I am a DPhil candidate in International Relations under the supervision of Professor Stathis Kalyvas. My research seeks to develop a general theory explaining why states sometimes respond to armed provocations with large-scale military escalation but exercise restraint in response to others that appear remarkably similar. This work expands the scope of my MPhil dissertation, which developed an explanation for this puzzle through a study of Israel’s responses to Hezbollah provocations since 2000, drawing on interviews with senior officials alongside archival research. I am grateful to Nuffield College and the Department of Politics and International Relations for funding this research.
I hold an MPhil in International Relations from Oxford and an MA in Politics and Philosophy from the University of Edinburgh. 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 University of Warsaw, the Technical University of Dresden and the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Poland, Germany, and Israel, respectively.
Before Oxford, I was a research assistant at Tel Aviv University where I worked with Professor Uriya Shavit on his book, The Jewish War (2025), which assesses the role of religion in shaping voting behaviour 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
- Military Escalation
- Process Tracing
- Structural Realism in IR
Languages
- Hebrew (Native)
- English (C2)
- French (A1)
Publications
- Sharon, Adam and Ofir Winter. 2024. Egypt in a Multipolar World: Treading the Tightrope Between Great Powers. Nexus Magazine - The University of Haifa. Last modified November 10, 2024. https://nexus.haifa.ac.il/egypt-in-a-multipolar-world-treading-the-tightrope-between-great-powers/.
- Sharon, Adam and Ofir Winter. 2023. Jordan and the War in Israel: Between Public Opinion and Diplomacy. The Institute for National Security Studies. Last modified October 25, 2023. https://www.inss.org.il/social_media/jordan-and-the-war-in-israel-between-public-opinion-and-diplomacy/.
- Link, Morr, Adam Sharon and Ofir Winter. Navigating Post-War Realities: The Road Ahead for Israel and Egypt. The Institute for National Security Studies. Last modified December 6, 2023. https://www.inss.org.il/publication/israel-egypt-war/.