Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies

The Center is a non-partisan, interdisciplinary research center devoted to the contemporary Middle East and Africa, placing the study of the region's cultures, peoples, languages, religions, and history at the heart of its approach.[1] Its research covers the Arab world, including North Africa, as well as Turkey, Iran, and the modern history, politics, and current affairs of the Islamic world more broadly.[4] The Center does not adopt or promote particular policy positions; its stated scholarly purpose is improving understanding of the complexities of the Middle East among academics, policymakers, journalists, and the general public.[4]

The Middle East peace process and opportunities for regional cooperation are identified as important Tel Aviv University research fields in which the Center is active.[3] It is funded primarily through endowments, research grants, and individual and institutional contributions, and is governed by an Israeli Board of Governors advised by an International Advisory Board.[1]

The Center's work is designed to reach beyond academic audiences. Its activities include short-form analysis of contemporary developments, longer books and monographs in English and Hebrew, public events, and support and mentorship for affiliated researchers.[1] It also provides internship and visiting-scholar opportunities, as well as assistantships and fellowships for selected candidates, and characterizes its activities as extending beyond academic work to addressing real-world problems and solutions.[1]

Ongoing programmatic priorities include developing an international MA program in Applied Middle Eastern Studies, fostering collaborations with international research institutes, running joint forums on regional cooperation, and expanding work in Kurdish studies and the study of antisemitism in the Middle East.[5] A major infrastructural initiative involves transforming the Arabic press archive into a large digital repository with enhanced accessibility.[5]

The Center's roots lie in the Reuven Shiloah Research Center, established in 1959 as a nonprofit association located within Israel's Directorate of Military Intelligence and sponsored by the Israeli Oriental Society.[2] The founding purpose was to study contemporary regional issues that the intelligence apparatus could not devote sustained academic attention to, and to fill a gap in Israeli scholarly discourse on the Middle East. The founding vision was explicitly modeled on Britain's Chatham House.[2]

Yitzhak Oron drove the early organizational effort, working with the support of Intelligence Chief Yehoshofat Harkabi and Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion.[2] The nascent center initially operated from three rooms in the Ministry of Defense's Kirya complex in Tel Aviv. After an approach to Hebrew University did not succeed, Tel Aviv University agreed to adopt the center on the condition that it be reorganized as a properly constituted academic institute.[2]

On February 1, 1966, the Shiloah Institute for Middle East and African Studies was formally established at Tel Aviv University, and the original Reuven Shiloah Research Center dissolved, with its researchers and collections transferring to the new university body.[2] Tel Aviv University simultaneously established a Department of Middle Eastern and African History, and the Institute and the department were designed to bring contemporary regional analysis into close contact with historical scholarship.[2] Prof. Shimon Shamir became the Institute's first director in 1966 and led it for seven years.[2]

The institution received its current name — the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies — in 1983, honoring the late Israeli statesman and military commander.[2] Former U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance, writing in the foreword to a 1985 Council on Foreign Relations publication, said he had assisted in forming the Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University in December 1983.[6] Vance characterized the purpose he sought to encourage as fostering non-partisan and non-political dialogue among professional analysts.[6]

Vance also wrote that the Center was expected to become the repository for Moshe Dayan's papers, except for materials still under active high-security classification, so that scholars could examine them. His foreword documents an early plan rather than confirming whether the papers were ultimately deposited there in full.[6]

The Center held a symposium on June 10, 2015, described in its bulletin as a celebration of its 50th anniversary.[2] The same historical account traces the institution's roots to 1959 and its Tel Aviv University history to 1966, while the Center's About page likewise gives 1959 as its founding year and 1966 as the year of incorporation.[2][1] The Center is listed as a Tel Aviv University library with the code TAU-DAY and a location in the university's Gilman Building in Ramat Aviv.[7]

The Center has maintained an extensive publishing program. In-house publishing began with the Middle East Record in 1960, an annual publication documenting regional events, especially political affairs.[8] The Record ran in 1960–1961, continued under the Shiloah Institute from 1967 through 1970, and, according to the Center's historical account, became the Middle East Contemporary Survey in 1976.[2]

The ninth volume of the Middle East Contemporary Survey (MECS) describes the series as established in 1977 and as an annual record and analysis of political, economic, military, and international developments in the Middle East.[9] It was intended to provide scholars, researchers, analysts, policymakers, students, journalists, diplomats, and interested readers with a continuing, up-to-date reference on a rapidly changing region. Most essays in the volume were researched and written by members of the Shiloah Institute of the Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University.[9] The Survey produced 24 volumes, with its final edition published in 2000.[2] The catalog for the 1983–84 eighth volume identifies it as issued jointly by the Dayan Center and the Shiloah Institute, with later volumes — including volumes 10–17 and 20–24 — issued under the Moshe Dayan Center name.[10]

Beyond the Survey, the Center's publication program included the Dayan Center Occasional Papers Series, the Dayan Center Monograph Series, the Mideast File, and the Dayan Documentation System, which was headed by Amikam Salant and maintained archives containing radio and news-agency material along with Hebrew translations.[9] David Menashri's 1990 volume Iran: A Decade of War and Revolution, part of the Center's collected-papers series, was published by Holmes & Meier in New York and ran to xvi and 410 pages.[11]

Current digital publications appear monthly and feature short-form articles on regional developments, distributed online and through email lists to audiences that include public- and private-sector policymakers and practitioners.[8] Printed books and monographs take a broader view than the periodicals and are intended as a lasting contribution to scholarly discussion.[8]

The Center publishes several specialized periodicals. Iqtisadi is its Middle East economics publication, with Paul Rivlin serving as a senior fellow and editor.[12] Bustan: The Middle East Book Review is the Center's journal, with Brandon Friedman serving as director of research and managing editor.[12] Turkeyscope is an Israeli academic journal published by the Center, covering Turkish affairs and Israel–Turkey relations.[13] In 2021, the Center published Hizballah: Between Iran and Lebanon.[14]

The Center also contributes to collaborative publications. In January 2021, a special issue of Strategic Assessment, produced jointly with the Institute for National Security Studies, examined the Arab Spring and its aftermath from a decade-long perspective, with contributions from Center scholars.[12] Sarah Feuer served as guest editor, with particular acknowledgment given to research director Brandon Friedman.[12]

One of the Center's most significant resources is its Arabic Press Archives, a major repository for regional primary-source materials. The holdings include more than 1,000 reels of microfilmed newspapers, with the earliest newspaper represented dating to 1887, and more than 10,000 titles of newspapers, magazines, and periodicals.[15] The titles span Arabic, Turkish, Persian, English, French, and other regional languages, including Tamazight.[15]

The Archives' digital holdings are substantial: the Center's servers hold over 30 terabytes of digital newspapers, and more than one million newspaper pages from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and other countries have been scanned.[15] Archive visits must be scheduled in advance.[15] A 1997 compilation by Haim Gal of Syrian newspapers and periodicals held in the Center's Press Archive was published in Arabic and English.[16]

The MDC Library holds journals, articles, archival materials including British Archive Editions, reports, economic sources, statistical data, and other reference materials.[17] It is part of DATA, the Israeli academic library computer system, which provides access to academic catalogs and databases throughout Israel and to many academic libraries internationally.[17] The library also publishes regular updates linking to full-text reports, policy papers, and briefings on the modern Middle East, North Africa, and Islam.[17]

The Center has been led by a succession of scholars of the Middle East. Prof. Shimon Shamir was the Shiloah Institute's first director, serving from 1966 for seven years.[2] In the early years of the renamed Dayan Center, Itamar Rabinovich served as director while chairing Tel Aviv University's Department of Middle Eastern and African History.[6] Rabinovich later served as a senior research fellow at the Center and co-editor of its review journal, Bustan.[18]

Historian Asher Susser served as a senior research fellow and headed the Center for twelve years.[19] He also taught for thirty years in Tel Aviv University's Department of Middle Eastern History.[19] Martin Kramer became a research associate at the Moshe Dayan Center in 1981 and served as its director from 1995.[20] The Center's address during this period was recorded as Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Israel.[20]

Prof. Uzi Rabi was identified as head of the Center in 2012 and again in 2020.[21][22] Meir Litvak has served as a principal research fellow at the Center, with expertise in modern Shi'i and Iranian history and modern Islamic movements.[23] His research has also included Arab antisemitism and Arab perceptions of the Holocaust.[24] Researcher Ido Yahel was identified as a doctoral candidate in Tel Aviv University's Zvi Yavetz School of History while affiliated with the Center.[12]

Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak and Nir Boms have worked on Israel–Turkey relations through the Center.[25] Yitzhak Gal has contributed to the Center's Forum for Middle East Economy.[21] Moshe Gammer held a Dayan Fellowship at the Center during 1990–91.[26]

The Center's current director is Prof. Amos Nadan.[1] At the 1984 joint conference with the Council on Foreign Relations, the Center's listed speakers included Shimon Shamir, Itamar Rabinovich, Asher Susser, Martin Kramer, and Haim Shaked. They presented work on Egypt's relations with Israel and Arab states, the Israel–Syria–Lebanon relationship, the Palestinian question and the Jordanian option, the regional impact of resurgent Islam, and Israeli policy in the region.[6]

The Center has maintained an active international profile since its early years. On September 17, 1984, it co-hosted a daylong joint conference in New York with the Council on Foreign Relations, at which Center specialists presented work in progress to American experts.[6] Opening remarks were preserved in the resulting publication, though the discussions were not recorded under the participants' confidentiality understanding.[6]

The Center has pursued partnerships with research institutions beyond Israel. In 2022, it co-hosted a daylong seminar in Tel Aviv with Turkey's SETA think tank ahead of Israeli President Isaac Herzog's visit to Turkey.[25] The closed session addressed Israel–Turkey ties, including their political dimensions and energy cooperation, with Israeli participants led by Center researchers Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak and Nir Boms.[25]

Collegial relationships with other Israeli research institutions have also been a consistent feature of the Center's work. Tel-Aviv Notes No. 56, published in November 2002, carried a joint attribution to both the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies and the Moshe Dayan Center, reflecting cooperative analysis on security-related topics.[23] In 2021, Center scholars participated in a collaborative special issue of Strategic Assessment produced jointly with the Institute for National Security Studies, examining the Arab Spring a decade on.[12]

The Center's Forum for Middle East Economy has brought together researchers such as Paul Rivlin and Yitzhak Gal for public discussions of economic trends across the region. At the 2012 Globes Israel Business Conference, Gal discussed energy consumption in Gulf states, while Rivlin addressed Islamic banking rules and exposure to risky investments.[21] Current priorities include collaborations with international research institutes and joint forums on regional cooperation.[5]

Several aspects of the Center's institutional record rest on early documentation rather than confirmation of later outcomes. The foreword written by Cyrus Vance in 1985 records an expectation that the Center would become the repository for Moshe Dayan's papers; the document establishes this as a plan articulated in the Center's formative period and does not confirm whether the papers were ultimately deposited there in full.[6]

The Center's founding chronology varies across sources. The Historical Dictionary of Israeli Intelligence dates the Reuven Shiloah Institute's incorporation into Tel Aviv University to 1965, while the Center's institutional history dates the university institute's establishment to February 1, 1966; both place the adoption of the current name in 1983.[4][2] The Center's About page says it was founded in 1959 and incorporated in 1966.[1] Separately, a Center bulletin describes a June 10, 2015 symposium as its 50th-anniversary celebration without explaining how that designation relates to the 1959 and 1966 milestones.[2] The variations may reflect the use of different milestones in the institution's development.