Daniel Wajner, Dr. Roee Kibrik and Dr. Aviad Rubin
The research and policy group “Israel in the Mediterranean Basin” is a project established by the Davis Institute for International Relations at the Hebrew University, the Mitvim Institute and the National Security Institute at the University of Haifa. The directors of the group are Daniel Wajner, on behalf of the Davis Institute, Dr. Roee Kibrik, on behalf of Mitvim, and Dr. Aviad Rubin, on behalf of Haifa University. Among the thirty participants are leading researchers in the field, former MKs, former Ambassadors and officials of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, trade union officials, among others.  
The group’s rational lies in the current development of political, economic, security and social processes in the Mediterranean basin, which have drawn increasing attention from regional powers and states. This process of crystallization of the Mediterranean region evokes many opportunities for Israel as well as considerable challenges. In order to assess the possible developments, identify the opportunities and plan the desired political steps, it is necessary to understand the arena, identify the trends, and map the different issues, actors and interests. Consequently, this two-year policy-oriented project aims to contribute understanding on the Mediterranean arena and Israel’s place in it, formulating policy principles and promoting political dialogue with key actors in the region. More specifically, the research and policy group focuses on geopolitical processes in the Mediterranean basin (changing relations between the countries of the region and the involvement of international powers in it); Israel’s foreign policy towards the Mediterranean; the impact of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the reality in Gaza on the Mediterranean; how Mediterranean countries can help one another in promoting conflict resolution; the institutionalization of regional relations; as well as common opportunities and challenges in the area of democracy, energy, refugees, law, regulation and the environment. The research and policy group will hold six meetings over the coming year 2019-2020.

Dr. Lior Herman

 

The Geopolitics and Energy Research Group (GERG) mission is to promote and advance research on the interrelations between energy and geopolitics in a variety of directions, and from a multidisciplinary perspective. Led by Dr. Lior Herman, GERG brings together scholars at different stages of their academic career from several disciplines, ranging from international relations and geography to communication studies and conflict resolution research. The Group provides a platform for discussion, research and study aimed at advancing studies, as well as a conduit for the development of research grants promoting the funding of further research. It serves as a forum facilitating a professional network among Israeli and international scholars, as well as professionals working in this field. 
2018-19 was a fruitful and intensive academic year for GERG. The group conducted extensive research activities, which resulted in several academic publications. Research focus areas were energy geopolitics, community and private sector initiatives and cooperation in renewable energy projects, challenges to the social acceptability of renewable energy projects and their solutions, religion and religious actors’ role in energy politics, and energy regionalism. The group also engaged in international research collaborations and held public activities, which included research and policy seminars with leading scholars and practitioners from Israel and abroad. Research and study activities were
furthered by two two-days field trips to study renewable energy projects in the Galilee and the Jordan Valley. GERG activities were supported by the Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations and competitive research grants won by GERG members. Throughout its public and research activities, GERG has created a growing international network of some 150 members in Israel, Europe and beyond. Members in this network include academics, professionals, civil servants as well as civil society and other interested members.

Dr. Amit Sheniak, Dr. Daniel Sobelman, Dr. Yehonatan Abramson

Governments around the world are recognizing and grappling with the manner in which cyber-attacks impact their national security and vital interests. This is true both for western democratic developed countries and for those who do not answer these criteria. Cyber-related activities are associated with a number of core security issues, including in areas that are of direct relevance to the conflict in the Middle East and the research agendas surrounding it. These include such topics as the competition for regional dominance and hegemony, and the stability of local autocratic regimes. However, cyber-conflicts in the Middle East have yet to receive proper attention in the social sciences. To date, no substantial academic attempts have been made to analyze the normative dimensions, the local discourses or the motivations of the primary middle eastern actors in the cyber domain. Moreover, there is no academic or scientific database recording the policy decisions, laws, statements and actions that are made in the Middle East in regard to the cyber domain. Moreover, absent are any studies of local statements, interviews and publications regarding cyber conflicts in the Middle East. Whatever research does exist tends to analyze the regional cyber conflict from a Western perspective. 

Against this background, in May 2018, we established a research group whose aim is to explore the effect of cyber conflicts and cyber weapons, on the forging of national security policy and politics in the Middle East, striving to highlight the different effects of cyber conflicts in different regional setting. The researchers in the group bring with them a range of relevant expertise; spanning from cyber-attacks and the effect of cybersecurity on national security policy in general, to experts on different middleeastern test-cases equipped with the necessary local language proficiencies (Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew, and Turkish).

 

The group’s over-arching goal is to establish a database, comprised of qualitative analyses, with the capacity to identify trends that would add to the emerging study of cyber-conflicts in general, and shed light on the Middle East’s constant cyber conflict and its regional and international ramifications, in particular. We believe that the study of cyber conflicts has the potential to improve our understanding of the recent regional instability and its implications for deterrence, national coercion abilities,
international involvement and security regimes. Achieving this goal will enable us to narrow the gap between the existing research on cyber-security and the academic research on the regional implications of cyber-conflicts in the Middle East.

After a year of activity we are happy to report that we have managed to execute our plans according to the proposed plan: we forged a cohort of relevant talented researchers (assistant professors, post-docs, and graduate students);  we re-explored our research objectives and focused our joint investigation on specific unique issues in the study

of cyber-conflicts in the Middle East, such as the cyber-attacks between states and sub-state actors; most importantly we composed five specific research tracks, that will enjoy the seed money that we received from the generous contribution of the Polonsky Foundation, the Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations and the Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace. 

 

 

                                      

Prof. Tamir Sheafer, Prof. Shaul Shenhav, Mr. Yair Fogel-Dror, Ms. Vered Porzycki, Mr. Dror Markus and Mr. Guy Mor

 

The “Davis index” aims to represent international media attention on the Israeli-Arab conflict and relations, focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The index aggregates a list of general categories, such as “Middle East Conflicts” and “Israel and the Arab world”; as well as specific categories, such as “Palestinian organizations”, “the BDS movement”, and interventions by specific governments or international institutions. The index is constructed through automated textual analysis, through a process combining topic modelling, deep learning and expert coding. The method incorporates topic models for its unsupervised component and deep learning for its supervised component. Both stages take the context into account, while focusing on the sentence as the desired unit of analysis. The result is a multi-label text classification method - attributing multiple topics to each sentence.
Throughout the 2018-19 year, we presented our results for the Davis Index Reports. We have produced the first report for the year 2010, and plan to release reports for the years 2011-2018 and onward. Our plan is to publish an updated report every three months, and an overall yearly report at the end of each calendar year. 

We invite the submission of proposals for individual papers and organized panels/roundtables for the 8^th Eurasian Peace Science Conference, which will take place on January 14-15, 2019, at the Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Jerusalem, Israel.

 

We welcome proposals for both organized panels/roundtables, individual papers, as well as proposals related to this year's theme "Peace Science in Contested Spaces". All aspects of the peace science discipline are welcome, including in particular: (a) empirical studies of political violence and peaceful resolution; (b) quantitative and formal analyses of conflict and peace processes; (c) peace science methodology and theory; (d) alliances, investment, trade, and conflict; (e) economic and political causes of international and domestic violence, encompassing war, ethnic conflict, terrorism, and criminal activity; (f) contemporary regional conflicts, particularly in Eurasia and the Middle East; (g) security and foreign policy; and (h) conflict analysis, management, and resolution.
 

Individual Paper Submissions: Prospective authors (graduate students or faculty members) are invited to submit an individual paper proposal that should include: a tentative title, an abstract (150-300 words), and contact information including academic affiliation, level of studies (if a graduate student), and academic rank (if a faculty member), as well as your e-mail/website.  Please include three/four key words/concepts from your paper, and indicate the relevant category from the list above (for instance, “empirical study of political violence”).
 

Organized Panels/Roundtables Submissions:  We also welcome the submission of organized paper panels and roundtables.  In this case, the submission should include a title and a general abstract (300-400 words) for the common theme of the panel. For organized panels, the submission should include a detailed list of all the participants and their respective paper abstracts, with all the relevant information noted above.  
Roundtable proposals should include a chair and up to six additional participants.  Panel proposals should include a chair, discussant, and up to five paper presenters (chairs can also serve as discussants and/or presenters). If a discussant is not nominated, we will find a conference participant for that role.
 

Volunteering to Serve as Chairs/Discussants:  Please indicate in your submission whether you are willing to serve as chair or discussant in the conference panels.  You could also indicate your area of expertise from the eight themes mentioned above (from a) to h)).
 

Registration deadline is over.

 

The deadline for submissions of individual papers and organized panels is August 1st, 2018.  Proposals submitted after that date will only be considered if presentation slots remain available. We will notify you by email about your prospective participation in the conference by September 15, 2018.
We look forward to welcoming you in Jerusalem in January 2019.
 

The conference will take place at the Maiersdorf Faculty Club located in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus campus. 

We are delighted to annouce the competition for the best student paper award presented at the 8th Eurasian Peace Sicence Conference. 

Graduate students interested to be included in the competition for the Peace Science Society Prize for Best Graduate Student Paper should send an electronic copy of their paper to Prof. Arie Kacowicz (arie.kacowicz@mail.huji.ac.il) no later than midnight December 15th, 2018.

Co-authored papers are accepted only if all the authors are graduate students.

The length of the paper should not exceed 8,000 words (including bibliography and notes).

Although Ph.D. dissertations and MA theses are not eligible for the competition, papers based on these may be submitted.

The prize is available thanks to the generous support of the Peace Science Society (International) contribution of a fellowship in the amount of 2000$ to be used to cover expenses related to participation in its annual conference in the United States. 

A committee comprised of Faculty in the field of Peace Science will select the best student paper presented at the Conference and announcement will be made during the conference.

Accommodations:

We have reserved rooms for conference participants at the Jerusalem Leonardo hotel.

The hotel is located about 10 min. drive from the conference venue at Mount Scopus campus. The hotel and campus are very well connected with public transportation. In addition we will arrange for a shuttle to campus in the morning and to the hotel in the afternoon. 

The hotel offers two rates:

$145 per night for single occupancy (Bed & Breakfast).

$165 per night for double occupancy (Bed & Breakfast).

Rooms and rates are guaranteed until 25/11/2018. To secure your room and rate please send your full name, dates of stay, and if you are interested in single or double occupancy to davisinst.conf@mail.huji.ac.il.

The Maiersdorf Faculty Club is a guesthouse located in the Mt. Scopus campus. All panels and sessions will take place in the Maiersdorf Faculty Club conference center.

The guesthouse offers two rates:

$100 per night for single occupancy (Bed & Breakfast).

$130 per night for double occupancy (Bed & Breakfast).

Registration will be on the basis of first comes first served, and depends on availability of rooms at the hotel. Rooms and rates are guaranteed until 25/11/2018. To secure your room and rate please send your full name, dates of stay, and if you are interested in single or double occupancy to davisinst.conf@mail.huji.ac.il.

Prima Hotels are located in center of the city (Prima Kings and Prima Royal) and the city entrance not far from the central bus station (Prima Park). All three hotels are very well connected to the Mt. Scopus Campus by public transportation.

Prices for the prima hotels are for standard rooms only (without balconies). We have not reserved a block of rooms hence registration depends on availability of rooms at the hotels. For reservations at any of the Prima hotels, please refer to the Prima hotels website https://www.prima-hotels-israel.com/,

Choose hotel

 

Insert the dates (valid 10-18/1/2019)

 

Insert promo code eurasia19

 

The Prima hotels offer the following rates:

Prima Royal Hotel:

ILS500 per night for single occupancy (Bed & Breakfast).

ILS550 per night for double occupancy (Bed & Breakfast).

Prima Kings Hotel:

ILS525per night for single occupancy (Bed & Breakfast).

ILS575 per night for double occupancy (Bed & Breakfast).

Prima Park Hotel:

ILS400per night for single occupancy (Bed & Breakfast).

ILS450 per night for double occupancy (Bed & Breakfast).

 

TO: Mount Scopus Campus

The Mount Scopus bus terminus is inside a tunnel underneath the central buildings, making public transportation to Mount Scopus convenient and comfortably weatherproof. 

From the Central Bus Station: Egged bus lines 68

From the Leonardo Hotel : Egged bus lines 17, 19, 19A (appx. 10 minutes)

From Prima Royale: Egged bus line 34 (appx. 30 minutes)

From Prima Kings: Egged bus lines 17, 19, 19A, 34 (appx. 25 minutes)

From Prima Park: Light Rail #1 to "Ammunition Hill" and  Egged bus lines 34

If you use public transportation upon arrival, take the escalator and then turn left following the signs to the Maiersdorf faculty club.

 

If you use a taxi, please ask the driver to drop you off at the Maiersdorf faculty club and take the elevator to the fourth floor.

 

 

Graduate Students          30 $
Post-Doctoral Trainees   60 $
Faculty members             90 $
 

For Registration form click here

 

 

The conference is co sponsored by The Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations and the Israeli Association for International Studies and The Harry S. Truman Research Institute for The Advancement of Peace.

 

The Organizing Committee: