Ideas govern the world, or plunge it into chaos. Who crafts, exports, imports, and sculpts public policy ideas? The following are key Israeli think-tanks focused on international security and national defense.

The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies was founded in 1993 by Dr. Thomas O. Hecht, a Canadian Jewish community leader, as a non-partisan and independent institute affiliated with the political science department at Bar-Ilan University. It was named in memory of Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat (BEgin-SAdat), whose groundbreaking Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty laid the cornerstone for conflict resolution in the Middle East. 

Commanders for Israel’s Security is a movement of over 550 retired IDF colonels and generals as well as Mossad, Shin Bet (Internal Security), Police, NSC and Diplomatic corps equivalents. CIS has chosen to reserve membership to retired officials of the top four ranks, for it is only at the highest echelons of the security establishment and foreign service that one is exposed to – and gains experience in addressing – the strategic dimensions of Israel’s national security challenges.

The David Institute for Security Policy was established in 2025 at the initiative of Israel’s Defense and Security Forum, a group of over 55,000 reserve officers and operatives from all branches of the Israeli security forces dedicated to guiding the narrative of Israel’s national security needs and ensuring that Israel’s security in the........

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