Israel is a country of puzzling paradoxes: a regional superpower afflicted with existential fears; a very threatened yet one of the happiest societies, worldwide; a startup nation that procreate more than any other western society; and a liberal democracy – possibly turning totalitarian. Prof. Uriel Abulof proposes to explore global lessons from Israel about the politics of fear, happiness, and hope.

Send an email to Lauren Schwartz to join in-person in the Cyril Black Seminar Room, Bendheim Hall; or register here to join online via Zoom.

About the Speaker

Dr. Uriel Abulof is an associate professor of political science at Tel-Aviv University, teaching also at Cornell University. Abulof studies the politics of fear, happiness and hope, legitimation, social movements, nationalism, and ethnic conflicts. He has published over sixty peer-reviewed academic articles, several books and edited volumes, including The Mortality and Morality of Nations (Cambridge University Press) and Living on the Edge: The Existential Uncertainty of Zionism (Haifa University Press). Abulof introduces “political existentialism” as novel approach in the social sciences. He directs various public projects, including Double-Edged, a Psychology Today blog, the Sapienism initiative, and the edX award-wining online course, HOPE.

Abulof is a founding member of the Program on Religion, Diplomacy, and International Relations (PORDIR) at the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination (LISD) at Princeton University, and has published on self-determination with LISD Founding Director Wolfgang Danspeckgruber.