- 14 Sep 2011
THE ORIGINS AND DETERMINANTS OF ISRAEL’S GRAND STRATEGY
Abstract
The lecture will trace and analyze the historical influences which shaped Israel’s defense and foreign policy into a coherent and consistent National Security Grand Strategy. That Grand Strategy is, as most countries’ national security strategies are, a product of historical legacy, geo-political circumstances, the inspiration of a few Wise Men and the statecraft of many over the years.
The specific principles of Israel’s Grand Strategy will be discerned and evaluated, primarily in terms of its success in providing adequate responses to the many challenges Israel has been facing since it gained independence.
The lecture will conclude by addressing the question whether that strategy ought to be modified in light of the dramatic global and regional changes now occurring.
About the Speakers
Dr. Uzi Arad is Professor of Government at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy. Until recently and from 2009, he served as National Security Advisor to Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu as well as Head of Israel’s National Security Council. During Netanyahu’s first term, from 1997 to 1999, Dr. Arad served as his Foreign Policy Advisor.
In the intervening years Dr. Arad was on the faculty of the Interdisciplinary Center at Herzliya (IDC), where he founded and directed the Institute for Policy and Strategy (IPS) and established and chaired the IPS’s annual Herzliya Conferences. Dr. Arad was also Founder and Chairman of the EU-Israel Forum and the Atlantic Forum of Israel.
From 1975 to 1997 Dr. Arad served with the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service, both in Israel and abroad. His last position at the Mossad was Director of the Intelligence Division.
Dr. Arad was co-author of the Council of Foreign Relations’ Sharing Global Resources (1979) and editor of The Balance of Israel’s National Security and Resilience (2001, in Heb).
Dr. Arad was born in 1947 in Israel and served with its Air Force. He received a Ph.D. from Princeton University, which he attended as a Fulbright Fellow, and graduated from advanced executive courses at Harvard University.
He and his wife, Dr. Ruth Arad, have two daughters – Dr. Orna Arad and Dr. Dorit Arad Ben Ami. They live in Tel Aviv.
