Rob Geist Pinfold

Dr. Rob Geist Pinfold joined the School of Government and International Affairs in 2022. Alongside his role at Durham, he is a Research Fellow at the Peace Research Center Prague and a Senior Fellow at Charles University's Herzl Center for Israel Studies. Rob holds a PhD in War Studies from King’s College London. Previously, he was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Haifa.

Rob is a scholar of international security whose research intersects the study of strategy and territorial conflict. His existing work has focused on two key themes: (i) military occupation and exit dilemmas and (ii) how 'grand strategy' is studied within the academy. His work has been published in International Studies Perspectives, the Journal of Strategic Studies, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism and Mediterranean Politics. His full-length book manuscript, Understanding Territorial Withdrawal: Israeli Occupations and Exits, will be published by Oxford University Press in 2023.

Research interests
Israeli foreign and security policy
Military interventions and occupations
Strategy and grand strategy
Territorial conflict