Maj. Gen. (ret.) Amos Yadlin is the executive director of Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), the leading strategic think tank in Israel.

Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yadlin was designated minister of defense of the Zionist Union Party in the March 2015 elections.

Prior to joining INSS, Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yadlin served over forty years in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), ten of which as a member of the IDF General Staff, culminating in his appointment as the IDF’s chief of defense intelligence from 2006-2010.

From 2004-2006, he served as the IDF attaché to the United States and from 2002-2004 as commander of the IDF Military Colleges and the National Defense College.

Yadlin, a former deputy commander of the Israel Air Force, has commanded two fighter squadrons and two airbases. He accumulated about 5,000 flight hours and flew more than 250 combat missions behind enemy lines. He participated in the Yom Kippur War (1973), Operation Peace for Galilee (1982) and Operation Tamuz – the destruction of the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq (1981).

Yadlin holds a bachelor of arts in economics and business administration from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (1985). He also holds a master’s degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (1994). Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yadlin’s primary areas of expertise include strategy and national security; the changes in the Middle East; the Iranian nuclear challenge; US-Israel relations; force buildup and the defense budget; intelligence; cyber-related challenges; civil-military relations, and the military ethics of fighting terror.