The Dado Center for Interdisciplinary Military Studies



The Dado Center for Interdisciplinary Military Studies (מרכז דדו לחשיבה צבאית בינתחומית) is a military studies department of the Israel Defense Forces aimed at operational level of war activities.

It was named after rav aluf David "Dado" Elazar.

History
The Dado Center is rooted in the activities of the Operational Theory Research Institute (OTRI, Hebrew abbreviation: MALTAM), a similar organisation which was established in 1995 and dismantled in 2005, following a harsh report by the state comptroller. Brig. Gen. Itai Brun, assigned to the job in 2006, reestablished the institute at the beginning of 2007 as "The Dado Center for Interdisciplinary Military Studies". Brun was replaced by Yoram Hamo in 2011, followed by Meir Finkel in 2014 and then Eran Ortal in 2019.

Areas of activity
The Dado Center operates in three primary fields, as:
 * A center for learning processes which accompanies the IDF central thinking processes. In this role, it assists in methodology and content top bodies in the IDF General Staff, heads of the regional commands, and the commanders of other top bodies in the IDF as they carry out processes of critical military analysis and development of strategies and tactics.
 * A school for the development of senior military leadership in operational thought. In this role, the center prepares senior officers for positions in the IDF General Staff, and runs targeted seminars to groups of officers on learning processes and operational thought, in order to develop new organizational and operational concepts.
 * A research institute that employs both civilian and military researchers for data mining and study of various subjects connected to the center's activities.

As part of its activities, the center also runs wargames for senior commanders, joint learning seminars with foreign militaries, and joint day-long seminars between the IDF and academic bodies.

Publications
As part of its role of developing learning approaches for the highest ranks in the IDF, the center develops and disseminates a series of internal professional manuals.

Since February 2014, the center publishes a journal named "Bein Haktavim" (Hebrew בין הקטבים), lit. "Between the Poles", which is edited by Brig. Gen. Eran Ortal. The journal seeks to develop IDF's knowledge processes on what's new and developing phenomena. The Dado Center Journal influences the IDF. Each issue of "Bein Haktavim" is dedicated to a different subject.

The journal is published online on the Ma'arachot publishing website, and is distributed to senior IDF commanders, government officials, research institutes, relevant civil organizations, colleges and universities.