Essays

Jake Sullivan was 44 when President Biden named him as national security advisor, the youngest American national security adviser in nearly 60 years. He comes not from a college campus with sweeping untested theories, but rather from Capitol Hill and the State Department with practical experience as a diplomat and policymaker. He focuses on what […]

Three former US military officers recently reflected in these pages on the “The Lessons We Should have Learned from Vietnam,” based on their experiences in that war. Here are three former Israeli officers who similarly reflect on the formative war of their careers – the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.   Doron Almog on a Misguided Strategy […]

Haiti has for decades been in a perfect storm of internal challenges – earthquakes, floods, poor governance and now a capital nearly overrun by gangs. The international response has often brought its own storms – including a cholera epidemic and sexual predation by UN peacekeepers.   Haitians are becoming increasingly desperate, while the international community is […]

Egypt’s army specializes in executing set-piece operations. In 1973, the army had the idea of using water cannons to dissolve parts of Israel’s defensive line on the Suez Canal, huge sand berms erected to prevent an Egyptian assault into Sinai. The Egyptian army did in a few short hours what Israeli planners thought would take […]

India and the United States have overcome the distance and suspicions that arose out of India’s refusal to align itself with the US soon after its independence in 1947. Over the last three decades, the world’s oldest and largest democracies have built a multi-layered and likely enduring partnership.  Public opinion in both countries favors close […]

The new presidents of Colombia and Brazil, the two most prominent leaders in South America, are both looking to shake up the status quo – with different playbooks. Colombia’s Gustavo Petro takes a confrontational, boisterous, outspoken, and anti-establishment approach. Brazil’s Lula da Silva (“Lula”) is a pragmatic, conciliatory leader seeking to build broad coalitions around […]

On March 29, a few hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressed pause on his government’s plan to overhaul Israel’s judiciary, US President Joe Biden delivered a warning to his long-time friend. “Like many strong supporters of Israel, I’m very concerned,” Biden said, masking his deep frustration with measured understatement. “I’m concerned that they get […]

The streets are seething. Police have clashed with demonstrators and there have been not only arrests but some violence. Hundreds of thousands and likely millions have protested proposed government actions. Unions have called for nationwide strikes. Government reactions have elicited even more fierce opposition. Israel? No, France. Most recently, protests have intensified when the government completely […]

Recently, I was asked whether I might consider revising the book I wrote on the US-Israeli relationship entitled Doomed to Succeed. Turmoil in Israel, the most right-wing, religious government in Israel’s history, and President Biden’s decision to hold off inviting Prime Minister Netanyahu to Washington led to concerns about where the relationship might be headed, […]

Twenty years ago, on 17 March 2003, Mohammed ElBaradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reported to his board that Iran was in breach of its Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) obligations – which require a signatory to use all nuclear technology in the country exclusively for peaceful purposes and to follow a policy […]

China’s evolving role in the Middle East is analyzed by US Ambassador Peter Pham.

General Stanley McChrystal and Ellen Chapin reflect on the tension between debate and consensus in McChrystal’s military career and in other episodes of US history.

Introduction  In a hard-hitting essay published here in the Jerusalem Strategic Tribune, A Year of War, the Washington Institute’s Anna Borshchevskaya paints a sobering picture of what Ukrainians, and all in NATO, face. She argues that Russians view the war as an existential struggle for their future. Washington and the rest of NATO are now rightly ensuring that at a minimum […]

The global order is changing rapidly. China is brokering normalization between Iran and Saudi Arabia while the United States brokers normalization between Arab states and Israel. Turkey and Russia are both antagonists and collaborators in multiple hot spots. Ukraine’s military is proving stronger than Russia’s. Alliances and friendships in the Indo-Pacific are coalescing against Chinese […]

“Japan is not now and will never be a tier-two power,” declared Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington in February 2013. He was there to champion the idea of a Quadrilateral Security Dialogue between Japan, the United States, India, and Australia. He succeeded in […]

If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes that a nuclear Iran is Israel’s greatest threat, then why is his government focused instead on passing domestic judicial reform legislation as its top priority? This question, posed by a former head of the Mossad’s Iran department, appeared in the headlines of Israel’s daily Yedioth Ahronoth on March 3. […]

A year after invading Ukraine, Vladimir Putin defines the war as an existential battle for Russia’s survival. In a classic case of the aggressor blaming the victim, Putin says the West invaded Russia using Ukraine. “It’s they [the West] who have started the war. And we are using force to end it,” he said on […]

[Note from the Editors: We have added parenthetical comments to the article for context in several places.] The United States frames its relations with China as a great power competition, in terms of the Biden administration’s national security strategy, for example. China claims to have a different view, having just emerged from three years of […]

A strident debate is occurring in Israel about the role of the judiciary and democratic governance. Virtually every democracy debates this issue periodically, because there is an inherent conflict between majority power and minority rights. The traditional role of non-elected courts is to impose a check on politicians who are elected by the majority. Whenever […]

To avoid receiving an energy bill she couldn’t afford, Zinaida Negruti, like countless others in Moldova, began spending more time in the dark as fall transitioned into winter. “Most of the time I don’t turn on the lights because I am worried it will be too expensive,” she says. “I try to use as little […]

In July 2022, against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin embarked on a notable foreign trip. Amid mounting international censure and growing hostility from the outside world, Putin traveled to Tehran to meet with Iranian officials and formally usher in a new phase in the long-running strategic partnership between […]

Jacob Nagel’s recent article in the JST, “Security Challenges Facing the New Israeli Government,” tours the often-visited terrain of threats to Israel and focuses, quite rightly, on Iran and Hezbollah. Adding an economic element to such overviews will provide greater clarity and accuracy in assessing Israel’s strategic needs. Two aspects of such an economic element […]

Steve, Our friendship goes back to graduate school days at Princeton and continued throughout our careers in US government service. We have moved in opposite directions politically—you to center-left and me to center-right—though we probably still agree on a lot. Let’s explore two issues—the general issue of whether or not the US needs to retrench […]

The State of Israel is not required by law to adopt a national security strategy. But the need for such a document has been often raised, and several efforts have been made to write one. In October 1953, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion presented a long disquisition on Israel’s security needs to the Cabinet, which he […]

The Biden administration does not view US–China competition in the Middle East as a zero-sum prize for one side to enjoy at the other’s expense. This measured response to China’s growing influence could change, however; outlined below are factors that could shift US policy toward great power confrontation in the region. China’s President Xi Jinping […]

The Knesset elections in November ended in a virtual tie between the left and right in terms of votes cast. But Netanyahu proved far more skillful in organizing the parties of the right than Yair Lapid did on the left, resulting in a decisive parliamentary majority for Netanyahu. The question now is whether he can […]

Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has been underway for almost nine years and is closing on one year in its current, full-scale form. What we can learn from the war’s origins and initial stages may assist us in finding the right policies to help end it on the best possible terms for Ukraine and […]

With recent experiences of Iraq and Afghanistan in mind, three former US ambassadors look back at their earlier careers as infantry officers in Vietnam and offer the following lessons.

A New Doctrine for Israel The notion of a national security doctrine is usually associated with the foreign policy of hegemonic powers, particularly the United States. Several American presidents have either promulgated a doctrine or had one named after them. A doctrine is usually understood as encompassing economic, geopolitical, and even social objectives, as well […]

Ever since the Russian invasion of Ukraine last February, Israel’s policy of not supplying weapons to Ukraine has come under both domestic and international criticism. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently stated that the decision by Israeli leaders not to support Kyiv has encouraged Russia’s military partnership with Iran. Inside Israel, critics say support for Ukraine […]

EcoPeace’s bold initiative “A Green Blue Deal for the Middle East” calls on the Israeli and Palestinian governments to act cooperatively on water issues under a climate-crisis paradigm, rather than continuing to hold water issues hostage to politics

Africa is growing in importance post pandemic in energy markets, public health and information and communications, according to former US diplomat Laird Treiber.

Although it was not the Biden administration that fathered the Abraham Accords, it proved willing to adopt them—hoping, with this endorsement, to assuage the dismay felt by many in the region with other aspects of its policy. Still, the president has done little, so far, to promote the Accords and their expansion. Moreover, the weakening […]

In 2023, Turkey will hold a hinge election. An opposition victory would mean a more democratic, pro-Western Turkey—and a Turkey that keeps its distance from Islamist groups. An Erdoğan victory would solidify his hold on the nation and most likely mean diminished freedoms and continued Turkish efforts to balance East and West, as well as […]

The tragedy now unfolding in Ukraine serves as a painful and powerful reminder of one of the foundational lessons of modern history. Ideological and faith-driven fixations, whether in foreign or domestic affairs, lead to bad policy. Evidence-based policies do not necessarily guarantee success, but their built-in pragmatism allows for adaptations that take into account changing […]

How long can a lost war last? The predictions of military experts vary from several months to about a year. In my opinion, the duration of hostilities largely depends on three major factors.

Frazzled by recent discussions with her American Jewish counterparts, an Israeli friend recently asked me, “What alien species has taken over the American Jewish community?”

Israel has been known for years as a center for innovation in several high-tech fields from medical devices to information security. Today, Israeli entrepreneurs are expanding to new fields, such as climate tech and food security, while its government has become a leader in public health policy through its pandemic response. Preparing for Pandemics Israel, […]

The summit of foreign ministers came together on relatively short notice. It was unstructured, informal, with little of the staff work or pre-negotiation that normally precedes such gatherings. The agenda was slim and general, and the outcome rather modest. But viewed through a historical scope, the results were transformational. I am not referring to the […]

Major General Hertzi Halevi will become the next chief of staff of the IDF on January 1, 2023. Military expert Tal Lev-Ram classifies the challenges facing the incoming chief of staff into five key problems.

This summer, Israel and Lebanon have come closer than ever to settling a decades-long maritime border dispute. A resolution of this dispute would not only give an economic boost to the region but also would help meet Europe’s energy needs.

In June 2022, the Knesset—Israel’s parliament—voted in favor of disbanding in preparation for new elections scheduled for November 1, 2022. These will be Israel’s fifth round of Knesset elections in three years, and the public is reluctant to head to the polls again. Even the opposition tried at first to see if it could knock […]

The Islamic Republic of Iran, now 43 years old, has proven itself to be remarkably resilient in weathering both geopolitical turbulence and domestic hardships. In doing so, it has defied the predictions of numerous scholars and pundits.  This trend could very well continue. Iran’s clerical elite has turned out to be extremely adept at changing […]

The Ukrainian economy is in dire straits after Russia’s attack on the country on February 24, with current forecasts of a 35% drop in gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022. The primary challenge is to stop Russia’s aggression, which is costly, but the next issue is to rebuild Ukraine and complete its post-communist reforms, which […]

What’s Next for Global Economic Governance?

Tel Aviv University’s Tal Sadeh explains how globalization of markets allows countries to evade economic sanctions, reducing their effectiveness.

Report from a Former US Congressman and Army Artilleryman

As we approach the two-year anniversary of a phone call that changed the Middle East, it is important to understand the impact and potential of the Abraham Accords.

The Russian invasion of its neighbor has a very strange feel to it. It is not just on the wrong side of history; rather, it is a bad reenactment of the worst parts of it.

One often hears that China is “winning” the competition with the United States in Southeast Asia. This strategically important region is home to 650 million people, and collectively is the world’s fifth largest economy and the US’s fourth largest export market. While serious competition is indeed a reality, it is not particularly useful to think […]

Since the rise of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to power, the Egyptian government has invested in strengthening its ties with the Egyptian diaspora around the world, as an important pillar of Egypt’s “soft power” strategy.

The narrative of Israel being a “Startup Nation” ignores troubling and persistent macro-economic trends that place it at the bottom of the rankings among Western peers.

The Middle East has gone through tumultuous change throughout the last decade, from the aftermath of the Arab Spring to the signing of the Abraham Accords. The superpowers’ changing conduct, new regional power dynamics, as well as geo-ecological developments have served to change the Middle Eastern panorama. For Israel, these developments have heralded the creation […]

A dangerous, uncertain transition to a different global system may lie ahead, due to structural and economic reasons, which bring the impact of the war to practically every doorstep worldwide.

Nearly three decades after its establishment, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has failed to fulfill its historic national goal as a platform for the full implementation of Palestinian independence and the establishment

Russia’s war against Ukraine has put the Caspian countries in a quandary, as they are seeking to maintain their fragile independence.

From Collective Engagement to Action

Dilemmas, Threats, and Opportunities

This essay examines the big picture of this regional transformation.

Israel’s New Connectivity

The theoretical framework of the IDF’s “Operational Concept for Victory” defines Israel’s new reality.

Israel’s defense doctrine should be reassessed, if deterrence is irrelevant to anti-guerilla and anti-terror warfare

Initial Observations and Lessons

The decision-making process and situation assessments by the Putin regime made the risky decision to invade Ukraine possible. But what exactly does Putin intend to achieve?

A More Robust Role is required in Countering Iran’s Ambitions

The 2022 Russian–Ukraine war presents a dramatic landscape of information warfare.

To understand the underlying reasons of the war in Ukraine, one must look at the manner in which Russia looks upon the world and upon NATO and the EU.

The Crisis that Wasn’t

Iran’s repeated excursions to Africa require far closer scrutiny.

For too long in the West, the continent of Africa has been viewed as peripheral to world affairs. This view is short-sighted and needs to be revisited.

There is little prospect of an Israeli–Syrian peace deal. Earlier attempts by Israeli leaders to come to terms with Syria had met with stiff opposition in the country.

Biden administration’s first foreign policy crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean merely conformed to the pattern of gradual American disengagement from a region that was once vital to US interests.

The Kurdish diaspora has started to move from the streets into the institutionalized venues and attempt to harness political support among civil society organizations.

The total number of Jews still living in Iran is remarkable, considering Iran’s more hostile Shiite jurisprudence, its history of murderous pogroms, its recent bouts of official Holocaust-denial antisemitism, and incessant anti-Israel sloganeering.

Iran's President Raisi appears not be interested in a deal and pressure must therefore be maintained. But the US should not allow itself to become enmeshed in an Israeli military action that likely would not totally destroy Iran’s nuclear capacity but would destabilize the region.

The underlying basis for a more positive view of Israel among the American Jewish public already exists, and the question is whether Israelis will succeed in tapping into it.

It is heartening to know that out of the tragedy of the pandemic can come something positive: a common stand

A hawkish Bennett and a weak Abbas are unlikely to bring about a solution. A third party—and new paradigms—are needed

Let us all labor to stop the bomb before it blows up in our faces

On the 30th anniversary of Israel–India relations, a look at a community that lives between the East and the Middle East

Israel is a regional power. The time has come for it to act accordingly

The Abraham Accords can remind US Jews that Israelis truly desire peace, so much so that their Arab neighbors recognize it

The US was never much interested in Syria. What pulled America in, and who has benefitted from the Syrian tragedy?

Is the world actually becoming more peaceful? And if so, why?

What made Australia withdraw from the contract it signed with France for advanced submarines?

Israel desperately needs a stronger connection with diaspora Jews. Can the rift be healed?

Israel is far less of a bipartisan issue than it used to be. But there's something deeper going on in the US

Erdoğan knows he has no choice. The Bennett-Lapid government should not offer him a diplomatic lifeline

Does the growing importance of the psychological dimension in modern conflicts put the US and its allies at a disadvantage?

Israel has positioned itself as a global cyber power. But how does its defense fare?

Military diplomacy is totally unnoticed in Israel, but in fact plays a significant role in shaping reality

After all too many warnings of imminent breakout toward nuclear weapons, is it finally for real now?

Five lessons to be learned from decades of ineffectual policies, and a cornered cat

Force as a policy choice, necessary for liberal political leaders as it is for more conservative ones

Will the roller coaster ride that is the US–Pakistan relationship become more “normal” now?

The Biden administration seems to be on the wrong track. Here's what needs to change

A closer look at a critically important, but little known, example of US engagement in the Middle East

Two personal perspectives on Middle East peace, offering insights into the dynamics of building bridges

A dynamic new chapter is being written in the old story of Israeli–African ties. Where will it lead next?

A personal perspective on Middle East peace, offering an insight into the dynamics of dialogues that can build bridges

A personal perspective on Middle East peace, offering an insight into the dynamics of dialogues that can build bridges

America has returned to its role as a major energy producer and exporter, affecting much more than the global market

A pragmatic approach for the Biden administration's relations with Russia

Erdoğan’s new Turkey confuses everyone. Here are six rules for dealing with it

The lessons learned from the poorly managed US withdrawal, and its ramifications for foreign policy

Biden is the last of his generation of Democrats. What does it say for the present—and future—of US–Israel ties?

JST Debate: Action is needed to break the ongoing impasse in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process

JST Debate: A breakthrough in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process is unlikely

JST Debate: Voices from both sides of some of the most heated discussions of our time

Much hinges on Beijing’s expectation that time is on China’s side, but is that really the case?

A view from Singapore: How will Asian countries respond to Biden’s foreign policy?

Iran’s primary strategic objective is to drive the US from the region

The time has come to restore realist balance-of-power thinking to the center of international relations theory

A practitioner’s perspective: Only a militarily strong Israel can sustain its regional position

The political winds are blowing in an anti-China direction. Biden needs a sophisticated foreign policy strategy