Jonathan Shimshoni

Global Fellow

Professional Affiliation

Research Affiliate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Security Studies Program

Expert Bio

Dr. (Brigadier General Retired) Jonathan (Yoni) Shimshoni served for 25 years with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), in field command and staff positions, culminating his career as Director of Planning for the Planning Division. He holds a PhD in Public Policy from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton, where he has taught; has pursued research at MIT, where he is a Research Affiliate of the Security Studies Program; has published with the Cornell Studies in Security Affairs and in International Security on conventional deterrence, technology and doctrinal innovation, as well as in the leading Israeli daily (“Haaretz”). Dr. Shimshoni served on various committees of the Israeli National Security Council and in the IDF reserves continued to work extensively on challenging security issues – related to economics, technology, strategy and doctrine. Shimshoni has established and managed a start-up company and for a number of years was Managing Partner, PwC Consulting in Israel.

Wilson Center Project

Strategy for the 21st Century – The Social Dimension

Project Summary

U.S. and Western partner approache to strategy fail to meet the requirements of 21st Century reality, in which society has become hyper-dominant – central to challenging strategies of opponents, from Al Qaeda and Hamas to China and Russia. Successful response to these challenges requires a holistic and practical framework for strategy formulation that accounts for all four essential dimensions: operations, technology, logistics and society – and their interactions, with society at the center, and that integrates the social sciences with traditional military approaches. Through comparative historical study, social science application and conceptual development, this project endeavors to develop such a framework.

Major Publications

With Ariel E. Levite, “Win-win Warfare in Gaza,” Haaretz (December 22, 2012)

“Technology, Military Advantage and World War I: A Case for Military Entrepreneurship.” International Security (Winter 1990/91)

Israel and Conventional Deterrence: Border Warfare from 1953 to 1970. Cornell: Cornell University Press (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs), 1988