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The IDF on All Fronts: Dealing with Israeli Strategic Uncertainty

Studies
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Référence taxonomie collections
Focus Stratégique
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Références
Focus stratégique, No. 45 bis, August 2013
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The IDF on All Fronts: Dealing with Israeli Strategic Uncertainty
Accroche

Facing threats on all its borders as well as social, economic and religious tensions, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are now under significant pressure in accomplishing their core mission: the survival of the State of Israel.

Corps analyses

While the post-Arab Spring Middle East appears driven by continuing political instability, endemic violence and terrorism, the IDF are attempting to maintain full-spectrum capability in order to respond to a variety of challenges, one at a time or all at the same time if need be. To that end, the IDF are considering both defensive and offensive strategies, the former involving a physical territorial fence, deterrence and missile defense, and the latter involving long-range strikes and raids by special operations forces. To deliver on that ambitious agenda, the IDF need to continue upgrading all their service components - ground forces, air force, navy, and increasingly important cyber force - in a way that is sustainable for both the country’s economy and its society.

 

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978-2-36567-192-7

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The IDF on All Fronts: Dealing with Israeli Strategic Uncertainty

Decoration
Author(s)
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 A soldier watching a sunset on an armored infantry fighting vehicle
Security Studies Center
Accroche centre

Heir to a tradition dating back to the founding of Ifri, the Security Studies Center provides public and private decision-makers as well as the general public with the keys to understanding power relations and contemporary modes of conflict as well as those to come. Through its positioning at the juncture of politics and operations, the credibility of its civil-military team and the wide distribution of its publications in French and English, the Center for Security Studies constitutes in the French landscape of think tanks a unique center of research and influence on the national and international defense debate.

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Date de publication
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Date de publication
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The IDF on All Fronts: Dealing with Israeli Strategic Uncertainty
Pierre RAZOUX, « The IDF on All Fronts: Dealing with Israeli Strategic Uncertainty », Studies, Focus Stratégique, Ifri, 29 August 2013.
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The IDF on All Fronts: Dealing with Israeli Strategic Uncertainty

The IDF on All Fronts: Dealing with Israeli Strategic Uncertainty