Conservatives beyond Borders, the American-Israeli Case: An Exploratory Study of Transnational Conservative Networks

In this paper I examine the formation and institutionalization of American-Israeli conservative networks over the last 30 years, focusing on the diffusion of organizational blueprints, ideational frameworks and political strategies from the American to the Israeli side. I examine the ways in which, in a process of interpretation and adaptation, Israeli intellectual-political entrepreneurs utilized these resources in accordance with their domestic constraints and opportunities. In order to do so, I synthesize diverse primary and secondary sources, including publications by Israeli and American conservative groups, reports by think tanks, newspapers, scholarly articles and interviews conducted in Israel with related political officials. This research carries broader implications for the study of contemporary Right-wing politics. It argues that the rise of the American conservative movement has had a transnational dimension that is not yet fully understood. More generally, it points to a glaring lacuna in the literature on global politics. Scholars of transnational activism in the social sciences have mostly concentrated on progressive social movements and causes. Right-wing actors and ideas, on the other hand, had been studied mainly at the national level. However, as this paper seeks to demonstrate, the world of transnational politics is not at all the exclusive domain of the Left. This paper therefore aims to contribute to the nascent but growing research on the historical development and contemporary characteristics of Right-wing transnational politics.