Moshe Dayan: The Making of a Strategist

by Eitan Shamir

Overview

In this major re-evaluation of Moshe Dayan's life and career, Eitan Shamir examines one of the most influential individuals in the history of modern Israel. As IDF Chief of Staff, theatre commander during the Sinai campaign and defence minister during the Six Days and Yom Kippur Wars, Dayan shaped Israeli history as well as the principles of Israel's security and foreign affairs. Eitan Shamir explores the basis and justification for Dayan's reputation as a strategist and what made his command and leadership unique. He reveals the ways in which Moshe Dayan led and planned his campaigns, how he made his decisions and his style as a general and a strategist. His findings shed important new light on broader issues of military command and culture, political-military relations, insurgency and counterinsurgency and the relations between small states and large powers, drawing lasting lessons for strategy today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781009032544
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/10/2025
Series:	Cambridge Military Histories
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	19 MB
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About the Author

Eitan Shamir is a professor in the Political Studies Department at Bar Ilan University and serves as the Managing Director of the Begin Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA Center). He is author of the 'Art of Military Innovation: Lessons from the IDF' with Edward Luttwak.

Table of Contents

Preface; 1. The Education of a Strategist; 2. From Tactical Command to Political Negotiator: The War of Independance; 3. Generalship; 4. Theater Commander: The Sinai Campaign; 5. 'The Minister of Victory': The Six-Day War; 6. Minister of the Palestinian Territories; 7. The War of Attrition: Fighting Egyptians and Soviets; 8. The God Who Failed; 9. The Turning Point; 10. The Deal Maker: Peace With Egypt; 11. The Development of a Strategist; Index.

Editorial Reviews

‘Moshe Dayan is one of those historical figures whose stock rises and falls. Eitan Shamir has done an excellent job of presenting Dayan the strategist, with faults, to be sure, but also tremendous virtues and a remarkable record of success at all levels of war. This well-argued work will be the point of departure for all future studies of Israel’s iconic - and to this day, enigmatic - one-eyed general.’ Eliot A. Cohen, Arleigh Burke Chair in Strategy, CSIS

‘An original, well-balanced and comprehensive assessment of Dayan's military career, which avoids both pitfalls of one-sided adulation and superficial criticism.’ Azar Gat, author of War in Human Civilization

‘A lucid and convincing analysis of Dayan’s idiosyncratic thinking and strategy making, and a cracking read! Especially the parts on the Suez Campaign and the Yom Kippur War are clamouring for a film director to turn it into a docudrama. Excellent!’ Beatrice Heuser, author of War: A Genealogy of Western Ideas and Practices

‘With his usual erudition and incisive perspective, Professor Shamir has drawn out the attributes that make Moshe Dayan an important military figure. As the author shows in a compelling diagnosis, Dayan is not just a critical figure in the founding of Israel. Dayan was a creative, adaptive and extremely focused strategist who, despite the shock of the 1973 Yom Kippur, belongs on a short list of history's top military minds for study. This is an impressive biography that reconstructs the tensions inherent to senior military command and policy making under adverse conditions. It belongs on every strategist's bookshelf.’ Frank Hoffman, author of Mars Adapting: Military Change During War

‘Eitan Shamir's vivid biography of ideas gives us a balanced view of this seminal and controversial figure of Israeli history, revealing Dayan as the educated grand strategist, ruthless operational leader, and courageous tactician. Here we find the insights for overcoming friction, the focus on a singular goal, the value of opportunism, and, above all, a warning that to utilise one's experiences and education can never be taken for granted. Shamir weaves sound military advice into his analysis, drawing on his subject to speak to us through the generations, be that in attention to detail, the need for constant professional learning, or the management of political anxieties.’ Robert Johnson, Pembroke College, Oxford

‘This is definitely the definitive Moshe Dayan biography. Two men made it possible for Israel to secure its independence, first Ben Gurion who outmanoeuvred the British plan to defeat the new state with the British-armed armies of Egypt, Jordan and Iraq, and then in the next two decades Moshe Dayan, who inspired Israel's commando-style army that was much stronger than its firepower. But all along Dayan was also the Israeli leader who best understood the Arabs whom he first met in his childhood and first fought as an adolescent, because he could truly see Israel from their point of view, and fully comprehend their loss. Hence no mentality change was needed when Dayan became the diplomat striving with all his strength for peace with Egypt from 1973.All this emerges very powerfully in Professor Shamir's biography, for which he has systematically collected every significant piece of evidence, from tactical details to broad policies, achieving an evocation of the man that I for one found utterly convincing, and fully consistent with my own personal recollections.’ Edward N. Luttwak, author of Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace

From the Publisher