Dr Asaf Siniver

Department of Political Science and International Studies
Reader in International Security
Head of Internationalisation, School of Government
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Global Security Studies

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0)121 414 6386
Fax: +44 (0)121 414 3496
Email: a.siniver@bham.ac.uk

View my research portal

Address: POLSIS - School of Government
Muirhead Tower
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Siniver is a Reader in International Security. His work is broadly concerned with conflict resolution and international mediation, the Arab-Israeli conflict, foreign policy analysis, and contemporary US foreign policy.

He is currently a Leverhulme Research Fellow (2020-22) on the project “From Mediation to Arbitration: Conflict Resolution and Territorial Disputes”.

Qualifications

PhD, International Relations (Nottingham), 2006
MA, International Relations (Nottingham), 2002
BA, Political Science (Tel Aviv), 1997

Biography

Dr. Siniver joined POLSIS in 2007. He works on conflict resolution and international mediation, contemporary US foreign policy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) and international security. He has published four books and numerous journal articles, reports and policy briefs on these issues, and has advised governmental and non-governmental actors working in these areas. His research has been funded by various bodies, including the ESRC, British Academy, Leverhulme, Universitas21, and several Presidential Libraries in the USA. He is a Trainer in Conflict resolution, Transformation, and Peacebuilding at the International Centre for Parliamentary Studies, and an Affiliate of the Institute for Conflict, Cooperation, and Security. He was previously editor of the journal Civil Wars, and currently the editor of the International Studies Association's Journal of Global Security Studies (JoGSS).

Postgraduate supervision

Dr. Siniver currently supervises PhD students in the following areas:

Low-leverage states in international mediation
Interpersonal trust in back-channel diplomacy
Foreign Policy Analysis of US and UK decision-making on the Iraq war
International mediation and cease-fire agreements
The role of communities in disengagement and demobilization of former fighters
Saudi foreign and security policies
The Arab Spring and Syrian politics

He welcomes applications from potential PhD students in the fields of conflict resolution, contemporary US foreign policy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and Foreign Policy Analysis.

Research

Research Interests

Conflict management and resolution, especially third-party mediation and international arbitration
The making of contemporary US foreign policy
The politics, diplomacy, and history of the Arab-Israeli conflict
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict and peace process
The theory and practice of diplomacy

Current Projects

Dr Siniver is currently working on a project funded by a Leverhulme Fellowship (2020-22, #RF-2020-426) on the topic of “From Mediation to Arbitration: Conflict Resolution and Territorial disputes”. The project will result in a single-authored monograph with Oxford University Press (under contract).

Other activities

Leverhulme Research Fellow (2020-22)

Trainer in Conflict Resolution, Transformation and Peacebuilding at the International Centre for Parliamentary Studies.

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Siniver, A 2015, Abba Eban: A Biography. 1st edn, Overlook Press, New Work.

Siniver, A 2010, International Terrorism post 9/11: Comparative Dynamics and Responses. Routledge.

Article

Siniver, A & Featherstone, C 2020, 'Low-conceptual complexity and Trump's foreign policy', Global Affairs, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 71-85. https://doi.org/10.1080/23340460.2020.1734953

Siniver, A & Lucas, S 2019, 'Understanding tacit security regimes', Journal of Global Security Studies, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 510-525. https://doi.org/10.1093/jogss/ogz034

Siniver, A 2016, 'Anti-Intellectualism and Israeli Politics', British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 630-643. https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2016.1166936

Siniver, A & Lucas, W 2016, 'The Islamic State lexical battleground: US foreign policy and the abstraction of threat', International Affairs, vol. 92, no. 1, pp. 63-79. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2346.12507

Siniver, A & Cabrera, A 2015, '"'Good Citizen Europe' and the Middle East Peace Process"', International Studies Perspectives, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 210-228.

Siniver, A 2015, 'Abba Eban and the Development of American–Israeli Relations, 1950–1959', Diplomacy and Statecraft, vol. 26, no. 1, 4, pp. 65-83.

Siniver, A & Collins, J 2015, 'Airpower and Quagmire: Historical Analogies and the Second Lebanon War', Foreign Policy Analysis, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 215-231.

Siniver, A 2012, 'Arbitrating the Israeli-Palestinian territorial dispute', International Politics, vol. 49, no. 1, pp. 117-129. https://doi.org/10.1057/ip.2011.30

Siniver, A 2012, '‘Israeli Identities and the Politics of Threat: A Constructivist Interpretation’', Ethnopolitics, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 24-42. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449057.2011.571186

Siniver, A 2011, '‘Change Nobody Believes In: Obama and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict’', Diplomacy and Statecraft, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 678. https://doi.org/10.1080/09592296.2011.625825

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Siniver, A 2012, The Limits of Public Diplomacy: Abba Eban and the June 1967 War. in C Jones & T Petersen (eds), Israel's Clandestine Diplomacies. Columbia University Press.