Dialogue2020-Dec10

Christopher Pyne (AU)

Christopher Pyne served as the 54th Australian Defence Minister, and was responsible for delivering the $200 billion build-up of Australia’s military capability, the largest in Australia’s peacetime history.

Serving previously as Minister for Defence Industry, Christopher assisted in the development of the 2016 Defence White Paper and implementing the Integrated Investment Program.

During his time as a Cabinet Minister in the Defence portfolio, Christopher:

Awarded the $35 billion Hunter Class Anti-Submarine Warfare frigates contract to BAES;
Backed in the $50 billion Attack Class Submarine project by Defence and Naval Group Australia;
Awarded the $3.7 billion Arafura Class Offshore Patrol Vessel project to Luerssen Australia, CIVMEC and the ASC;
Awarded the $5.2 billion Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle project to Rheinmettal Australia; and
Secured Australia as the Asia Pacific hub for the sustainment and maintenance of the F35-A Joint Strike

Christopher also worked to ensure the growth and sustainment of Australia’s Defence Industry, and thus implemented Australia’s Defence Export Strategy, Defence Industrial Capability Plan, and the Naval Shipbuilding Plan. He also created the Defence Cooperative Research Centre, the Centre for Defence Industry Capability, the Defence Innovation Hub, and the Next Generation Technology Fund.

On an international scale, Christopher was responsible for creating the Pacific Step Up to strengthen Australia’s strategic role in the South Pacific, and was the architect of the Australian Government’s position that Jerusalem should be the capital of Israel and East Jerusalem the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Christopher also worked to strengthen Australia’s defence ties with other countries, establishing the Australia France Initiative to take advantage of the close relationship with France through the Attack Class Submarine Project. He settled Defence Memoranda of Understanding with Israel, China, and Switzerland, and initiated Memoranda of Understanding with the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Christopher was also the driving force behind the establishment of the Australia Space Agency.

Christopher was a Minister in the Howard, Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison Governments, holding various portfolios including Ageing, Education, Industry Innovation and Science, and Defence.

As a Minister for Education and Minister for Industry Innovation and Science, respectively, Christopher delivered the National Innovation and Science Agenda, reformed the national curriculum, introduced compulsory literacy and numeracy testing for Australian teaching graduates and expanded phonics teaching.

Avi Dichter (IL)

Member of the Knesset

Mr. Avi Dicter is a member of the Knesset from the Likud party. He is currently the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. MK Dicter is former Minister of Public Security, Minister of Home Front Defense and former Director of Shin Bet – the Israel Security Agency.

Additionally, and not less importantly for Mr. Dicter, as the son of Holocaust survivors, he took a volunteer position as Chairman of the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel between 2013-2015.

Born in 1952 in Israel, Mr. Dicter served in the Israel Defense Forces elite commando unit known as Sayeret Matkal. Upon finishing his military service in 1974, he joined the Shin Bet where he advanced up the ranks from air marshal to Director of the Agency. He held this position from 2000-2005, a period of significant Palestinian terrorist activity which included the Al-Aqsa Intifada or Second Intifada. Mr. Dicter is credited with reforming the Shin Bet to effectively deal with this challenge, leading to a dramatic reduction in the number of terrorist attacks and to a restoration of public morale and safety.

Before reaching the top post at Shin-Bet, initially as an appointee of Prime Minister Ehud Barak and then, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, he served as director of the Southern District, including Gaza, Director of the Security and Protection Division – a position he took on after the assassination of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin – and as Deputy Director of the Agency.

As Minister of Public Security Mr. Dicter built Israel’s Witness Protection Program, and formed a national crime-fighting unit – Lahav 433 – modeled after the FBI. Additionally, he succeeded in passing the Communications Data Law and at the same time implementing the electronic gathering of fast, accurate and actionable intelligence. This led to the jailing of most of the heads of the largest crime organizations.

During his term as Minister of Public Security, he also introduced and signed cooperation agreements with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, with Canada’s Ministry of Public Safety, and with countries in the European Union.

During last few years Avi has been promoting the basic law: “Israel as the National State of the Jewish People”.

MK Avi Dicter holds a BA in Social Sciences from Bar-Ilan University, and an Executive MBA from Tel Aviv University. He also served as a research fellow at the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C. He speaks Hebrew, Arabic and English fluently. He is married to Ilana Dicter, and has three children and seven grandchildren.

Maj. Gen. Amos Gilead

Executive Director, Institute for Policy & Strategy (UPS) & Chairman of the Annual Herzliya Conference Series, IDC Herzliya

General Amos Gilead is the Executive Director of the Institute for Policy and Strategy (IPS) at IDC Herzliya and is the Chairman of the Institute’s Annual Herzliya Conference Series. Concurrently, General Gilead teaches security and intelligence studies at IDC Herzliya’s Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy & Strategy.

Prior to assuming his current position in February 2017, General Gilead led a distinguished career for more than three decades in the IDF and in the Israeli Defense Establishment, his last position being Director of Policy and Political-Military Affairs at the Ministry of Defense. In that position, which he held for more than 13 years, General Gilead managed Israel’s international defense and political-military relations and played a key role in developing Israel’s defense relations with key Sunni-Arab nations.

General Gilead dedicated most of his military career to the Military Intelligence Corps. As Chief of the Intelligence Research and Analysis Division, General Gilead was responsible for producing the national intelligence assessment and national strategic (political and military) production and analysis. Prior to this, General Gilead also served as the Spokesperson of IDF and as the Military Secretary (Aide de Camp) to Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, Yitzhak Rabin.

Achieving the rank of Major General in 2001, General Gilead was appointed Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT). In that position he held through 2003, General Gilead was responsible for the overall relations with the Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority. In 2006, he was reassigned to this position in addition to his position in the Ministry of Defense.

General Gilead participated in several rounds of the peace process and negotiations with the Palestinians, including as a senior member of the Israeli delegation to the IsraeliJordanian/Palestinian peace talks following the Madrid Peace Conference. General Gilead was a special envoy on the Israeli MIA soldiers to PLO Chairman Arafat. In 2008, General Gilead headed the Israeli team of the military affairs working group in the negotiations following the Annapolis Peace Conference.

General Gilead earned his Master’s degree in National Security Studies from the University of Haifa and the National Security College. He is the recipient of the U.S. Legion of Merit and of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Director’s Award.

Boaz Ganor (IL)

Founder and executive director, International Institute for Counter-Terrorism

Professor Boaz Ganor is Ronald Lauder Chair for Counter-Terrorism and dean of the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel. He serves as the founding president of the International Academic Counter-Terrorism Community, an international association of academic institutions, experts, and researchers in fields related to the study of terrorism and counter- terrorism. Boaz previously held positions at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, the Hoover Institution (Koret Distinguished Visiting Fellow), the Monterey Institute of International Studies, MIPT (The National Memorial for the Prevention of Terrorism), Hebrew University and Bar Ilan University. He was also a member of the international advisory team of the Manhattan Institute to the New York Police Department.

He is a member of the International Advisory Council of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, Nanyang Technological University, The Republic of Singapore. He is also a co-founder of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, a partnership between the University of Pennsylvania, Israel’s Interdisciplinary Centre, London’s King’s College and and the Regional Center on Conflict Prevention in Jordan. Since 2014, Ron has been a member of the executive committee of the academic advisory to the Institute for the Study of Global Anti-Semitism and Policy.

He has given briefings and/or testimonies to the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate, the Australian Parliament, the US Congress, the US Army, the FBI, the US Department of Homeland Security, as well as numerous intelligence, security and police services throughout the world. In 2001, Ron was appointed as a member of the advisory committee of the Israel National Security Council on Counter-Terrorism, and he has previously served as a member of the Israeli delegation to the Trilateral (American-Palestinian-Israeli) Committee for Monitoring Incitement to Violence and Terror. He also advised the Israeli delegation for peace negotiations with Jordan. In 1995, he was a consultant to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his book Fighting Terrorism – How democracies can defeat domestic and international terrorism.

Ron has published numerous articles on terrorism and counter-terrorism. His book The Counter-Terrorism Puzzle – A Guide for Decision Makers (Transaction Publishers, 2005), is used as a text book in universities worldwide and his upcoming book, Global Alert: Modern terrorism rationality and the challenge to the democratic world will be published by Columbia University Press. He is also the editor of Countering Suicide Terrorism (2001) and Post-Modern Terrorism (2006). He a frequent media and television commentator and has appeared on the BBC, CNN, CBS, ABC, and in The New York Times, the Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, the Jerusalem Post, Haaretz and many other Israeli and international publications.