ABSTRACT
Unwritten and therefore undocumented relationships arise in circumstances of "no war, no peace." As a result, they share the basic ambiguities and same contradictory nature of such situations. Tacit understandings combine secrecy with directness, cooperation with a certain sense of uneasiness, the pull of temptation against the dictates of extreme caution. On the one hand, these tacit ties mark a critical shift from undisguised hostility to disguised complicity, and merit praise. On the other hand, however, there is something disquieting about such ties: not only the furtive manner by which they are conducted, but the fact they do not go quite far enough, neither resolving the outstanding political differences that remain nor actually bringing about peace.
