Impasse, an advocacy group formed by Israeli and Palestinian business leaders who tried to use their economic influence to push the peace process forward. Shapiro and Strong trace what the group attempted, why business leverage proved limited against entrenched political and security interests, and what lessons the effort holds for anyone hoping economic cooperation can substitute for political settlement. Delivered to Yale students and the public in fall 2019, the lecture fits within the course's broader inquiry into the collapse of post-Cold War optimism and the rise of a politics of fear, using this specific case to test how far private-sector diplomacy can go when formal negotiations stall.