Adam Sharon

I am a first-year student in the MPhil in International Relations program and a member of Somerville College. My research focuses primarily on deterrence in conflicts involving states and violent non-state actors, particularly in the context of Israel and the broader Middle East. I am also deeply interested in the evolution of Israeli strategic thinking following 7 October, and in the challenges US-Israel relations pose to traditional scholarship in International Relations.

Before Oxford, I completed an MA degree in Politics and Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with First Class Honours. My undergraduate dissertation used a quantitative analysis of surveys to explain the meteoric rise of the Religious Zionist Party in Israel during 2022. I presented the findings of this research at conferences at the Technical University of Dresden and the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Germany and Israel, respectively.

Outside my studies, I was a research assistant at Tel Aviv University where I worked with Professor Uriya Shavit on his forthcoming book (The Jewish Civil War, 2025) which assesses the role of religion in shaping voting behavior in Israel. While at the INSS, I also conducted research on Middle Eastern affairs and co-authored articles on the foreign policy of Egypt and Jordan.

Research Interests

• Deterrence Theory

• Middle Eastern Conflicts

• US-Israel relations

• Structural Realism in IR

• Religion and Voting Behavior

• Far-Right Extremism

Languages

• Hebrew (Native)

• English (C2)

• French (A1)

• Arabic (A1)