Yael Aronoff

Biography

Yael Aronoff [Ph.D. PLS, Columbia U.] is the Director of the Michael and Elaine Serling Institute for Jewish Studies and Modern Israel and and is Serling Chair of Israel Studies. Dr. Aronoff is Professor of Political Science/International Relations in James Madison College at MSU. Dr. Aronoff is currently serving as the President of the Association of Israel Studies. She is a recipient of the MSU 2011 Teacher-Scholar Award and the 2015 MSU John K. Hudzik Emerging Leader in Advancing International Studies and Programs Award. Dr. Aronoff is interested in research and teaching regarding Israeli politics, cultures, and society, as well as foreign policy. She is particularly interested in peace negotiations and the conditions under which wars end, as well as the means and limits of war. Her book, The Political Psychology of Israeli Prime Ministers: When Hard-Liners Opt for Peace,was published by Cambridge University Press (2014), and compares and contrasts six Israeli prime ministers and their decision-making on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Dr. Aronoff’s co-edited book, Continuity and Change in Political Culture: Israel and Beyond with Ilan Peleg and Saliba Sarsar, is forthcoming with Lexington Books, the Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group, in November 2020. Ten leading scholars in  political science, anthropology, Israel studies, and Middle East affairs address the theme of continuity and change in political culture as a tribute to Professor Myron (Mike) J. Aronoff, whose work on political culture has built conceptual and methodological bridges between political science and anthropology. Dr. Aronoff co-authored the introduction and also contributed the chapter “Pathways to Peace: Legitimation of a Two-State Solution. Her other recent publications include “The Zionist Center-Left Opposition to the Netanyahu Governments,” in Israel Under Netanyahu: Domestic Politics and Foreign Affairs, ed. Robert Freedman, Routledge, 2019 and “Israeli Prime Ministers: Transforming the Victimhood Discourse,” in The Victimhood Discourse in Contemporary Israel, Ed. Ilan Peleg. Roman & Littlefield, 2019. Dr. Aronoff current book project, The Dilemmas of Asymmetric Conflicts: Navigating Deterrence and Democratic Constraints, focuses primarily on the experiences of Israel and of the United States, and explores the tensions faced by democracies fighting long-standing asymmetric wars, as they juggle traditional military doctrines with the restraint needed to maintain domestic and international legitimacy as well as uphold international humanitarian law. Dr. Aronoff has published in Foreign Policy, Israel Studies, Israel Studies Review, Israel Studies Forum, and Political Science Quarterly, was book review editor for Israel Studies Review; and has served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Israel Studies for the past ten years. Professor Aronoff led the MSU Jewish Studies Summer Program at Hebrew University’s Rothberg School in 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2017. She has given approximately 100 public lectures and provides lectures as part of the Association of Jewish Studies Distinguished Lectureship Program