Publications

In 2004, Moshe Ya’alon, then chief of the IDF General Staff, commented that “the processes of force buildup and operation are interconnected, both in day-to-day activity and in preparing the response necessary for the long term. The IDF must address the difficulties inherent in the need to develop multidimensional capabilities, in view of the multiple scenarios that it must be prepared for at any given moment (fighting on a number of fronts, a limited confrontation, the threat of high-trajectory fire, non-conventional threats, cyber threats, and other relevant threats). A process of force buildup that is not useful in day-to-day warfare but only in the long term reduces the IDF’s ability to develop an effective response to tasks that it must carry out in the present.”1 This principle also applies today. However, it appears that in recent years the process of force buildup has focused more on the development and acquisition of weapons and technological abilities and less on the intellectual development of fighting doctrines that are based on creativity, stratagem, and daring.