Jonathan Rynhold

Professor
Political Studies
Bar Ilan University
Israel

Biography

"I serve as the Deputy Head of the department of Political Studies and as the Director of the Argov Center for the Study of Israel and the Jewish People. I am also a senior researcher at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. I received my PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1998. In 2012-13 I was the Schusterman Visiting Professor of Israeli Politics at the George Washington University in Washington DC. My research focuses on US-Israeli relations, Israel and the peace process, and the role of political culture in International Relations. In this vein, I have authored many publications, for example on, the security barrier, the Gaza disengagement, and the role of peace and security in Israeli elections. My book entitled The Arab-Israeli Conflict in American Political Culture published by Cambridge University Press won the Israeli Association for Political Science prize for the best book of 2015. The book received praise from, amongst others, Israel’s former Ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren and David Makovsky, a former senior advisor to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. In January 2016 my co-edited volume entitled US Foreign Policy & Global Standing in the 21st Century was also published. I am regularly interviewed by a wide variety of news outlets, which have included the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Reuters, CNN, USA Today, The Daily Telegraph, The Times (London), El Pais (Spain) Liberation (France), Al Jazeera, Xinhua (China), the Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel and Ha'aretz. I also took a leading role in combatting the academic boycott of Israel in the UK, and have served as an advisor to the Israeli Foreign Ministry and diaspora Jewish organizations on combatting the BDS movement."

Research Intrest

Focuses on US-Israeli relations, Israel and the peace process, and the role of political culture in International Relations.