Tunnel Vision: U.S.-Israel Cooperation and the Future of Underground Warfare

A livestream of the conversation will begin here at 10:00am ET on Monday, January 13.
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The character of war is constantly evolving. Those changes are happening not just on land, at sea, and in air – but also in the subterranean realm. The combatant that best understands these ongoing changes and adapts the most effectively is more likely to be successful in future wars.

Few modern militaries know subterranean warfare better than Israel. That’s because terrorist groups such has Hamas and Hezbollah have for years attempted to use tunnels to infiltrate Israel and conduct attacks there. Following the October 7 terror attack on Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah used tunnels in Gaza and Lebanon, respectively, to protect terrorist forces and their arsenals from counterattack, imprison hostages, extend the conflicts, and further political warfare strategies. In response, Israel has developed world-class technologies, capabilities, and tactics to detect and destroy tunnels.

What is the nature of subterranean warfare, how was it used in Gaza and Lebanon, and was this an anomaly peculiar to those wars and places or rather a sign of things to come elsewhere? What lessons should be learned, and how should Israel, the United States, and its allies respond?

To discuss these questions and more, FDD hosts MAJ (Ret.) John Spencer, Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, Daphné Richemond-Barak, Assistant Professor in the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy, and Strategy at Reichman University in Israel, and Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Conricus, Senior Fellow at FDD. The conversation is moderated by Bradley Bowman, Senior Director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power with introductory remarks by FDD Executive Director Jonathan Schanzer.

Bradley Bowman

Bradley Bowman serves as senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where he focuses on U.S. defense strategy and policy. He has served as a national security advisor to members of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, as well as an active duty U.S. Army officer, Black Hawk pilot, and assistant professor at West Point. Bradley spent nearly nine years in the U.S. Senate, including six years as the top defense advisor to Senator Kelly Ayotte, then-senior Republican on the Armed Services Readiness and Management Support Subcommittee. Bradley also served as national security advisor to Senator Todd Young and worked as a Council on Foreign Relations international affairs fellow on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Conricus

Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Conricus served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for 24 years as a combat commander in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, a military diplomat, foreign relations expert. He most recently served as international spokesperson for the IDF in the wake of the Hamas October 7 attacks. From various vantage points along and beyond Israel’s borders, Jonathan has delivered hundreds of security and strategic briefings to foreign groups and dignitaries, including heads of state, military professionals, senior government officials, students, and civil society. Jonathan is a member of the Israel Defense and Security Forum and a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Dr. Daphné Richemond-Barak

Dr. Daphné Richemond-Barak is Assistant Professor in the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at Reichman University in Israel. She also serves as Senior Researcher and Head of the International Law Desk at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism. She researches new or noteworthy developments taking place on the contemporary battlefield, from the deployment of intelligent defense systems to the rise and return of foreign fighters, tunnel warfare, and the impact of artificial intelligence on security affairs. Her approach is deeply grounded in multidisciplinary research, at the intersection of international relations, international law, policy, and security studies. Her monograph, Underground Warfare, has been published by Oxford University Press

Jonathan Schanzer

Jonathan Schanzer is the executive director at FDD, where he oversees the work of the organization’s experts and scholars. Jonathan previously worked as a terrorism finance analyst at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where he played an integral role in the designation of numerous terrorist financiers. He has held previous think tank research positions, including at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the Middle East Forum. Jonathan’s latest book, Gaza Conflict 2021: Hamas, Israel and Eleven Days of War (FDD Press, 2021), challenges and corrects some of the wildly inaccurate news reported during the conflict.

MAJ (Ret.) John Spencer

MAJ (Ret.) John Spencer is an award-winning scholar, professor, author, combat veteran, and a national security and military analyst. He is an internationally recognized expert and advisor on urban warfare, military strategy, tactics, and other related topics. Considered one of the world’s leading expert on urban warfare, he served as an advisor to the top four-star general and other senior leaders in the U.S. Army as part of strategic research groups from the Pentagon to the United States Military Academy. He currently serves as the Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, Co-Director of the Urban Warfare Project, and host of the Urban Warfare Project podcast. He also serves as the Chair of Urban Warfare Studies with the Madison Policy Forum, a New York based think-tank. He is a founding member of the International Working Group on Subterranean Warfare.