The Domestic Political Unrest and the Military Doctrine Change in the Neighborhood: Arab Uprisings and Israel (2011–2015)

Abstract

The “Arab Spring” uprisings are a historic milestone from Israel’s national security perspective, regarding to the political and security changes in the regional strategic environment, as Israel’s geographic neighboring, Egypt and Syria, have become more threatening. As a serious scientific attempt under the umbrella of the balance of power theory in the political science literature on military doctrine change, this paper aims to examine conditions under which a domestic political change or unrest in a state may affect, positively or negatively, the change of the military doctrine of another state or states in neighborhood. By applying this research question to the case of the Arab uprisings and Israel, the study examines, from Israeli elite’s perspective, why and how the aforementioned uprisings affect the Israeli military doctrine, and explores whether the particular components of this doctrine have been affected to the same degree. The study uses elite approach, and discourse analysis as key methodological tools. The general findings indicated that the Arab uprisings have strong and diversified impacts on the components of the Israeli military doctrine. These impacts may be compared to those of regional wars and military conflicts, as they have reshaped the map of security risks and threats.