experts
Ariel (Eli) Levite
Nonresident Senior Fellow, Nuclear Policy Program, Technology and International Affairs Program

about


Ariel (Eli) Levite is a nonresident senior fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program and Technology and International Affairs Program at the Carnegie Endowment.

Prior to joining the Carnegie Endowment in 2008, Levite was the principal deputy director general for policy at the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission from 2002 to 2007. He also served as the deputy national security adviser for defense policy and was head of the Bureau of International Security and Arms Control (an assistant secretary position) in the Israeli Ministry of Defense.

In September 2000, Levite took a two-year sabbatical from the Israeli civil service to work as a visiting fellow and co-leader (with Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall) of the Discriminate Force Project at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University.

Before his government service, Levite worked for five years as a senior research associate and head of the project on Israeli security at the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies (subsequently renamed INSS) at Tel Aviv University. He has taught courses on security studies and political science at Tel Aviv University, Cornell University, and the University of California, Davis.

He has been awarded the Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award at Tufts University’s Institute for Global Leadership and the Chevalier dans l’Ordre National de la Legion d’Honneur.

Levite has published extensively in academic outlets s as well as contemporary journals and newspapers. Some of his more recent publications include: "Israeli Strategy in Transition", in Hitchcock, William I., Melvyn P. Leffler, Jeffrey W. Legro, (eds)., Shaper Nations: Strategies for a Changing World. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, forthcoming 2016; "From Dream to Reality: Israel and Missile Defense" (with Shlomo Brom), in Kelleher, Catherine Mcardle and Peter Dombrowski (eds.), Regional Missile Defense from a Global Perspective, Stanford University Press, 2015; “Will Nuclear War Break Out in the Middle East?” in Heisbourg, Francois (ed.), Do Nuclear Weapons Have a Future? Paris, France: Odile Jacob, 2011; “Reflections on Nuclear Opacity,” in Tertrais, Bruno (ed.), A Tribute to Sir Michael Quinlan, Paris: France, FRS, 2011; “Rethinking Nuclear Abolition,” in A report to the Trilateral Commission 64, Washington, Paris, and Tokyo: The Trilateral Commission, 2010; “Global Zero: An Israeli Vision of Realistic Idealism,” Washington Quarterly Vol. 32, No. 2, April 2010; “Heading for the Fourth Nuclear Age,” IFRI Proliferation Papers No. 24, winter 2009; “Reflections on a Multilateral Base Camp,” Working Paper, Center for American Progress, July 2009; “The Current Proliferation Predicament” in Pilat, Joseph E., (ed.), Atoms for Peace: A Future After Fifty Years, Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center and the Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007; “Never Say Never Again: Nuclear Reversal Revisited,” International Security Vol. 27, No. 3, winter 2002–2003; “The Case for Discriminate Force,” with Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, Survival Vol. 4, No. 4, winter 2002-2003; Offense and Defense in Israeli Military Defense Doctrine, Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1989; and Intelligence and Strategic Surprises, NY: Columbia University Press, 1987. Levite has also authored, contributed, and co-edited other works, including  Israel’s Nuclear Image, Foreign Military Intervention, and Deterrence in the Middle East.


education
PhD, Cornell University, MA, Cornell University, BA, Tel Aviv University
languages
English, Hebrew

All work from Ariel (Eli) Levite

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113 Results
In The Media
in the media
Our Lives Depend on the Cloud. Now What?

The world recently woke to a massive global cyber outage paralyzing major enterprises and critical services. The culprit turned out not to be traceable to a sophisticated hacker, instead to a routine but insufficiently tested software update intended to protect Microsoft Windows users that had been pushed out by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. 

· August 6, 2024
Just Security
In The Media
in the media
Iran’s Nuclear Threshold Challenge

To navigate the twin problems of dealing with Iran and preventing the nuclear threshold from becoming a desirable status for others, policymakers ultimately will need to reconfigure nuclear energy and nonproliferation policy.

· May 23, 2024
War on the Rocks
In The Media
in the media
Israel's Head-hunting Addiction: Assassinations Are No Substitute for Diplomacy

Israel has turned head-hunting into its core strategy in its fight against the forces of evil.

· April 22, 2024
Haaretz
In The Media
in the media
Hamas Will Continue to Achieve Its Goals if Israel Focuses on Military Action

The Gaza war is in fact societal and unless we acknowledge that we can't achieve and sustain success.

· March 19, 2024
Haaretz
In The Media
in the media
How Was Israel Caught Off-Guard?

Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks did not happen out of the blue. They were preceded by years of bitter conflict, ever since the group consolidated its control of the Gaza Strip in 2007.

· February 22, 2024
War on the Rocks
article
Israeli Security After October 7

Hamas’s attack tested the core tenets of Israel’s security outlook, its traditional military and defense doctrine, and its national security policy.

· February 21, 2024
paper
Cloud Reassurance: A Framework to Enhance Resilience and Trust

As increasing amounts of information and services are moved to the cloud, a few providers have come to manage the bulk of cloud services. This level of dependence and concentration offers some benefits and risks, but policy action is needed to minimize and manage the risks.

REQUIRED IMAGE
In the Media
A Middle East Free of Weapons of Mass Destruction: A Utopia?

Israel approaches the proposals to establish a regional NWFZ or WMDFZ skeptically, viewing them first and foremost as a crude means to disarm Israel prior to challenging its very existence.

· November 20, 2023
Nonproliferation Policy Education Center
In The Media
in the media
Beyond the Fighting in Gaza: A Regional (and Global) Powder Keg

October 7 has fundamentally shaken Israel's sense of security and unleashed a chain of events threatening to engulf the Middle East—mostly due to provocations by Iran and its proxies. Absent urgent actions to douse the flames, these could spread globally.

· November 7, 2023
The Wilson Center
commentary
A View From Israel

Three bright spots amid national trauma.

· October 13, 2023