Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies

Balochistan Has Become a Nightmare for Pakistan and Iran
By Manish Rai
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The 2006 Origins of Israel’s Multi-domain Post-October 7 Warfare Strategy
By Prof. Anthony Celso
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Israeli Gas Exports to Syria:
The Dilemma of Formalizing Direct Gas Cooperation
By Dr. Elai Rettig
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This paper is part of an ongoing collaborative project between
the BESA Center and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation

The Implications of the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding and Its Consequences for Israel
By Col. (res.) Shay Shabtai and Prof. Eitan Shamir
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Your Impact at BESA: Strategic Research That Reaches Decision-Makers
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The Other Iranian Energy Crisis: How Israeli Gas Disruptions Will Reshape East Mediterranean Energy Infrastructure
by Dr. Elai Rettig
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Debunking the Genocide Allegations:
A Reexamination of the Israel-Hamas War
(2023-2025)
by Prof. Danny Orbach, Dr. Jonathan Boxman, Dr. Yagil Henkin, and Jonathan Braverman

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Israel at war

The Post-Soviet Conflicts Research Program (PSCRP)/תוכנית לחקר סכסוכים מדיניים במרחב הפוסט-סובייטי is a research initiative in the fields of politics, society and international relation of the USSR-successor states

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From September 12th to 14th, the BESA Center welcomed a delegation from the RUSI Military Sciences research group and an esteemed expert from Exeter University for a strategic dialogue focused on various facets of modern warfare.
On September 10th, The BESA Center conducted a conference in collaboration with the Association of Civil-Military Studies in Israel.
On July 2 Besa hosted the Israel's First "Hybrid Warfare" Conference at Bar Ilan University.
The conference marked the initiation of an innovative international research initiative, funded with 380,000 euros by the EU, aiming to address the complex challenges posed by the era of hybrid warfare comprehensively.
On July 5 Besa researchers participated in a strategic dialogue on mutual collaboration with colleagues from Turkey, Bahrain, UAE, SaudiArabia, Georgia and Qatar in Baku Azarbijan. Hosted by the AIR center in Baku.

The Shift in Technological Innovation from the Defense Sector to the Civilian Sector by Nir Reuven
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 2,205, July 4, 2023
On the 30 of March Dr. Shamir met with a team of NESA researchers led by Col. David Lamm

Featured Articles

Private: In Memoriam: Aby Har-Even

BESA Center | June 7, 2021

It is with great sorrow that we announce the passing of Aby Har-Even, a BESA Center Fellow and former director of the Israel Space Agency. Aby was seriously wounded on May 11 when Arab rioters set fire to the Efendi Hotel in Acre, where he was staying. He succumbed to his wounds at Rambam Medical Center on June 6, at the age of 84.

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The Europeanized USA

Dr. Alex Joffe | April 7, 2021

America is undergoing a rapid transformation founded in a moral panic over race that masks the exercise of class-based power in which technology companies and left-wing politics have united to wield unprecedented control. The outcome will likely be a union of Europeanized states where freedoms are severely curtailed and social cohesion is minimized in favor of dependency.

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The New Blood Libel of “Medical Apartheid”

Edwin Black | April 14, 2021

A vicious lie has been making the rounds lately. It is a timeworn smear against the Jewish people in a modern guise. The ancient blood libel—“Jews are poisoners”—stoked antisemitic violence through the ages, from the Black Death to tainted wells. This time, it has taken the form of a claim that Israel is denying COVID-19 vaccinations to its non-Jewish citizens and to the residents of the not-yet-sovereign Palestinian Authority. This is as much a lie as all its predecessors.

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The Rise and Rise of Turkish Drone Technology

Burak Bekdil | April 11, 2021

Everything’s coming up roses for Turkey’s thriving drone industry, but a cash-strapped economy and technological challenges may slow further progress.

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Mansour Abbas and the Lebanonization of Israel

Lt. Col. (res.) Dr. Mordechai Kedar | April 5, 2021

The Islamic Movement in Israel is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, the ideological hothouse that spawned such organizations as Hamas, al-Qaeda, ISIS, and various other Sunni jihadist groups that reject Israel’s right to exist. Giving the Islamic Movement a kosher stamp of approval sets Israel on the same destructive path trod by Lebanon ever since Hezbollah became part of that country.

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THE GAZA TERROR OFFENSIVE:
“The Ceasefire War”
16 July – 16 October 2026

The increased delay between updates is because the situation is more or less stagnant. Events occur, but they are largely repetitive and changes in the situation are small. All the participants have reduced the intensity of their efforts, with occasional brief and small escalations, and are playing the long game. However, tension remains as a new major escalation is anticipated—especially in the Iranian arena, but also in Lebanon and Gaza. Over the past few days, there have also been reports
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October 19, 2026 No Comments

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Israel-Sri Lanka Defense Ties

Documents recently declassified in Israel have disclosed the gravity of an arms deal that came into effect between Sri Lanka and Israel in the mid-1980s, a turbulent period during which Tamil militant separatism was severely threatening the short-lived political-economic prosperity of J.R Jayawardene’s government in Colombo. While the relationship between the two countries has long been complex, their defense collaboration has remained nearly constant.

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October 18, 2026 No Comments

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Beyond Ports and Railways:
The India–Israel–Italy Technology Triangle and the Future of IMEC

The Mattei Plan and the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) should not be treated as separate but overlapping corridors. Rather, they represent complementary layers of an emerging Indo-Mediterranean connectivity architecture. IMEC provides the east–west spine linking India, the Gulf, and Europe while the Mattei Plan extends European connectivity southward into Africa. Italy sits at the intersection of the two, leveraging its Mare Nostrum strategy to link the economic zones of the Indo-Pacific with those of the Euro-Atlantic by placing an
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October 13, 2026 No Comments

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Hamas Beyond Gaza: The Strategic Significance of the Greece-Cyprus Case

The investigation into a suspected Hamas network operating across Cyprus, Greece, and several other countries highlights a dimension of the Hamas threat that deserves greater attention. Hamas has repeatedly demonstrated an ability to adapt its organizational structure to changing circumstances. As Israel continues to dismantle Hamas’s military infrastructure and weaken its territorial control in Gaza, the terrorist organization may become increasingly reliant on its external networks. For Israel, Greece, and Cyprus, this possibility requires closer attention to cross-border intelligence cooperation,
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October 8, 2026 No Comments

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BESA Post-Soviet Conflicts Research Digest No. 36 (September 2026)

In September 2026, the PSCRP publications dealt mostly with the issues of geopolitical (re)alignments (in the Baltics and the South Caucasus) and the electoral process (in Russia and Kazakhstan).

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October 3, 2026 No Comments

Geo Energy Program

Can Israel Connect to Syria’s New Oil Routes?

Syria is reviving plans for major oil pipelines linking Iraq and other Gulf oil producers to the Mediterranean Sea. At first glance, such projects may appear to compete with Israel’s ambitions to become an important link in the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC). This assumption is misleading. While railway and highway projects may naturally compete directly with one another for freight routes, energy pipelines operate with a different logic. Once established, oil and gas pipelines (and future hydrogen pipelines) tend
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September 7, 2026 No Comments

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BESA Post-Soviet Conflicts Research Digest No. 35 (August 2026)

In August 2026, PSCRP analytical materials were largely focused on the developments in the South Caucasus, Central Asia, and Russia. The PSCRP team provides an overview of the year that has passed since the joint declaration was signed in Washington between the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia. In the same vein, the PSCRP team analyzes the role of the Middle Corridor, officially known as the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route.

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September 6, 2026 No Comments

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The 2006 Origins of Israel’s Multi-domain
Post-October 7 Warfare Strategy

Israel’s failed 2006 war against Hezbollah spurred IDF doctrinal and force structure changes that were ultimately embodied in its Momentum Multiyear Plan of 2020. The resulting full spectrum multi-domain warfare strategy contributed to Israel’s 2024 military success against Iran’s strongest proxy. Jerusalem’s Northern Arrows campaign devastated Hezbollah’s military, unleashing forces that upended Iran’s “ring of fire” strategy and compromised the Islamic Republic’s survival.

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September 3, 2026 No Comments

Mideast Security and Policy Studies

The Modern Blitz:
The Collapse of Strategic Warning as a Response to Tactical Alert

The collapse of strategic warning—the “fundamental surprise” written about by Dr. Zvi Lanir—is no longer a localized intelligence failure but rather a profound conceptual one. It is defined by the loss of the ability to identify the enemy’s changes in intent and pattern in time, within the framework of outdated conceptual models. In this reality, the pattern of the “Modern Blitz” has evolved—a multi-domain, simultaneous, massed offensive intended to exploit the operational “zero-time” of the first 24-72 hours to generate
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September 1, 2026 No Comments

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Balochistan Has Become a Nightmare for Pakistan and Iran

Increasingly well-coordinated and deadly rebel assaults on Pakistani security forces in Balochistan have revealed the extreme vulnerability of the Pakistani military in the province. The enormity of the territory, lack of local support, inability to commit sufficient forces, and porous borders with Iran and Afghanistan render the Baloch challenge to the Pakistani army nearly impossible to counter. The violence is spilling into the Sistan and Balochistan province of Iran, which is experiencing its own Baloch insurgency.

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August 27, 2026 No Comments

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Iranian Cyber Sabotage Is Targeting US Water Systems

In a coordinated offensive, cyber actors directly linked to the Iranian regime recently executed a series of targeted digital intrusions against water infrastructure in the US. This aggressive campaign focused on the operational technology networks of municipal drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities across seven to twelve states. Unlike traditional cyber espionage campaigns, this unconventional and widespread operation was explicitly designed for real-world physical sabotage of a vital civilian resource.

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August 25, 2026 No Comments

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India’s Private Space Race:
From Sarabhai’s Vision to the Commercialization of Space

India’s emerging private space sector is often presented as a story of entrepreneurship and market liberalization, but there is more to it than that. It reflects a broader reorganization of national capability in which commercialization, security imperatives, industrial policy and status ambitions converge. India has evolved from Vikram Sarabhai’s development-oriented vision to an increasingly dual-use space strategy, shaped by China’s 2007 antisatellite test, Mission Shakti in 2019, and the institutional reforms introduced from 2020 onward. Private participation has responded to
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August 19, 2026 No Comments

BESA Center publications and research are made possible thanks to the generosity of Saul Koschitzky and family