Levite Ariel

Ariel (Eli) Levite is a nonresident senior associate in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment.

Prior to joining the Carnegie Endowment, Levite was the Principal Deputy Director General for Policy at the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission from 2002 to 2007. Levite also served as the deputy national security advisor for defense policy and was head of the Bureau of International Security and Arms Control in the Israeli Ministry of Defense.

In September 2000, Levite took a two year sabbatical from the Israeli civil service to work as a visiting fellow and project co-leader of the “Discriminate Force” Project as the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University.

Before his government service, Levite worked for five years as a senior research associate and head of the project on Israeli security at the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University. Levite has taught courses on security studies and political science at Tel Aviv University, Cornell University, and the University of California, Davis.

Dr. Levite is a member of the International Advisory Council of the International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe.

Selected Publications:

Will Nuclear War Break Out in the Middle East? in Francois Heisbourg (Ed.)Do Nuclear Weapons Have a Future?, Paris, France: Odile Jacob, 2011.; “Reflections on Nuclear Opacity”, in Bruno Tertrais (Ed.)A Tribute to Sir Michael Quinlan, Paris: France, forthcoming.; “Rethinking Nuclear Abolition”, in A report to the Trilateral Commission: 64, Washington, Paris, and Tokyo: The Trilateral Commission, 2010.; “Global Zero: An Israeli Vision of Realistic Idealism”, The Washington Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 2, April 2010.; Heading for the Fourth Nuclear Age , IFRI Proliferation Papers, No. 24, Winter 2009; Reflections on a Multilateral Base Camp, Working Paper, Center for American Progress, July 2009.; “The Current Proliferation Predicament” in Joseph E. Pilat, ed., Atoms for Peace: A Future After Fifty Years, Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center and the Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007; “Never Say Never Again: Nuclear Reversal Revisited,”International Security, Vol. 27, No. 3, Winter 2002-2003; “The Case for Discriminate Force,” with Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall,Survival, Vol. 4, No. 4, Winter 2002-2003; Offense and Defense in Israeli Military Defense Doctrine, Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1989;Intelligence and Strategic Surprises, NY: Columbia University Press, 1987; andIsrael's Nuclear Image. Levite has also authored, contributed, and co-edited other works includingForeign Military Intervention and Deterrence in the Middle East.

Recent Honors:

- 2011 Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award, Institute for Global Leadership, Tufts University; - 2011 Chevalier dans l’Ordre National de la Legion d’Honneur.

Areas of Expertise

Levite's research focuses on WMD nonproliferation, arms control, international security, and regional security in the Middle East, including military strategy and dilemmas in the use of force, nuclear energy, and intelligence.