Mark A. Heller is a Principal Research Associate at the Institute for National Security Studies, Tel Aviv University, and for many years edited its quarterly journal, Strategic Assessment.  He has been affiliated with the INSS since 1979 and has taught international relations at Tel-Aviv University and at several American universities, including the University of California at San Diego, Cornell, and Harvard.  He was also Coordinator of Research at the Canadian Institute for International Peace and Security in 1991, Research Associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in 1999, Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in 2008, and Visiting Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in 2019.

Dr. Heller has written extensively on Middle Eastern political and strategic issues.  His publications include A Palestinian State: The Implications for IsraelThe Middle East Military Balance, which he edited and co-authored from 1983 to 1985 and again in 1996, 1997 and 2008; The New Middle Class and Regime Stability in Saudi Arabia (co-authored with Nadav Safran); No Trumpets, No Drums: A Two-State Settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (co-authored with Sari Nusseibeh); The Dynamics of Soviet Policy in the Middle East: Between Old Thinking and NewEurope & The Middle East: New Tracks to Peace?Continuity and Change in Israeli Security Policy; and, Israel and the Palestinians: Israeli Policy Options (co-edited with Rosemary Hollis).  He has also published numerous monographs, book chapters, and articles in Foreign AffairsForeign PolicyOrbisSurvivalThe Journal of Strategic Studies, and other professional journals.  His op-ed articles have appeared in The New York Times, the Frankfurter Allgemeine ZeitungThe Globe and MailThe Jerusalem Post, Ha-Aretz, and other leading newspapers, and he has been interviewed by major electronic media, including CNN, BBC, NPR, CCTV, and al-Jazeera.

Education:
B.A. (Political Science and Economics), University of Toronto
M.A. (Middle Eastern Studies), Harvard University
Ph.D. (Government), Harvard University

Areas of expertise:
Israel/Palestinians/Jordan

Issues of expertise:
Middle Eastern security, Arab-Israeli relations, US policy in the Middle East, European involvement in the Middle East

Contact Information

Please contact media@mei.edu or call 202-785-1141 ext. 241 for assistance contacting this expert.

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