Shai Feldman
Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Experience
Prof. Shai Feldman is the Judith and Sidney Swartz Director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University. He is also an Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London. Prof. Feldman is also a member of the Board of Directors of Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. In 2001-2003 he served as a member of the UN Secretary General's Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters.
In 1997-2005 Prof. Feldman served as Head of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University. He was a Senior Research Associate at the Jaffee Center since its establishment in late 1977. In 1984-87 he was director of the Jaffee Center's Project on U.S. Foreign and Defense Policies in the Middle East and, in 1989-94, he directed the Center's Project on Regional Security and Arms Control in the Middle East.
In 1994, Feldman was a Visiting Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and in 1995-1997 he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government (1995-97).
Educated at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Prof. Feldman was awarded the Ph.D. by the University of California at Berkeley in 1980.
Prof. Feldman is the author of numerous publications. These include five books: Israeli Nuclear Deterrence: A Strategy for the 1980s (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982); The Future of U.S.-Israel Strategic Cooperation (Washington D.C.: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 1996); Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control in the Middle East (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1997); Bridging the Gap: A Future Security Architecture for the Middle East (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997 - with Abdullah Toukan (Jordan); and, Track-II Diplomacy: Lessons from the Middle East (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003 - with Hussein Agha, Ahmad Khalidi, and Zeev Schiff).
January 18, 2013
"Israel's Election and the Iran Crisis"
Op-Ed, National Interest
By Shai Feldman, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Shai Feldman writes: "Israel’s January 22 elections will produce a new government. The extent to which it will differ from the outgoing government remains to be seen. But efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons might be affected. Could the composition of a new Israeli government indirectly impact the Israeli-U.S. discourse on Iran's nuclear program?"
AP Photos
January 16, 2013
"Bibi’s Choice After Election Will Set Course for Israel"
Op-Ed, Al-Monitor
By Shai Feldman, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"In the aftermath of next week’s Israeli elections, Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu will face the decision of his political life," Shai Feldman writes. "What kind of governing coalition he chooses to form will affect Israel for years to come. One option will effectively end hopes of a two-state solution to Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians and deepen its isolation. The other could open the door to negotiations and better relations with Europe and the United States."
AP Images
December 10, 2012
"The Coming Clash Over Iran"
Op-Ed, National Interest
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School and Shai Feldman, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Graham Allison and Shai Feldman write that while the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government were largely on the same page during the Gaza crisis, "much greater turbulence in their relations can be expected by the middle of next year when the issues associated with Iran’s nuclear project will likely reach another crescendo."
AP Photo/Gali Tibbon
October 12, 2012
"Why Netanyahu Backed Down"
Op-Ed, New York Times
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School and Shai Feldman, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
FOR three years Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defense minister, Ehud Barak, seemed to be united in urging an early military attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. But last week that alliance collapsed, with Mr. Netanyahu accusing Mr. Barak of having conspired with the Obama administration, in talks behind his back.
AP Photo
March 7, 2012
"Netanyahu, Churchill, and Iran"
Op-Ed, The Times of Israel
By Shai Feldman, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"It has been said that when it comes to the looming Iranian threat, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sees his role in Jewish history in Churchillian terms," writes Shai Feldman, "As Israel’s newly recycled prime minister, Netanyahu could make sure that the regime in Tehran, which he regarded as the modern-day Middle East parallel to Nazi Germany, would never obtain the capacity to obliterate the Jewish state."
(AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
January 30, 2012
"A Real Debate About Iran"
Op-Ed, Foreign Policy
By Shai Feldman, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Shlomo Brom and Shimon Stein
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak suggested recently that Israel's moment of decision on Iran would come not when it obtained nuclear weapons but, instead, how close Iran is to entering what he called "a zone of immunity." Barak's concern was that beyond this threshold it would no longer be possible to halt Iran's nuclear program.
AP Photo
August 19, 2009
"The Grand Bargain that is the Mideast’s Best Hope"
Op-Ed, Financial Times
By Shai Feldman, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Gilead Sher
The Obama administration should persuade the Arab states formally to reaffirm and revive the API. Given their domestic fragmentation, the Palestinians are limited in what they can provide Israel in exchange for the concessions it is being asked to make. By contrast, the promise of peace with the Arab world is a more enticing context, justifying Israeli down payments such as in settlement construction.
AP Photo
December 2008
Policy Options: The Obama Administration and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
Policy Brief
By Shai Feldman, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Khalil Shikaki
This document constitutes a first attempt by two experts — one Israeli, the other a Palestinian —to examine these assets and liabilities, these opportunities and constraints, and to evaluate the various options available to the next administration for solving or ameliorating the Palestinian- Israeli conflict.
January 31, 2006
"Questions for Hamas"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Shai Feldman, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"...What will be the future role of Hamas's militants? Will outside pressures to disarm these militants lead, instead, to their incorporation within the PA's security services? Under the Oslo agreements, the PA's security services were to number up to 18,000. In recent years, Palestinian police and military personnel have reached about 58,000. If these numbers were to mushroom further by incorporating the approximately 5,000 Hamas militants into the services, how would the PA be able to pay the salaries of so many people? And if they don't, how would the PA avoid Iraq-like consequences of releasing thousands of men trained in the use of weapons to an economy suffering chronic unemployment?"
January, 2004
Track-II Diplomacy: Lessons from the Middle East
Book
By Shai Feldman, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Ahmad Khalidi, Zeev Schiff and Hussein Agha
Track-II talks in the Middle East -- unofficial discussions among Israeli and Arab scholars, journalists, and former government and military officials -- have been going on since soon after the 1967 Six Day War and have often paved the way for official negotiations. This book, a unique collaboration of Israeli and Palestinian authors, traces the history of these unofficial meetings, focusing on those that took place in the 1990s beginning just after the Gulf War.
