Professor Shamir is currently the Managing Director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA Center) at Bar Ilan University. (https://besacenter.org/director/). Additionally, he holds the position of head of the MA program in Security and Strategy within the Political Studies Department at Bar-Ilan University. Before pursuing an academic career, Dr. Shamir was the head of the National Security Doctrine Department at the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, Prime Minister's Office. Before his government service, he worked as a Senior Researcher at the Dado Center for Interdisciplinary Military Studies (CIMS) at the IDF General Headquarters.
His research interests and publications include military strategy, innovation, and national security. Noteworthy works authored by Dr. Shamir include Transforming Command: The Pursuit of Mission Command in the US, UK, and Israeli Armies (Stanford University Press, 2011), Insurgencies and Counterinsurgencies: National Styles and Strategic Cultures (Cambridge University Press, 2017), and The Art of Military Innovation (Harvard University Press, 2023), which received reviews from leading international media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and Foreign Affairs. Professor Shamir's most recent publication is Moshe Dayan: The Making of a Strategist, published by Cambridge University Press, 2025. Additionally, he has contributed articles to leading journals such as International Affairs, Journal of Strategic Studies, and Survival, and authored numerous book chapters. Professor Shamir, in collaboration with Efraim Inbar, coined the term "mowing the grass" to describe Israel's strategic approach towards the terrorist organizations surrounding it. This metaphor has gained significant traction in discussions of Israeli military doctrine and regional security strategy. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mowing_the_grass
Since the October 7 Hamas attack and the subsequent conflict in Gaza, Shamir has been interviewed by prominent media outlets such as The Economist, Financial Times, USA Today, Der Spiegel, BBC News, CNN International, The New Stateman, Ha’aretz, and the Jerusalem Post. Professor Shamir earned his PhD from the Department of War Studies at King's College London and his Master's in Organization Behavior at Brigham Young University, Provo, UT.