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THE GAZA TERROR OFFENSIVE: The Iranian and Lebanese Chapter
6 May – 14 June 2026
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Venture Capital in the Age of Wars:
Geopolitical Competition
and the Transformation of Innovation
By Prof. Leonid Sorkin
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The Challenge of Formulating Israel’s
First Official National Security Strategy
By Col. (res.) Shimon Arad, Ph.D.
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Mediation, Adaptation, and Survival:
in the West Asia Crisis
By Dr. Lauren Dagan Amos
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India-South Korea Relations in a Fragmented Strategic Order
By Dr. Alon Levkowitz and Dr. Lauren Dagan Amos
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Your Impact at BESA: Strategic Research That Reaches Decision-Makers
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Iran’s Strait of Hormuz Strategy: Leverage, Limits, and Regional Implications
By Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
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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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The Israel–Iran War:
Israel’s New Strategic Opening
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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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War With Iran: Israel’s Legal Obligation to Prevent Iranian Nuclear Weapons
by Prof. Louis René Beres
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Israel at War
BESA Researchers in the Media
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 Iranian and Lebanese Chapter
6 May – 14 June 2026

Two issues have dominated the period since the last update: the escalation in skirmishes between the United States military and that of Iran on the one hand, and the declarations that an agreement has been reached between the United States and Iran on the other. However, the contours of the supposed agreement are unclear. Immediately after the two sides declared that they had come to terms, they offered completely contradictory descriptions of what was contained in the agreement. The reality

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June 16, 2026 No Comments
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Venture Capital in the Age of Wars: Geopolitical Competition and the Transformation of Innovation

The emergence of an “Age of Wars” is fundamentally reshaping venture capital. Technologies associated with security, resilience, strategic autonomy, and military effectiveness are increasingly replacing consumer-oriented innovation as the primary destinations for investment. As a result, venture capital is becoming progressively intertwined with national security, state policy, and geopolitical competition.

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June 15, 2026 No Comments
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The Challenge of Formulating Israel’s First Official National Security Strategy

A recent law requires, for the first time, that any new Israeli government prepare a national security strategy within 150 days of its formation. As general elections are to be held no later than October 2026, Israel may soon approve its first official national security strategy. While this represents an opportunity to impose coherence on the country’s misaligned strategic orientation and security doctrine, it comes at a time of strategic and institutional drift following the multi-front wars that ensued in

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June 10, 2026 No Comments
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Mediation, Adaptation, and Survival: Pakistan in the West Asia Crisis

Pakistan is attempting to position itself as a mediator in the West Asia crisis during the conflict involving the United States, Israel, and Iran. This effort should be viewed not as a neutral peace initiative but as a calculated survival strategy. Islamabad seeks to convert its geopolitical relevance into economic, diplomatic, and security gains against a backdrop of economic fragility, high dependence on external actors, and persistent security threats on its borders. There are three primary motives behind Pakistan’s involvement:

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May 20, 2026 No Comments
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India-South Korea Relations in a Fragmented Strategic Order

The April 2026 meeting between South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi marks a shift in India-South Korea relations from economic engagement to strategic resilience amid a fragmenting international order. While the longstanding economic partnership, highlighted by the 2009 Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, laid the groundwork for cooperation, current geopolitical tensions, including the war in the Persian Gulf, emphasize the need for enhanced collaboration in energy security, advanced manufacturing, and maritime stability. Both nations recognize

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May 14, 2026 No Comments
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Iran’s Strait of Hormuz Strategy: Leverage, Limits, and Regional Implications

Iran’s ongoing strategy of leveraging the Strait of Hormuz as a geopolitical pressure point is widely perceived as a source of strategic advantage. However, this assessment overlooks a fundamental reality: Iran is structurally more vulnerable to sustained disruption of the strait than are its regional adversaries. With the overwhelming majority of its oil exports and trade dependent on this corridor, any prolonged closure would inflict severe economic damage on Iran itself, exacerbating internal instability and limiting its strategic endurance.

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May 7, 2026 No Comments
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The Other Iranian Energy Crisis: How Israeli Gas Disruptions Will Reshape East Mediterranean Energy Infrastructure

The global oil shock created by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz obscured a second energy crisis that unfolded much closer to Israel’s borders. The month-long shutdown of Israel’s Leviathan and Karish gas fields, caused by repeated Iranian and Hezbollah missile attacks, was the longest gas export disruption since Israel began supplying gas to Jordan and Egypt. This interruption, the third in the past two years, exposed how dependent Israel’s neighbors have become on Israeli gas for electricity generation,

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May 6, 2026 No Comments
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Avoiding the Knife Fight: Defeating Iran’s Strait Strategy

Iran has long prepared to close the Strait of Hormuz in the event of a major conflict with the United States, hoping to trigger an energy shock, draw US naval forces into a confined battlespace, and impose enough cost to weaken Washington’s will. The US has been fully cognizant of Tehran’s intent for decades and planned accordingly. In the recent conflict, rather than accept a direct fight inside the Strait on Iranian terms, Washington and Jerusalem widened the campaign, degraded

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May 3, 2026 No Comments
IDF spokesperson
Perspectives Papers

What is my country: Striving for power or Fleeing weakness?

The Epic Fury/Roaring Lion War is a litmus test for the power index of many countries. For the purposes of this paper, power resides in a country’s security and economic posture. In between the pole of the global main power (the United States) and the pole of many weak countries (Spain as a new member) the other countries exist on a continuum between two types: those that strive for power and those that flee from weakness. Based on a preliminary

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April 28, 2026 No Comments
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Why Did Trump Go to War with Iran? It Wasn’t Just Bibi

The popular premise that Donald Trump decided to go to war with Iran because Benjamin Netanyahu asked him to is a misleading distortion. Trump’s decision was the product of a 40-year personal grudge, a hard lesson learned from Kim Jong-un’s nuclear immunity in Hanoi, and a cold-eyed calculation about China’s cheap Iranian oil lifeline. Trump saw an opportunity to shatter the Iran-Russia-China-North Korea axis in a single blow and to remind the world that American power is by no means

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April 27, 2026 No Comments

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

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