Prof. Louis René Beres

198 POSTS
LOUIS RENÉ BERES (Ph.D., Princeton, 1971) is Emeritus Professor of International Law at Purdue. His twelfth and most recent book is Surviving Amid Chaos: Israel's Nuclear Strategy (2016) (2nd ed., 2018) https://paw.princeton.edu/new-books/surviving-amid-chaos-israel%E2%80%99s-nuclear-strategy Some of his principal strategic writings have appeared in Harvard National Security Journal (Harvard Law School); International Security (Harvard University); Yale Global Online (Yale University); Oxford University Press (Oxford University); Oxford Yearbook of International Law (Oxford University Press); Parameters: Journal of the US Army War College (Pentagon); Special Warfare (Pentagon); Modern War Institute (Pentagon); The War Room (Pentagon); World Politics (Princeton); INSS (The Institute for National Security Studies)(Tel Aviv); Israel Defense (Tel Aviv); BESA Perspectives (Israel); International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence; The Atlantic; The New York Times and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Exclusive articles:

“On A Darkling Plain” – Humankind’s Core Obligation to Prevent Nuclear War

“And we are here as on a darkling plain….” -Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach It’s not a subtle or controversial observation: Unless humankind is able to...

Reason And Existence: Israel And Nuclear War

“The rational is not thinkable without its other, the non-rational, and never appears in reality without it.” - Karl Jaspers, Reason and Existence (1935) Introduction Along...

Punishing “Intentional Acts of Injustice”: Israel’s Legal Rights Against Jihadist Terror

“An intentional act of injustice is an injury. A Nation has therefore the right to punish it…. This right to resist injustice is derived...

Primal Connections: Death, Time and Nuclear War

“It is through death that there is time….” Emmanuel Levinas, God, Death and Time (1976) The threat is not mysterious. In the final analysis, it...

Enhancing Strategic Deterrence: Israel and Limited Nuclear War

“For by Wise Counsel, Thou Shalt Make Thy War.”-Proverbs 24,6 On its face, the idea of a “limited nuclear war” seems self-contradictory, both generically and...

Recognizing “Palestine”: A Disregard for Authoritative International Law

The long-simmering issue of Palestinian statehood is back on the front burner. Recently, over one-third of British Parliament members signed a letter urging Prime...

Preparing for the “Next War”: The Infinite Lethality of World Politics

"Where will it end? When will it all be lulled back into sleep, and cease, the bloody hatred, the destruction?" -Aeschylus, Agamemnon In world politics,...

After the Preemptive Strikes on Iran: Evolving Limits of Israel’s Nuclear Ambiguity

In consequence of recent hostilities, Iran’s prospects for gaining military nuclear capacity have been significantly degraded. Ipso facto, the potential Iranian nuclear threat to...

Back to the Microcosm: Deeper Meanings of World Politics

“The State is the march of God in the world.”-Georg Friedrich Hegel, Philosophy of Right (1820) An Inconspicuous Struggle Ultimately, world politics is not about military...

Israel, Syria and Jihadi Terror

On May 13, 2025, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. will cease sanctions against Syria “to give them a chance at greatness.” As...

Latest

Could Gaza’s Uncovered Remains Lead to New War Crimes Investigations?

The recovery of hundreds of bodies from beneath buildings...

How Belarus Is Using Courts to Crack Down on Lukashenko’s Critics

Belarusian state institutions have worked together to suppress critics...

How Russia’s Jet Drones Are Challenging Ukraine’s Air Defenses

Ukraine is facing a new challenge in its air...

Why Trump’s Ukraine Energy Truce May Not Fix the Global Diesel Crunch

U.S. President Donald Trump's effort to broker an energy...
spot_imgspot_img