Sessions

The Second Lebanon War: Lessons for Modern Militaries

09:15, 20 Jun 2008
RUSI, Whitehall, London, SW1A 2ET
Link to map: multimap

Session I: Baseline: Israel’s Performance in the 2006 War.

In retrospect, what were the strategic outcomes of the 2006 War? When applying a net-assessment analysis of the war’s consequences, what were the different parties’ gains and losses as a result of the war? In the end, who won the 2006 war in Lebanon? This session will address these important questions and serve as the starting point for the other sessions of the conference by providing a synopsis of the Winograd Commission’s findings. The main conclusions reached from other unclassified accounts of the war will also be elaborated.

Chair: Professor Michael Clarke, Director, The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)

Prof. Shai Feldman, Director, Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University

Ofer Shelah, Ma’ariv and Israel TV Channel 10

Click here to Download session 1 (70 MB)

Session II: Lessons for Doctrine and Force Structure.

What lessons should be drawn from the 2006 encounter regarding a modern military’s operational doctrine and force structure for counter-insurgency war? In particular, what lessons should be drawn in this realm regarding the role of airpower in such operations? What does the war tell us about the efficacy of “effects-based warfare”?

Chair: Michael Codner, Director of Military Sciences, RUSI

Brig. Gen. (ret.) Shlomo Brom, Institute for National Security Studies, former Director for Strategic Planning, IDF

Ofra Graicer, SheNomad Ltd., former Senior Research Fellow, IDF’s Operational Theory Research Institute

Click here to Download session 2 (65 mb)

Session III: Civil-Military Pathologies.

This session of the conference will explore the process by which important decisions were made during the war. Particular emphasis will be placed on certain pathologies of civil-military relations in a modern democratic state which found their expression during the 2006 encounter. What did Israel’s civilian and military leaders understand about the war they were entering and how did their sometimes divergent understanding affect their performance?

Chair: Jonathan Marcus, Diplomatic Correspondent, BBC

Dr. Yehuda Ben Meir, Institute for National Security Studies, Tel Aviv, former Israeli Deputy-Minister for Foreign Affairs

Maj. Gen. (ret.) Giora Eiland, Institute for National Security Studies, former Director, National Security Council and former Commander, Planning Branch, IDF

Click here to download session 3 (61 mb)

Session IV: Technology and Counter-Insurgency.

Are there particular conclusions that can be drawn from the Second Lebanon War regarding the role of technology and the efficacy of specific weapons technologies in counter-insurgency operations?

Chair: Professor Shai Feldman, Director, Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University

VADM (ret.) Yedidya (Didi) Ya’ari, CEO of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, and former Commander of the Israeli Navy

Click here to download session 4 (30 mb)

Session V: Concluding Remarks: Lessons for Modern Militaries

Chair: Professor Shai Feldman, Director, Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University

Ofer Shelah, Ma’ariv and Israel TV Channel 10

Maj. Gen. (ret.) Giora Eiland, Institute for National Security Studies, former Director, National Security Council and former Commander, Planning Branch, IDF

Brig. Gen. (ret.) Shlomo Brom, Institute for National Security Studies, former Director for Strategic Planning, IDF

VADM (ret.) Yedidya (Didi) Ya’ari, CEO of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, and former Commander of the Israeli Navy

Click here to download Session 5 (26 mb)

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