Jonathan (Yoni) Shimshoni served for 25 years with the IDF, in both field command and staff positions, culminating his career as Director of Planning for the Planning Division (J-2) with the rank of Brigadier General. He received his Ph.D. in Public Policy from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton, with a specialty in security policy. Yoni has taught at Princeton and has pursued research on strategic issues at MIT; he has published within the Cornell Studies in Security Affairs and in International Security on conventional deterrence, technology and doctrinal innovation, as well as in the leading Israeli daily (“Haaretz”). Yoni has served on several committees of the Israeli National Security Council and in the IDF reserves has continued to work extensively on challenging security issues – related to economics, technology, strategy and doctrine. In addition to these security and policy related endeavors, Yoni was Managing Partner of PWC Consulting in Israel and has led the establishment and management of a start-up company. He will be spending this coming year (2018-19) at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, continuing research begun at SSP on societal warfare in the 21st century.
This article explores the centrality of the social dimension in contemporary conflict, examining its pivotal role in the strategies of rivals of the West, from ISIS, Hizbullah and Hamas to China and Russia, and the shortfall of Western responses.
After the recent fighting in Gaza, both Israel and Hamas can point to military successes and limited losses, which could offer a way to escape the cycle of revenge that would have been triggered by the humiliation or defeat of either side.
