Shlomo Shpiro

Prof. Shlomo Shpiro holds the Paterson Chair in Security and Intelligence and was until recently Head of the Political Studies Department at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. Prof. Shpiro is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (BA 1992), the University of Salford (MA 1994) and the University of Birmingham (PhD 1998), and at the European University Center for Peace Studies EPU in Austria (1993). He specializes in the fields of intelligence, terrorism and security, with emphasis also on crisis management and crisis communication, counter terrorism, societal resilience and internal security issues.  He is currently on a research sabbatical in Germany.

Formerly Research Coordinator at the Israeli Parliament, Prof. Shpiro conducted research at leading universities in Europe and Israel and has published extensively on intelligence, terrorism and security. In the aftermath of the Kosovo war, in the years 1999-2001, he led a NATO-funded project on improving intelligence cooperation between NATO and Mediterranean countries. In the years 2009-2012 he was Coordinator of the highly successful FP7 'SAFE-COMMS' project (www.safe-comms.eu), developing the EU Terrorism Crisis Communication Strategy.  He lectured widely on intelligence and security, including at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the UK Ministry of Defence, the US Department of Homeland Security, and dozens of other top level venues all over the world.

Research:

Prof. Shpiro’s recent work focuses on five key areas:

1. Terrorism crisis management and crisis communication;
2. Technologies and policies for enhancing societal resilience;
3. New technologies and methods for homeland security;
4. Intelligence and the protection of critical infrastructures;
5. The intelligence activities of terror organizations.

He published widely in his fields of specialization.