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The IDF on All Fronts: Dealing with Israeli Strategic Uncertainty

Studies
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Date de publication
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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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How does France’s nuclear deterrent contribute to the defense of Europe?

Date de publication
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Accroche

France’s nuclear deterrent, serving first and foremost to defend France’s vital interests, also contributes to the defense of Europe. This contribution has been recognized within the North Atlantic Alliance since 1974, but remains little known. In a speech closely followed by France’s European partners and its adversaries alike, President Emmanuel Macron announced a new concept for French nuclear deterrence: “forward deterrence” (dissuasion avancée). This article aims to explain the origins of this concept, outline its main pillars, and describe the partnerships that are sought. It then discusses the relationship with the U.S. doctrine of “extended deterrence”, and finally offers some ethical considerations.

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Fury from the Skies. A Strategic Analysis of Air Campaign against Iran

Date de publication
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Accroche

What is the outcome of Operations Roaring Lion (RL) and Epic Fury (EF), launched by Israel and the United States against the Islamic Republic of Iran on February 28, 2026?

Image principale

Finland: The Ally Who Came in from the Cold

Date de publication
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Accroche

Among all European countries, Finland is perhaps the one whose strategic culture and military model have changed the least since the end of the Cold War. Built after the end of the Second World War to deter a potential new Soviet invasion, this model enabled Finland to serve as an example of European rearmament.

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Stability under Pressure. A Pakistani View on Nuclear Deterrence after Pahalgam

Date de publication
24 June 2026
Accroche

The May 2025 India-Pakistan crisis after the Pahalgam attack has generated a familiar but incomplete debate: did nuclear deterrence work, or did it merely allow both sides to fight a limited war under the nuclear shadow? The better answer is that deterrence worked at the level at which it was designed to work. It prevented a general war and an uncontrolled vertical escalation, and kept nuclear weapons in the background. But it did not prevent India from attempting to carve out space for conventional action, nor did it prevent Pakistan from responding conventionally to restore deterrence credibility.

Rabia Akhtar

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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