Section: Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (Israel)
The Dangers of Lifting Sanctions on the Islamic Regime of Iran
President Joe Biden, image via White House websiteBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,907, January 28, 2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Now that President Biden has been installed in the White House, the Islamic regime in Iran is hopeful that US sanctions on the country will soon be lifted. Lifting the sanctions, however, would tighten the regime’s...
Debating Yad Vashem
Hall of Names, Yad Vashem, image via Yad VashemBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,891, January 18, 2021 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The recent attempt by PM Netanyahu to appoint former IDF general and cabinet minister Effi Eitam as chairman of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Center has stirred a heated public debate about the Center’s...
Biden and Russia: Pressure, But Not Too Much
Joe Biden, photo by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia CommonsBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,858, December 28, 2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: As the world awaits Joe Biden’s inauguration as president of the US, Washington’s relations with China are under primary scrutiny. However, ties with Russia are no less important, as the two states have...
The Consequences of Fakhrizadeh’s Killing
The scene following assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, image via Wikimedia CommonsBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,837, December 3, 2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, long-time mainstay of the Iranian military nuclear program, is a severe blow to that program and another massive intelligence failure by Iranian...
Did Putin “Vote” for Biden?
Vladimir Putin, image by Russian Presidential Press and Information Office via WikipediaBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,826, November 20, 2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: After four years of supporting Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to curry favor with Joe Biden days before the US presidential election. He did this despite...
Russia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict: Genuine Threat or Misconception?
Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict, map via WikipediaBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,798, November 4, 2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: While government officials and others have alleged a strategy that involves Russian-sponsored security organizations in recent escalations in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, these claims are largely misconceptions. The...
How Does the International Environment Affect Elections and Grand Strategy?
Donald Trump, photo by Gage Skidmore via Flickr CCBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,797, November 3, 2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The election of Donald Trump in 2016 posed a challenge to analysts and scholars. How could the election of so politically inexperienced a candidate, one with a highly controversial personality and a political orientation...
The Era of Changing Supply Chains
The Indo-Pacific region, image via Wikimedia CommonsBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,788, October 27, 2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The world is an increasingly unstable place. This is reflected in the way supply chains, a pillar of the globalized world, are changing. More and more countries are considering moving away from their dependence on...
Belarus Needs Peaceful US Engagement
Protest rally against Alexander Lukashenko, 16 August 2020, Minsk, Belarus, image via Wikimedia CommonsBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,775, October 13, 2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Peaceful revolution has finally come to the last dictatorship on Russia’s Eastern European periphery. President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus has become an...
The Case of Belarus: Russia’s Fear of Popular Revolutions
Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, photo via WikipediaBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,742, September 11, 2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Belarus is the last remaining state on Russia’s western border not to have experienced a popular revolution since the 1990s, but revolutionary fervor is growing there. Events in Minsk have great...
