National security has been at the forefront of the Israeli experience for seven decades, with threats ranging from terrorism, to vast rocket and missile arsenals, and even existential nuclear dangers. Yet, despite its overwhelming preoccupation with foreign and defense affairs, Israel does not have a formal national security strategy. In Israeli National Security, Chuck Freilich presents an authoritative analysis of the military, diplomatic, demographic, and societal challenges Israel faces today, to propose a comprehensive and long-term Israeli national security strategy. The heart of the new strategy places greater emphasis on restraint, defense, and diplomacy as means of addressing the challenges Israel faces, along with the military capacity to deter and, if necessary, defeat Israel's adversaries, while also maintaining the resolve of its society. By bringing Israel's most critical debates about the Palestinians, demography, Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, US relations and nuclear strategy into sharp focus, the strategy Freilich proposes addresses the primary challenges Israel must address in order to chart its national course. The most comprehensive study of Israel's national security to date, this book presents the first public proposal for a comprehensive Israeli national security strategy and prescribes an actionable course forward.

About the Author
Charles D. Freilich, a former Israeli deputy national security adviser, is a senior fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center, specializing in Israeli national security strategy, US-Middle East policy, and Middle Eastern affairs. He teaches political science at Harvard, NYU, and the Herzliya Inter-Disciplinary Center. He is also the author of Zion's Dilemmas: How Israel Makes National Security Policy.

Reviews
Charles Freilich's extraordinary new book is a unique contribution to the growing literature on Israeli security affairs. Its importance lies as well in the premise that security issues have been paramount and highly impactful on the general Israeli agenda-politically, socially, and culturally. * Meir Elran, Institute for National Security Studies, Israel Studies Review *
Freilich's scholarship is indispensable to understanding Israel's foreign and security policy, and all students of the Middle East will immensely benefit from his work * Baris Kesgin, Elon University *
For a more holistic analysis of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, I highly recommend Charles D. Freilich's April 2018 "Israeli National Security: A New Strategy for an Era of Change". * Daniel J Levy, Jewish News *
A limited review such as this one, of course, cannot do justice to the extraordinary scope and sophistication of Freilich's treatise. Suffice it to say that his book undoubtedly offers the finest, most nuanced and incisive description and analysis of Israel's national security experience, historical and contemporary alike, compiled to date. * David Rodman, ISRAEL AFFAIRS *



Book Information
ISBN 9780190602932
Author Charles D. Freilich
Format Hardback
Page Count 496
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 794g
Dimensions(mm) 155mm * 236mm * 41mm