Message from IPS Director - Gen. (res.) Danny Rothschild

Since its founding, the Institute for Policy and Strategy (IPS) and its flagship event, the Annual Herzliya Conference Series, have become internationally renowned for addressing national, regional and global pressing issues. The Herzliya Conference is a center stage for policy and through its deliberations, it frames critical issues, facilitates informed debates, and yields concrete and applicable strategies. 

Under my chairmanship, the Herzliya Conference Series underwent a qualitative revision by supplementing deliberations pre-Conference taskforces and off-the-record roundtable discussions held alongside the plenary sessions. The 2011 Conference was particularly timely, held amidst the wave of uprisings in the Middle East. I introduced the Herziya Assessment on national, regional and international issues which gave the framework for the Conference’s agenda and deliberations. The Conference convened a senior-most cadre of global leaders and thinkers and the largest number of international participants to deliberate a host of pertinent matters. The Conference was also adapted to state-of-the art settings, designs and technologies of major global fora that facilitated multiple engaging formats of deliberation on the crucial items that made up the Conference agenda. 

Together with the dedicated team, I am committed to taking the Institute and its Herzliya Conference to new levels of influence and impact that will enhance their capacity as a major international policy-shaping enterprise. To that end, the Institute will leverage the Conference deliberations, bolster its round-the-year work cycle, and enhance its already substantial global institutional network and outreach.  

My hope is that the policy deliberations and rigorous research held under the auspices of the Institute will provide much necessary input toward the formation of sound strategies for Israel and the region. 

In many respects, the hometown of the Institute, Herzliya, named after Theodore Herzl, the visionary of modern Zionism, epitomizes the belief that Israel and the Jewish people must take charge of their destiny to actively shape events and processes critical to the future of Israel. This belief guides the Institute’s work.   

I thank you for your interest in the Institute and the Herzliya Conference and I call upon our friends in Israel and the world over to join us in this essential endeavor. 

Gen. (res.) Danny Rothschild