Meir Elran from The Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) will speak about "Terrorism and Counterterrorism: Israeli perceptions and response strategies," 1-2:30 p.m. Thursday, March 20, at START Headquarters (8400 Baltimore Ave., Suite 250, College Park, MD 20740). The talk is free and open to the public but attendees should register online via the link to the left. Refreshments will be provided.
Elran is a senior research fellow and the director of the Homeland Security Program and a co-director of the Society–Security Program of INSS. Elran joined the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies in 2003, after he served in senior analytical, command. and staff positions in the IDF Directorate of Military Intelligence. His last post was the deputy director of MI (1987-1989). Brig. Gen. (ret.) Meir Elran took an active role in the peace talks with Egypt and was an active member (as a reserve officer) of the military delegation to the peace talks with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Following his retirement for the military Elran served as the chief of staff of the Tel Aviv municipality and afterwards as a senior consultant for strategic planning for several government offices, including the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Internal Security and the National Security Council, where he focused on social issues relating to the national security.
Elran's main areas of research are homeland security and societal resilience in face of protracted terror. He is also engaged in the connection between the social domestic aspects of Israel and its defense doctrine and practice. He has published numerous papers on these subjects and edited several memoranda and volumes, among these: On the Second Lebanon WarL Strategic Perspectives (with Shlomo Brom, published by Yediot Ahronot and INSS in 2007), and Societal Resilience (with Alexander McLellan, published in 2012 by the Homeland Security and Analysis Institute in the US).
Elran served (2006-2007) as a special consultant to the Winograd Commission, investigating the issues surrounding Israeli conduct during the Second Lebanon War. In 2009 he was an International Fellow with the US NDU's Near East and South Asia Strategic Studies Center, where he produced a comparative research study on chaos management.
Elran holds a BA from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in Political Science and Middle East Studies (1965), and an MA from Indiana University in International Relations and Russian Studies (1970). He is presently working on his PhD at the Haifa University School of Political Science School, on measuring societal resilience.