Louis René Beres

Louis René Beres was educated at Princeton (Ph.D., 1971), and is the author of many major books and articles dealing with Israeli nuclear strategy. For over forty years, he has lectured on this topic at senior Israeli and United States military institutions, and at leading Israeli centers for strategic studies. In 2003, he served as Chair of Project Daniel (Israel).
DEFENSE SECRETARY Pete Hegseth receives a signed executive order from US President Donald Trump to rename the defense department as the Department of War, in September 2025.

Trump's risky nuclear policy: 'Tepid legality' is preferable to 'maximum lethality' - opinion

Unless the United States and other states refuse to follow Donald Trump's incoherent policies, a nuclear war could rage until every sturdy flower of culture had been trampled.

NOVEMBER 12, 2025
MOSHE DAYAN and Jordanian Lt.-Col. Abdullah El Tell reach a ceasefire agreement in Jerusalem, Nov. 30, 1948.

'Moshe Dayan': Shedding analytical light on an Israeli war hero - review

Moshe Dayan: The Making of a Strategist is an outstanding book on multiple levels, offering valuable historical assessments and useful derivative opportunities to learn from Israel’s past.

NOVEMBER 2, 2025
HAMAS MARCHES at the Egyptian-Palestinian border in Rafah to celebrate the completion of Israel’s pullout from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Then-prime minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement is the best example of surrender, the writer charges.

Is Hamas trying to wait out the clock on Trump's Gaza peace plan? - opinion

Any enemy linkage of time to a presumptively divine mandate will reduce the importance of treaties and treaty-like agreements.

OCTOBER 19, 2025

Exchanging Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages sets stage for further massacres - opinion

In essence, the Donald Trump-brokered agreement will set the stage for a next round of October 7 massacre-style defilements.

OCTOBER 13, 2025
US SPECIAL ENVOY Steve Witkoff is flanked by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv on Saturday night. If the Israel-Hamas agreement leads to Palestinian statehood, Israel can expect a tangible increase in terrorism, the writer warns.

Palestinian sovereignty and international law: Limits of UN recognition - opinion

Among other things, if current UN member states seek to establish the first Palestinian state, they will have to honor all listed expectations of the Montevideo (1933) and Vienna (1969) conventions.

SEPTEMBER 29, 2025
RIYAD MANSOUR, the Palestinian permanent observer to the UN, speaks after the General Assembly voted to endorse a declaration on a two-state solution earlier this month. Israel has no legal obligation to carve a new enemy state, the writer states.

Israel was enforcing the law when it targeted Hamas leadership in Qatar - opinion

In contrast to media reports, Israel's strikes in Qatar were consistent with codified and customary international law.

SEPTEMBER 12, 2025
A BUILDING is damaged in the aftermath of an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha on Tuesday. The fact that such leaders sought safe harbor in a sovereign state does not mean they were no longer subject to punishment, says the writer.

Ignored complexities: ‘Palestine’ as a many-sided peril for Israel - opinion

A Palestinian state would affect the constantly changing balance of power between Israel and its adversaries, both state and substate (terrorist group) foes.

SEPTEMBER 9, 2025
PAKISTANI FOREIGN MINISTER Ishaq Dar speaks at the UN in July. Among already nuclear state foes, Israel’s most plausible adversary would be North Korea or Pakistan acting as an Iranian surrogate, says the writer.

Standing with Ukraine, but not risking a greater war with Russia - opinion

US and NATO remedies would need to calculate variously complex hazards of competitive risk-taking.

SEPTEMBER 1, 2025
UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT Volodymyr Zelensky and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte shake hands at a news conference in Kyiv last month. The alliance is obligated to stand with the victim state, but could incur serious risks of a wider war with Russia.

Jihadist criminality, Israeli self-defense: A law-based assessment - opinion

The alleged goal of Palestinian 'self-determination' is founded on an intended crime – that is, total “removal” of the Jewish state by attrition and annihilation.

AUGUST 19, 2025
FORMER HAMAS HEAD Khaled Mashaal speaks during an interview in Doha, Qatar, last year. ‘The enemy only understands the language of jihad and martyrdom,’ he says.

Latent in Gaza: Unseen risks of Palestinian statehood - opinion

A Palestinian state would impact the continuously changing balance of power between Israel and Iran and its proxies.

AUGUST 12, 2025
IRANIAN ARMY Commander-in-Chief Amir Hatami attends a meeting at an undisclosed location in Iran in June. A Palestinian state would impact the balance of power between Israel and Iran, and Israel and Iranian proxies, says the writer.

In all narratives of war with Iran, Israel's right to survive is supported by intl. law - opinion

Israel will need to reassess its operational options, deciding between the current nuclear posture and shifting to “selective nuclear disclosure.”

AUGUST 3, 2025
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei attends a memorial ceremony in Tehran last week for military commanders and scientists killed in the war with Israel in June. Iran is down but not out, says the writer.

Passionate, but lacking legal validity: Rising calls for Palestinian statehood - opinion

'The political existence of the state,' indicates the Convention on the Rights and Duties of States (1934), 'is independent of recognition by the other states.'

JULY 29, 2025
France's Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot delivers a speech during the "Paris Call for the Two-State Solution, Peace and Regional Security" gathering influential actors from Israeli and Palestinian civil societies committed to promoting the two-state solution, June 13, 2025

Assessing Russian crimes against Ukraine at deeper levels - opinion

The crimes perpetrated against Ukraine are even worse than the objective facts suggest, leaving observers with just a superficial understanding of cumulative harms.

JULY 23, 2025
SERVICE MEMBERS of the National Guard of Ukraine wait before firing toward Russian troops, at a position in a front line, amid Russia’s attack on their country last Saturday in the Kharkiv region.