Israel's Security Networks

Gabriel Sheffer is a professor of political science at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His current research topics include ethnic politics, with special emphasis on ethno-national diasporas, and civil-military relations. Sheffer has been a visiting professor in many leading universities, including Cornell University, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Duke University. Sheffer is on the editorial board of several journals in English and Hebrew, including Israel Studies and Diaspora. He has served as the director of various research institutions and projects, and was a senior fellow at the Max Planck Institute. He is the author of numerous books, journal articles, book chapters and edited volumes, including Middle Eastern Minorities and Diasporas (2002), Diaspora Politics At Home Abroad (Cambridge University Press, 2003) and The Jewish Diaspora and the Jerusalem Question (2012). Oren Barak is a senior lecturer of political science and international relations at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has served as visiting scholar at Harvard University and as a visiting professor at the University of Texas, Austin. Barak's research areas include the relationships between the state, society and the military in the Middle East. He is the author of The Lebanese Army: A National Institution in a Divided Society (2009), and co-editor, with Gabriel Sheffer, of Existential Threats and Civil-Security Relations (2009) and Militarism and Israeli Society (2010). His articles have appeared in journals such as the International Journal of Middle East Studies, the Journal of Peace Research, the International History Review, the Middle East Journal, and Security Dialogue.

“Israel’s Security Networks focuses on the civil-security relations of Israel – a broader category than the more familiar idea of civil-military relations – and the part played by what the authors term an ‘informal security network’ in the functioning of those relations, including that network’s effects on domestic and external policy making in Israel. Gabriel Sheffer and Oren Barak present a well-written, engaging book that will attract readers from politics, sociology, and international relations.” – Christopher Dandeker, King’s College London

• Introduction; 1. Security networks: a theoretical and comparative perspective; 2. The making of Israel's security network; 3. Membership, structure, and culture; 4. The security network and Israel's formal democracy; 5. The network at work: shaping Israel's foreign and security policies; 6. Israel in a comparative perspective; Conclusions.