Focus areas

Where economic security becomes concrete

IESI concentrates on questions where exposure can be identified, consequences can be assessed and an institutional decision exists somewhere downstream. The areas below define the current field of work. They are interconnected rather than separate programmes.

Strategic supply chains and industrial capacity

The inputs, production capacity and supplier relationships that strategic industries depend on.

Questions

Which critical inputs are concentrated among one or a small number of qualified suppliers?
Where does Israel require domestic capacity, and where is allied capacity sufficient?
Which industrial constraints would become binding first under a prolonged disruption?
When are stockpiling, supplier diversification or new production capacity economically justified?
How can Israel and allied nations build complementary rather than duplicative capacity?

Trade, market access and economic coercion

Israel’s ability to maintain access to customers, suppliers and international commercial systems under changing political conditions.

Questions

Where are Israeli exports most concentrated by market and category?
Which trade relationships would be difficult to replace?
How resilient is Israeli trade to coordinated restrictions across shipping, aviation, finance and commercial access?
Where is market diversification commercially realistic?
How should Israel respond to economic pressure without drifting toward costly self-sufficiency?

Capital and strategic investment

The availability, origin and strategic implications of capital supporting industries important to Israel’s long-term economic position.

Questions

How dependent are strategically significant sectors on foreign capital?
How does geopolitical risk affect financing conditions and investor behaviour?
Where can long-term institutional capital from allied economies play a larger role?
What forms of investment screening protect strategic interests without unnecessarily deterring productive capital?
Which sectors face financing constraints that could become strategic constraints?

Energy, infrastructure and logistics

The physical systems through which economic continuity is maintained.

Questions

Where are the most consequential single points of failure across energy, ports, logistics, water and critical infrastructure?
How resilient are maritime and commercial routes under prolonged disruption?
How quickly do freight, insurance and transport shocks reach domestic prices and production?
What regional alternatives are operationally credible?
Where can redundancy be built at reasonable economic cost?

Fiscal capacity, productivity and human capital

The domestic economic foundations required to sustain national power over time.

Questions

How can Israel finance a structurally higher security burden without weakening fiscal credibility?
Which constraints on productivity most directly affect long-term strategic capacity?
Where can greater labour-force participation materially expand the economic base?
Which investments in infrastructure, education and human capital have the highest long-term security value?
What reforms would increase growth while preserving Israel’s ability to respond to future shocks?

Allied economic cooperation and statecraft

The economic relationships through which Israel and allied nations strengthen common strategic interests.

Questions

Which US–Israel economic, industrial and research mechanisms remain underused?
Where can Israel become more economically indispensable to key allies?
What forms of joint industrial capacity create strategic value for both sides?
How can the economic architecture of regional normalization become more durable?
Where do European, regional and Indo-Pacific partners offer complementary capacity?
How can trade, technology, finance and energy relationships strengthen strategic alignment?

The test

A practical contribution must be possible

IESI does not treat every important economic question as an institutional mandate.

The strongest candidates for sustained work are those where the exposure can be measured, the strategic consequence is material and a decision-maker or institutional pathway exists.

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