| Summary/Abstract |
Israel’s security doctrine has traditionally distinguished between routine threats (low-intensity attacks by state armies or non-state organisations) and fundamental threats (high-intensity offensives by state armies). It has paid much less attention to the middle ground: the medium-intensity threat. That threat has grown in the wake of changes to the priorities of some Arab states; reductions in the military capabilities of others; and the emergence of non-state organisations that have acquired some state capabilities and that have successfully combined guerrilla and terror tactics (irregular warfare) with more conventional practices (regular warfare). Indeed, medium-intensity warfare is now the strategic focus of some of Israel’s active enemies. The country’s security doctrine must address this grey area, first by defining it, and then by identifying the optimal strategies and tactics that will be required to combat it.
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