The 8th Herzliya Conference 2008

The Eighth Annual Herzliya Conference on the Balance of Israel’s National Security In cooperation with the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies, Shalem Center, was held in January 2008 – at the beginning of Israel’s 60th year of Independence. To mark the occasion, the first day of deliberations and the opening ceremonies were held at the Knesset in Jerusalem.
Leaders, senior officials, practitioners, business people and experts – from Israel and abroad – deliberated emergent and topical issues related to three main dimensions: national and domestic policy, including the intensifying security risks and the increased direct threat to the civilian population, the crisis in the education and higher learning systems, and the perceived deterioration in the functioning of the branches of government; regional trends, focusing on the responses to the nuclearization of Iran and the risks of nuclear proliferation, along with an assessment of attempts to revive the Israeli-Arab negotiation process; and finally, the intricate and interdependent global processes, including the risks and crises arising from the fluctuations of the finance and credit markets, the decreasing supply of food, the soaring demand for energy, and climate change.