Mailing address
Littauer P-22
79 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA, 02138
Matan Chorev
Senior Research Assistant, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Contact:
Telephone: 617-496-6790
Fax: 617-495-8963
Email: matan_chorev@harvard.edu
Experience
Matan Chorev is a researcher at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. A former Rosenthal Fellow at the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy Planning, Chorev has conducted field research throughout the Middle East, and has authored book chapters on Islamic Calvinism in Turkey, privatization of international security, and unrecognized states in the international system.
A winner of the James Vance Elliot and Marshall Hochhauser Prizes, Matan's publications have appeared in the Boston Globe, Huffington Post, Turkish Policy Quarterly, Journal of Peace Operations, Insights, Hemispheres, and Al-Nakhlah. He received his Master's of Arts in Law and Diplomacy at the Fletcher School and his bachelor degrees from Tufts University (BA, Political Science) and the New England Conservatory (BM, Cello Performance).
Winter 2008
Suicidal Ambitions: Human Bombs and the War in Iraq
Journal Article, The Fletcher Forum, issue 1, volume 32
By Matan Chorev, Senior Research Assistant, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Review of Mohammed M. Hafez' Suicide Bombers in Iraq: The Strategy and Ideology of Martyrdom (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2007)
Spring 2006
Wherein the Divide? Terrorism and the Future of Atlanticism
Journal Article, Perceptions, volume XI
By Matan Chorev, Senior Research Assistant, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
This article argues that the tactical and strategic divergence in the approach to counterterrorism across the Atlantic is best understood through the prism of strategic culture. The different experiences with international terrorism have contributed to vastly different perceptions of the terrorist threat and in turn to different counterterrorism approaches. The paper introduces the concept of strategic culture, outlines the two continents' experience with terrorism and explains why the end of the Cold War brought new tensions to the fore. It suggests that a strategic culture analysis of the divergent approaches to terrorism will help inform and enrich the ubiquitous one-dimensional realist rendering of the Atlantic divide and demonstrate that under the right conditions, international terrorism, rather than leading to permanent divorce might paradoxically be the very thing that transforms the Atlantic relationship back towards a consolidated Atlantic community.
January 17, 2008
Ruthless Humanitarianism
Book Chapter
By Doug Brooks and Matan Chorev, Senior Research Assistant, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Over the past twenty years, Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) have become significant elements of national security arrangements, assuming many of the functions that have traditionally been undertaken by state armies. Given the centrality of control over the use of coercive force to the functioning and identity of the modern state, and to international order, these developments clearly are of great practical and conceptual interest.
This edited volume provides an interdisciplinary overview of PMSCs: what they are, why they have emerged in their current form, how they operate, their current and likely future military, political, social and economic impact, and the moral and legal constraints that do and should apply to their operation. The book focuses firstly upon normative issues raised by the development of PMSCs, and then upon state regulation and policy towards PMSCs, examining finally the impact of PMSCs on civil-military relations. It takes an innovative approach, bringing theory and empirical research into mutually illuminating contact. Includes contributions from experts in IR, political theory, international and corporate law, and economics, and also breaks important new ground by including philosophical discussions of PMSCs.
AP Photo
November 2, 2007
"President Bush Reciting Bin Laden's Script"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Eric Rosenbach, Executive Director for Research, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Matan Chorev, Senior Research Assistant, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
President Bush's mischaracterization of the Iraq war as a battle against al-Qaeda has led to both a restoration of the extremist group's capabilities to attack the United States and increased support for Jihadist attacks in the region, according to Eric Rosenbach and Matan Chorev.
October 4, 2007
"Opposing the Kurdistan Option for Withdrawal"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Matan Chorev, Senior Research Assistant, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Matan Chorev believes that the "Kurdistan Option" - withdrawing all troops to Iraqi Kurdistan and creating a long-term presence - is fraught with peril and should be opposed. Instead, he argues that the U.S. should endorse "no more than a transition force in Kurdistan leading to a total withdrawal from the country."
Fall 2006
Turkish-Kurdish Reconciliation: Promise and Peril
Journal Article, Turkish Policy Quarterly, issue Fall 2006
By Matan Chorev, Senior Research Assistant, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Geoffrey Gresh
As part of its ongoing negotiations with the European Union, Turkey has made an effort to broaden its definition of national identity to include ethnic and religious sub-groups. This reconciliation process – a welcomed step for Turkey - is held at risk by the inherent instability of the reform process itself and the unpropitious regional and global environment. To continue the path to membership in the EU, interested parties such as the United States will have to play a crucial role in ensuring that Turkey’s fears about the potential negative fallouts from the reform process are not realized.
