Existential Threats and Civil Security Relations critically analyzes, presents, and further develops the major approaches to existential threats structural, cultural, and rational. It examines the influence these threats have on effective democracies, formal democracies, and democratizing states.

Chapter 1 Introduction Part 2 Part One. Definitions and Dimensions of Existential Threats Chapter 3 Chapter 1. What Exactly Makes a Continuous Existential Threat Existential-and How is it Discontinued? Chapter 4 Chapter 2. Liberalism and the New Definition of "Existential" Threat Chapter 5 Chapter 3. The Nature of Existential Threats to Democracies Part 6 Part Two. Existential Threats in a Comparative Perspective Chapter 7 Chapter 4. Deciding Democracy: External Security Threats and Domestic Regime Choices Chapter 8 Chapter 5. Continuous Existential Threats, Civil-Security Relations, and Democracy: A Comparative Exploration of Five Small States Chapter 9 Chapter 6. Democratic Control of the Armed Forces in Israel and Switzerland In Times of Security Threats Part 10 Part Three. The Israeli Case and Theories of Existential Threats Chapter 11 Chapter 7. Threat Perception and Threat Manipulation: The Uses and Misuses of Threats in Israel's National Security, 1949-2008 Chapter 12 Chapter 8. The Paradox of Security Views in Israel: A Social-psychological Explanation Chapter 13 Chapter 9. Coping with the Palestinian Threat: Adaptation and Learning in Israel's Strategies towards the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 1993-2006 Chapter 14 Chapter 10. Towards an Israeli-Iranian Nuclear Balance

Oren Barak is senior lecturer of political science and international relations at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and research fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations. Gabriel Sheffer is professor of political science at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has been the director of both the Jerusalem Group for National Planning at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and the Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.