Robert Silverman

JISS - Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security

The Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS) seeks to strengthen Israel by advancing a defense and diplomatic discourse that is realist. Through policy-oriented research, educational conference activity, and outreach to government, military, academia, media and the public, the institute gives expression to a conservative strategic worldview. Among the principles underlying the institute's activity are the Jewish People's historic connection to the land of Israel as a central component of strategic worldview; the salience of security in diplomatic agreements; rejection of unilateral Israeli moves that strengthen adversaries; the importance of strategic cooperation with like-minded allies; the imperative of Israel being able to defend itself by itself in all eventualities; and, critically, the importance of united Jerusalem to Israel's security and destiny. A central focus for the institute is training a next generation of national security specialists – a younger cohort from the Israeli academic, intelligence, military and foreign policy communities – in the best intellectual traditions of Western strategic thinking and of Zionism.