Section: Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (Israel)
Riyadh’s Missile Defense Systems: Strategic Opportunities
Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor is launched during a successful intercept test, photo by Ralph Scott – Missile Defense Agency – US DoD via Wikimedia CommonsBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 838, May 18, 2018 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Saudi Arabia needs missile defense systems to protect its territory from...
Russia vs. the West: The Beginning of the End
The Kremlin, Moscow, photo by Larry Koester via Flickr CCBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 832, May 13, 2018 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The Russia-West confrontation has, over the course of the past several years, reached its most tense point since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Differences between the two sides will only grow as neither side wants...
The Gaza Border Fence Riots as an Operational Campaign
Palestinian participating in March of Return, screenshot from YouTube videoBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 821, May 3, 2018 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: When it comes to defending the Gaza border against the physical threat, the responsibility of the Chief of Staff and the commander of Southern Command is clear-cut and well fulfilled. That, however,...
Syria’s Growing Chemical Weapons Entanglement
One of the munitions used in Ghouta on January 22, 2018. Image via Twitter @Azm_LensBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 816, April 30, 2018 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The chemical weapons (CW) possessed and employed by Syria since it undertook to completely get rid of them have become an increasingly tangled web over the past year. This has many...
The Strategic Goals of a Restored Russia
The Lubyanka building (former KGB headquarters) in Moscow, photo via Wikimedia CommonsBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 796, April 15, 2018 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The Soviet “deep state” survived the disintegration of the Soviet Union. It is back with a vengeance. The Soviet Union was not vanquished by the West in the Cold War. It simply...
Despite His Victory, Putin’s Problems Will Grow
Vladimir Putin, image by Jedimentat44 at Flickr CCBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 795, April 15, 2018 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: On March 18, Russia elected Vladimir Putin for a fourth presidential term, making his rule the longest since Joseph Stalin’s. But this next term will be a new experience for both Putin and the Russian people. In terms...
The Return of Imperialism: The Islamic Republic of Iran
From right, Ruhollah Khomeini, Abdul-Karim Mousavi Ardebili, and Ali Khamenei – 1980s, image via Wikimedia CommonsBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 786, April 4, 2018 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Moscow and Beijing are pulling the world back into twentieth-century geopolitics, but Iran is pulling it even farther backward in time: to the Age of...
Unintended Consequences of Sanctions on Russia
Russian soldiers without insignia – “little green men” – in Simferopol on Crimean peninsula, photo by Anton Holoborodko via WikipediaBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 770, March 16, 2018 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, the downing of a civilian aircraft, and the Russian military aggression in...
The US National Security Document and the Return of Geopolitics to Eurasia
Globe image via pxhere.comBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 764, March 9, 2018 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The new National Security Strategy of the US enumerates the major problems and challenges facing the US and its institutions, as well as the policies Washington plans to adopt to carry out its foreign policy agenda. Though the major thrusts of the...
The Myth of Russian Weakness
Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Image source: kremlin.ru)BESA Perspectives, No. 757, March 2, 2018 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Western-centric expectations of Russian collapse in the face of its recent foreign policy and domestic setbacks fail to consider the Russian mindset, political culture, and “rules of the game,” thus grossly underestimating the...
