Avner Cohen

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Avner Cohen (born 1951) is an Israeli-American writer, historian, and professor. He is a prominent figure in the nonproliferation academic community, well known for his works on Israel's nuclear history, global nuclear history, and strategic policy. He is currently a professor of Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, where he also serves as a senior affiliate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. Dr. Cohen is a member of the Editorial Board of the Nonproliferation Review and a fellow and contributing editor of the National Security Archive at the George Washington University. He is also a regular contributor to Israel's daily, Haaretz.

Cohen grew up north of Tel Aviv in Ramat HaSharon. He received a B.A. in philosophy and history from Tel Aviv University in 1975. He then studied at York University where he received an M.A. in philosophy in 1977 and four years later earned a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in the Committee on History of Culture. After these studies he embarked on an academic career, teaching first at Washington University in St. Louis, then sequentially at Ben-Gurion University, Tel Aviv University, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, The George Washington University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of Haifa, and the University of Maryland. Since 2011 he has been a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. Over the decades of teaching, he has taught classes on nuclear weapons, terrorism, security and WMD in the Middle East, morality and contemporary security, proliferation and intelligence, global politics, nuclear weapons and democracy, Israel and the bomb, and many other classes on philosophy, policy, and ethics.

Cohen previously held research and fellowship positions at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM), the National Security Archive, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Jennings Randolph Program for International Peace (USIP), and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Cohen has researched various issues with regard to international relations and nuclear weapons, including deterrence, morality, and proliferation. His seminal work, Israel and the Bomb, which chronicled the history of the Israeli nuclear program, was published in 1998 (Columbia University Press). This book led to a decade-long series of encounters with the Israeli military censor, and other security offices in Israel, that ultimately resulted in a substantial and unprecedented criminal investigation against Cohen upon his return to Israel in March 2001 to give a keynote speech at an academic conference.

Cohen has authored and edited seven books: Nuclear Weapons and the Future of Humanity (Edited with Steven Lee, 1986), Humanity in the Shadow of the Bomb (1987, in Hebrew), The Nuclear Age: A Chapter in Moral History (1989, in Hebrew), The Institution of Philosophy: A Discipline in Crisis (with Marcelo Dascal, 1989), Israel and the Bomb (1998), Israel's Last Taboo (2005, in Hebrew), and The Worst-Kept Secret: Israel's Bargain with the Bomb (2010). Some of his books have been translated or re-released in French and Farsi (an illegal publication).