Dr. Nir Boms

Research Fellow, Moshe Dayan Center, Tel Aviv University and Research Fellow, International Center for Counter Terrorism, Herzlyia

Dr. Boms is a research fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University and the coordinator of the TAU Workshop in Israel and the Middle East.  He is a member of the board of the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in Schools and the Co-Founder of CyberDissidents.org, a network of bloggers from the Middle East that focuses on freedom of expression and the promotion of dialogue in the region. Prior to his return to Israel in 2004, he served as the Vice President of the Washington based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD). Prior to his tenure at FDD, Dr. Boms was the Academic Liaison of the Embassy of Israel in Washington, DC, where he served as an educator, specialist and guest lecturer on Israeli and Middle Eastern affairs. 

Dr. Boms' articles have appeared in Ynet , Ha’aretz, The Wall Street Journal, Le Monde Diplomatiq, Dante, The Washington Times, Iran Times International,  Today Zaman (Turkey), The Jerusalem Post, The National Review, The Asia Times, The National Interests,  and Israeli Journal of Foreign Affairs, among others. He also participated in the writing of “Copts in Egypt, A Christian Minority Under Siege” (G2W-Verlag, 2006) and “The Long March to the West” (Valentine Mitchell, 2007). His forthcoming book Expat-ing Democracy will be published in 2016 by Peter Lang. Dr. Boms has extensive educational and outreach experience working in Israel, the United States and Europe. During the course of his career, he has taught and lectured in Australia, Bulgaria England, Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Hong Kong, the United States, the United Nations and its Human Rights Council, on issues relating to the Middle East, Terrorism, Islam and Democracy. He is fluent in Hebrew, English and Arabic.

Dr. Boms received his doctorate from the University of Haifa. His dissertation deals with the influence of information technology on the creation of civic society in Syria and Iran. He holds two Master degrees in the fields of Political Science and Judaic Studies from the University of Maryland, as well as a Bachelor's degree in Education and Political Science from the University of Haifa. He currently teaches at the Rothberg School of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, in addition to Tel Aviv University. 

Dr. Boms served in the Israeli Defense Forces as a communications officer and holds the rank of Captain (Res).