Defense and Diplomacy in Israel's National Security Experience - Tactics, Partnerships, and Motives

“As Israel and Hezbollah disengage in Lebanon and the international community grudgingly attempts to enforce a cease-fire, the Israeli political and military elites will, no doubt, embark on some significant introspection. Not least, they will wonder why they ostensibly failed to neutralize the threat posed by Hezbollah, even with the support of both the US and the UK. Written in 2005, Rodmans book elucidates upon a number of issues pertaining to asymmetrical warfare and general threats from nonstate actors, an especially relevant subject within the context of the recent violence in Lebanon. In particular, the author states that, should Israel find itself fighting in another regional war, it would be likely to attack its enemies targets with air, sea and land-based ordnance before engaging in ‘ offensive manoeuvre warfare (p. 14) … Well-written and well-researched.”  —Israel Affairs

“While Defense and Diplomacy in Israel's National Security Experience was written in 2005, it reads as if it was intended as an alternative to the flimsy analysis of the newspaper and television coverage of the 2006 Lebanon hostilities. The television and news analysis of Israeli tactics in that war tended to view each new action taken by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) from the standpoint of world opinion, or at best, from the standpoint of a single tactical premise and not from an overall strategic objective. Rodmans book, instructs the reader to view IDF tactics from both the historical and long-term perspective. … David Rodmans book provides a well organized, well written, and thorough analysis of Israels military for a period of sixty years. More importantly, it provides an objective basis for understanding Israels military reaction to recent, and present, provocations. Because the threats to Israel must be viewed as existential, as opposed to the threats posed recently to the United States, Israels response must be viewed in the context reflected in this tightly written and cogent work.”  —Journal of Global Change and Governance

“This book of essays examines a wide range of topics from the role of the Air Force in Israels National Security strategy, to Israels bilateral relationship with Turkey and the US, to Israels arms export policy and the factors motivating its foreign policy. However, these, and a number of other issues, are all linked together by their centrality to Israels complex, and at times contradictory, national security requirements. Given the challenges facing the Jewish state this work is very timely, all the more so because the author brings a deep knowledge to the subject. All in all a highly informative work that makes an important contribution to the literature on Israeli strategy and involvement in the international arena.”  —Efraim Karsh, Head Mediterranean Studies Programme, Kings College, University of London