Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and particularly after the Israeli-Arab War of 1967, a highly informal but simultaneously potent security network has influenced Israel's domestic sphere. Composed of acting and former security personnel and their partners in the state's various civilian spheres, this security network has affected Israeli culture, politics, society, economy, public discourse and foreign relations. This book discusses this major sociopolitical phenomenon and its effects in a comparative and theoretical perspective. First, it defines Israel's security network in a broad theoretical and comparative perspective. Second, it explains how Israel's security network emerged and acquired a hegemonic position in the area of national security and foreign policy. Third, it describes the security network and identifies its members. Fourth, it discusses and explains the multitude of roles that Israel's security network has come to play both domestically and externally. Fifth, it discusses similar phenomena in other relevant cases. Finally, it presents general analytical and theoretical conclusions.

“Israel’s Security Networks focuses on the civil-security relations of Israel – a broader category than the more familiar idea of civil-military relations – and the part played by what the authors term an ‘informal security network’ in the functioning of those relations, including that network’s effects on domestic and external policy making in Israel. Gabriel Sheffer and Oren Barak present a well-written, engaging book that will attract readers from politics, sociology, and international relations.” – Christopher Dandeker, King’s College London

Gabriel Sheffer is a professor of political science at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His current research topics include ethnic politics, with special emphasis on ethno-national diasporas, and civil-military relations. Sheffer has been a visiting professor in many leading universities, including Cornell University, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Duke University. Sheffer is on the editorial board of several journals in English and Hebrew, including Israel Studies and Diaspora. He has served as the director of various research institutions and projects, and was a senior fellow at the Max Planck Institute. He is the author of numerous books, journal articles, book chapters and edited volumes, including Middle Eastern Minorities and Diasporas (2002), Diaspora Politics At Home Abroad (Cambridge University Press, 2003) and The Jewish Diaspora and the Jerusalem Question (2012). Oren Barak is a senior lecturer of political science and international relations at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has served as visiting scholar at Harvard University and as a visiting professor at the University of Texas, Austin. Barak's research areas include the relationships between the state, society and the military in the Middle East. He is the author of The Lebanese Army: A National Institution in a Divided Society (2009), and co-editor, with Gabriel Sheffer, of Existential Threats and Civil-Security Relations (2009) and Militarism and Israeli Society (2010). His articles have appeared in journals such as the International Journal of Middle East Studies, the Journal of Peace Research, the International History Review, the Middle East Journal, and Security Dialogue.