Speaker Bio

Dr. Carmit Valensi is a senior fellow and the Director of Syria research program at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). She specializes in contemporary Middle East, strategic studies, and terrorism. Valensi completed her Ph.D. in the Department of Political Science at Tel Aviv University. Her research focuses on "Hybrid Actors" – the cases of Hamas, Hizbollah, and FARC. In 2010-2011 she was a research fellow within the Fox Fellowship program in international studies at Yale University. During the years 2012-2020 Dr. Valensi worked as a senior analyst at the Intelligence Directorate (IDF) research department. She is the co-author of “Syrian Requiem: The civil war and its aftermath, published by Princeton University Press, 2021.