The IDF using current stability to prepare for a more dangerous future

My latest paper for the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies looks at the IDF’s priorities. These are based on the military’s assessment of the future of the Middle East.

Right now, stable truces with Hezbollah and Hamas mean the IDF has the time and space to focus on combat training, and force build-up.

This serves the IDF’s top priority: Achieving a high state of war readiness. That readiness will be critical going forward.

The Middle East of the future will be significantly more dangerous, less stable, and more complex than it is today. The proliferation of powerful weapons throughout the region are part of that trend.

IDF infantry soldiers on a training exercise. Credit: IDF Spokesman Unit

The IDF must be in a position to deal – simultaneously – with multiple fronts, near and far, and be able to defeat both non-state and state actors if necessary.