Chuck Freilich, Israeli Speaker, Israeli Expert, Israeli Security

Chuck Freilich

Prof. Chuck Freilich, a former deputy national security advisor in Israel and senior fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School, teaches political science at Columbia and Tel Aviv University. He is the author of three books about Israel: Israel’s national security strategy, how Israel makes national security policy, and its national cyber strategy, as well as numerous academic articles, policy studies and op-eds. In addition to the topics of his books, Freilich specializes in the Iranian nuclear program, US-Israeli relations (the subject of his next book), the peace process and prospects for a two-state solution, and more. Freilich is a frequent commentator on TV and radio and a captivating public speaker. A New Yorker by birth, he immigrated to Israel in his early teens. Freilich has been a member of the board of the Movement for Quality Government in Israel and Commanders for Israeli Security (CIS). He is married and has two grown children. Freilich lives in Hod Hasharon and spends one semester each year teaching in the US.

Israeli Security

Repeated wars, ongoing lower-level hostilities, terrorism and the various peace processes, both successful and failed, have long kept national security at the forefront of Israeli life. Israel responded to its uniquely harsh strategic environment by developing an outsized defense capability. Today, with the perspective of over seven decades, Israel’s security policy has proven to have been a dramatic success. Israel no longer faces existential threats and probably will not unless Iran succeeds in going nuclear, its adversaries are in disarray, and it has become a prosperous and essentially secure state, increasingly accepted in the region. Iran, the Palestinian issue, including the prospects for a two-state solution and imperative to ensure Israel’s future as a predominantly Jewish and vibrant democracy, maintenance of the long-term vitality of the US-Israeli relationship, and the cyber threat, are among the greatest challenges Israel faces today. Navigating these and other issues are the critical challenges Israel faces today.

Israeli Expert

As a senior official in Israel’s defense establishment, in which I rose to the position of deputy national security advisor, and subsequently as a professor of political science at Harvard, Columbia and Tel Aviv University, I have developed a deep expertise in Israel’s national security affairs. My areas of expertise include Iran’s nuclear program and attempts at regional entrenchment, the peace process and prospects for a two-state solution, and the threats to Israeli security posed by Hezbollah and Hamas. Areas of particular expertise include US-Israeli relations, Israel’s national security strategy and its national security policymaking processes, and Israel’s response to the threats and opportunities of the cyber realm. As both a real-world practitioner and scholar, I try to combine a balanced and objective analysis of Israeli affairs, with a love of Israel and sense of personal awe at my good fortune to have been born in the era following its dramatic rebirth.

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