Introduction
In recent years, a considerable effort has been devoted to countering attempts by authoritarian state actors to disseminate manipulated information that undermines liberal democratic institutions and influences domestic audiences. These activities, often referred to as influence operations,[1] have prompted the European Union to go as far as stating that: “Tanks or missiles are no longer the main weapons in attacks on democratic societies. FIMI[2] has become one of the defining security and foreign policy challenges of...
This article applies Paul Kennedy’s thesis of imperial overstretch as a structural lens through which to examine Israel’s strategic trajectory in 2026. It does not contend that Israel is an empire, nor that decline is foreordained. Rather, it argues that the mechanism Kennedy identified, namely the tendency for strategic commitments to outgrow the productive base that must finance them, combined with the political incapacity of governing coalitions to redistribute burdens before the corrective window closes, operates at...
Over the past year, an extensive debate has been underway in Iran regarding its nuclear doctrine and its validity. For decades, the Islamic Republic strove to achieve nuclear threshold capability while refraining from actually developing nuclear weapons, based on the view that such a capability provides deterrence without exposing Iran to the costs associated with a nuclear breakout. However, developments since October 2023, particularly the two American-Israeli strikes on Iran over the past year, have shaken the Iranian security...
The current U.S. administration is advancing a major deal, valued at over $700 million, to sell F110 engines to Turkey for its KAAN aircraft project. Despite the administration’s attempts to bypass congressional barriers, this move is not an isolated event; rather, it is a strategic accelerator intended to pave the way for Ankara’s full return to the F-35 program. While Washington’s rationale seeks to preserve Turkey as an anchor within NATO, in practice, it creates a serious dilemma and presents a weighty,...
Despite the prevailing perception that China retreated from the Middle East in 2025 amid the renewed strengthening of the United States in the region and the absence of significant Chinese involvement in the Israel-Iran war, the reality is more complex. A multi-dimensional analysis of trade, investment, technology, as well as security and diplomatic ties, shows that not only has China not retreated from the Middle East, but it has continued to consolidate and deepen its economic foothold there, maintaining a consistent pattern of...
More than two months after the outbreak of Operation “Roaring Lion,” the Islamic Republic stands with significant vulnerabilities and a new leadership, yet it also has certain achievements to its credit. These include surviving a joint American-Israeli attack and exploiting levers of pressure created during the fighting, including attacks against the Gulf states and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. While it is premature to assess the full implications of the war, the conclusion of which remains uncertain, prominent...
Bias against Israel on English Wikipedia is a known and documented phenomenon, yet its internal mechanisms often remain hidden from the broader public. This article examines the underlying mechanisms of this phenomenon through a focused analysis of the behavioral patterns of Iskandar323, a senior and experienced editor who operated on the platform for nearly twelve years before being permanently banned in early 2026 for violating prior restrictions on editing articles on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The study is based on mapping...
Introduction
Donald Trump’s return to the U.S. presidency has consolidated a shift in American foreign policy toward unilateralism, economic coercion, and transactional diplomacy. At the core of Trump’s “America First” policy is the belief that the international order long led by the United States has been turned against it, driven by deindustrialization and the disruptive effects of globalization. Instead, Trump seeks to restore American economic primacy, which he views as having been exploited by economic rivals such as China,...
Assuming that Operation Roaring Lion does not end in the complete defeat of Hezbollah, the issue of disarming Hezbollah will remain on the agenda at its conclusion—an interest shared by both Israel and the Lebanese state. This article proposes adopting the DDR model—Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration—and advancing an L(ebanon)DDR process as an orderly framework for disarming Hezbollah and integrating it into Lebanon, alongside repairing, rebuilding, and strengthening the Lebanese state.
This framework offers an...
Every strategy proposes a plan of action for changing the situation. In his book on strategy, Prof. Lawrence Freedman defines strategy as “the art of building power.” It is the ability “to get more out of a situation than the starting balance of power would permit.” At the same time, alongside strategies of “what to do” are prohibitions of “what not to do”: the Ten Commandments, the Code of Hammurabi in Mesopotamia, Islamic prohibitions on consuming alcohol and charging interest, and the imperative to prevent harm to noncombatants in...
Over the past decade, the amount of natural gas in electricity generation in Israel increased significantly, while the use of coal and diesel declined. Alongside the economic and environmental advantages, the use of natural gas raises new issues of electricity security and systemic robustness, because it is supplied through only two pipelines from the offshore reservoirs to the coast, without any storage capacity within Israel. Moreover, gas-based production is concentrated at a small number of production sites, and the transmission...
Despite being subjected to one of the harshest sanctions regimes in the world, Iran has succeeded in building a sophisticated, law-evading mechanism to support its aviation industry, which reflects the broader principles of the shadow economy it has developed. This article maps the operational architecture of that mechanism, based on using front and shell companies in countries with little transparency, layered ownership registries, bursts of activity designed to complete transfers within short timeframes, and flight-path planning...
