Rob Geist Pinfold
Adjunct Professor
About
Rob Geist Pinfold is an Adjunct Professor at SAIS Europe, where he teaches on the Arab-Israel conflict. He is also a Lecturer in Peace and Security at Durham University, a Research Fellow at the Peace Research Center Prague, and a Senior Fellow at Charles University's Herzl Center for Israel Studies. Rob holds a PhD in War Studies from King’s College London.
Rob is a scholar of international security whose research intersects the study of strategy and territorial conflict. Regionally, he focuses on wars and warfare in the Middle East, in particular the Arab-Israel conflict and Israel’s foreign and security policies. His existing work engages with two key themes: (i) military occupation and exit dilemmas and (ii) grand strategy. His work has been published in academic journals, such as the Journal of Global Security Studies, International Studies Perspectives, the Journal of Strategic Studies, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, and Mediterranean Politics. His full-length book manuscript, Understanding Territorial Withdrawal: Israeli Occupations and Exits, was published by Oxford University Press in 2023. Alongside his academic outputs, he has given regular commentary to France 24, al Jazeera, and the BBC.
Rob is a scholar of international security whose research intersects the study of strategy and territorial conflict. Regionally, he focuses on wars and warfare in the Middle East, in particular the Arab-Israel conflict and Israel’s foreign and security policies. His existing work engages with two key themes: (i) military occupation and exit dilemmas and (ii) grand strategy. His work has been published in academic journals, such as the Journal of Global Security Studies, International Studies Perspectives, the Journal of Strategic Studies, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, and Mediterranean Politics. His full-length book manuscript, Understanding Territorial Withdrawal: Israeli Occupations and Exits, was published by Oxford University Press in 2023. Alongside his academic outputs, he has given regular commentary to France 24, al Jazeera, and the BBC.
- Annexation Attempts as a Two-Level Game: Israel and the West Bank in 1967 and 2020 , with E. Eiran, in The Journal of Global Security Studies 9:2 (2024)
- The Routledge Handbook on Israel's Foreign Relations, with J. Peters (editors), Routledge (2024)
- Understanding Territorial Withdrawal: Israeli Occupations and Exits, Oxford University Press (2023)
- Security, Terrorism and Territorial Withdrawal: Critically Reassessing the Lessons of Israel's “Unilateral Disengagement” from the Gaza Strip , in International Studies Perspectives 24:1 (2022)
- The Limits of Israel's Periphery Doctrine: Lessons from the Caucasus and Central Asia , with J. Peters, in Mediterranean Politics 26:1 (2021)
- Theorising Territorial Withdrawal: The Need to Think Strategically , with M. L. R. Smith, in Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 45:4 (2022)
- Territorial Withdrawal as Multilateral Bargaining: Revisiting Israel's “Unilateral” Withdrawals from Gaza and Southern Lebanon, in The Journal of Strategic Studies 44:3 (2021)
- Understanding Israel: Political, Security and Societal Challenges, with J. Peters (editors), Routledge (2018)
- Consolidating Right-Wing Hegemony: The Israeli Election, 2015, with J. Peters, in Mediterranean Politics 20:3 (2015)