This program was initiated at the beginning of 2004 and ended in March 2005. The aim was to create a forum for the research of national security that will be an independent research group sponsored by the S. Neaman Institute.
The objective of the forum was to establish a research infrastructure on national security with the aid of, and potential incorporation of, Israeli research institutes, the aim of which would be to base the knowledge in this field on thorough and methodical research. The forum was intended to deal with subjects such as: what is the sociological infrastructure of national security? What are the psychological and social “resources†needed for maintaining a suitable level of national security? What is the definition or definitions of “social strength†and what is its characterization with regard to the variables and the processes that manifest the level of social strength.
Three research scholarships were approved by the program and given to four researchers who investigated the subject of social strength. These researchers were:
Prof. Asher Arian of the Haifa University who produced an article entitled Social Resilience in Israel,
Prof. Avi Kirshenbaum of the Technion who wrote about Adapting Behaviors of Israeli Civilians to Palestinian Terror,
and Dr. Karin Amit and Ms. Nicole Fleischer of the Carmel Institute whose article is Between Social Resilience and Social Capital.
The three articles were published under the title The Concept of Social Resilience, with an introduction by Prof. Friedland called The “Elusive” Concept of Social Resilience. This publication is generating a high level of interest.
