The study of war and the military in Israel: an empirical investigation and a reflective critique

The picture that arises out of our analysis is one of social-scientific study of the military and war in Israel that is marked not so much by parochialism as by marginalization or peripherialization in terms of the world system of scholarship. As Ben-Yehuda suggests, the very exposure of Israeli scholars to work outside it prevents it from becoming parochial¹³⁴. In terms of theoretical innovation in the field, then, Israelis-like most European scholars-are linked to the latest ideas and concepts emanating from the world center in the United States but are at the periphery in that they usually apply these notions to the study of their own society. Indeed, one indicator of this pattern is the fact that, barring a very small number of exceptions, Israelis-unlike scholars in Britain, France, or the United States¹³⁵ -do not study the military establishments or civil-military relations of societies outside their own country. Within Israel, however, the continued centrality of the IDF and the contestations over its place in society and culture will keep ensuring that the lively research developed over the past two decades will continue in the future.