Joel Peters

Joel Peters is Director of the School of Public and International Affairs and Professor of Government and International Affairs at Virginia Tech, based at the Washington Metro area campus in Arlington. His research and teaching focus on Israeli politics and foreign policy, the Israeli Palestinian peace process, regional cooperation in the Middle East and European relations with the Middle East and the Mediterranean.

He is the co-editor, with Rob Geist Pinfold, of the Routledge Handbook on Israel's Foreign Relations (2024) and Understanding Israel: Political, Societal and Security Challenges (2018), co-editor, with David Newman, of the Routledge Handbook on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (2013), and co-author, with Sharon Pardo, of Uneasy Neighbors: Israel and the European Union (2010). He is currently writing a second edition of “Uneasy Neighbors” and a book on contemporary Israeli foreign policy.

Before joining Virginia Tech, he worked at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel and the University of Reading in the UK, and was a research fellow at Chatham House in London. For over thirty years, he has taken part in track-two dialogues between Israelis and Palestinians and is regularly consulted by international media on Israeli politics and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He holds a BSc from the London School of Economics and a PhD from the University of Oxford.

Areas of Expertise: Israel | Israel Palestine Conflict | Conflict Resolution | Global Governance

Areas of Teaching: Israel | Conflict Resolution and Peace Building | Global Security |Global Governance |Israeli-Palestinian Conflict