A much-needed examination of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), one of the world's most complex military forces. Stuart Cohen analyzes the strategic, societal and organizational aspects of the IDF, identifying the key changes occurring in Israel's military framework, and exploring their potential implications.

The Israel Defense Force (IDF) plays a key role in Israeli society, and has traditionally been perceived not only as the guardian of national survival, but also as a 'people's army' responsible for the custody of national values. This volume analyses the circumstances currently undermining these perceptions, and explores both the changes occurring in Israel's military framework, and their potential implications. The book highlights the influence exerted by massive shifts in both Israel's external strategic landscape and in the country's domestic and cultural environments, which have compelled the IDF to undertake major programmes of structural reform, technological adaptation and doctrinal revision. This book argues that these changes have lead the public to subject the armed forces and their conduct to unprecedented critical scrutiny. The way in which Israelis and their army resolve these tensions is of crucial importance not only for Israel, but for the Middle East as a whole.

'...a masterful study of the problems encountered by a military grappling simultaneously with a changing social and strategic context.'Dr. Jonathan Spyer, Middle East Journal