The Middle East Initiative, housed at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, announces the launch of the Israel Program at MEI, a major new initiative dedicated to advancing rigorous, policy-relevant research, teaching, and engagement on Israel within its broader regional and global contexts.
For much of the past century, scholarly and policy concern with the State of Israel has focused understandably on that country’s conflicts. After Hamas’ terrorist attacks of October 7th, 2023 and Israel’s subsequent military campaigns, and particularly the devastating war in Gaza, interest in these subjects has only intensified. But with this has come a growing interest in Israel as a complex society and an integral part of a region whose peoples confront shared political, economic, technological, and environmental challenges.
“The stakes could hardly be higher,” said Tarek Masoud, Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Governance and the Faculty Chair of the Middle East Initiative. “In addition to the urgent need for peace between Israelis, Palestinians, and their neighbors, Israel today confronts in particularly acute form some of the greatest policy challenges of our time: how to increase interethnic cooperation; how to bring peace to peoples long at war; how to manage the effects of climate change; how to halt democratic backsliding; how to combat old prejudices; and how to harness the transformative potential, and mitigate the serious risks, of new technologies. All of these questions will occupy societies around the world for the foreseeable future, and this program begins from the premise that scholars from Israel, working alongside their counterparts in the region, can make lasting contributions to our understanding of them.”
The Israel Program is fortunate to draw on significant talent already at the Middle East Initiative, including Senior Fellow Edward Djerejian, former US ambassador to Israel, and human rights and international relations scholar Lotem Bassan-Nygate. The program will be spearheaded by Barak Sella, Senior Research Fellow, whose career has been devoted to the kind of serious, bridge-building work this program aspires to advance. A graduate of Harvard Kennedy School and former Executive Director of the Reut Institute, Sella has long been a leading voice on U.S.–Israel relations and global Jewish affairs, and I am delighted to have him at the helm of this effort.
A central component of the Israel Program is the Shared Society Lab, led by Senior Research Fellow Dana Schleifer. A graduate of Harvard Kennedy School and former Chief Innovation Officer for the Tel Aviv–Yafo Municipality, Schleifer brings deep expertise in local governance, public-sector capacity-building, and Arab–Jewish collaboration. The Lab will focus on strengthening municipal institutions and fostering genuine partnership between Israel’s Jewish and Palestinian citizens through applied research, leadership development, and policy design.
Other program initiatives include a new course, entitled Arguing Israel–Palestine (DPI-635), that aims to equip students with the scholarly knowledge and practical skills necessary to grapple seriously with one of the world’s thorniest conflicts. Beginning in the 2026–2027 academic year, a new Israel Research Fellowship will bring promising scholars and practitioners from Israel to the Middle East Initiative for short-term residencies, where they will engage with other scholars from the region, in addition to Harvard students and faculty. And in the months ahead, the program will also convene study groups and public events on topics ranging from the future of the U.S.–Israel relationship, to the future of the two-state solution, to the Abraham Accords, to the settler movement, among others. All of these activities will bring together scholars, practitioners, and policymakers from diverse backgrounds to participate in the kind of rigorous, open inquiry and civil, constructive debate that are the hallmarks of the Middle East Initiative.
About the Middle East Initiative
Established in 1998, the Middle East Initiative (MEI) is Harvard University’s principal forum for policy-relevant research and teaching on the contemporary Middle East and North Africa. Directed by Tarek Masoud, Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Governance, MEI convenes policymakers, scholars, and intellectuals from the region and beyond to expand our understanding of this complex part of the world and to contribute to the search for solutions to its most pressing policy challenges. Through the integration of open scholarly inquiry, policy analysis, executive and graduate education, and public engagement, MEI aims to improve the quality of policymaking and build capacity in the Middle East in order to enhance the lives of all the region’s peoples.