Dr Nir Arielli
- Position: Associate Professor of International History
- Areas of expertise: Transnational war volunteers; the Arab-Israeli conflict; international relations in Europe and the Middle East, 1919-1948; the foreign and colonial policies of Fascist Italy; history of the Dead Sea
- Email: N.Arielli@leeds.ac.uk
- Phone: +44(0)113 343 0227
- Website: researchgate.net | Twitter
Responsibilities
- Director of Research and Innovation
Research interests
My research thus far has focused on:
- The human history of the Dead Sea
- The history of foreign war volunteering and foreign fighters
- Transnational military mobilization from the French Revolution to the present
- Pre-1948 Palestine and the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict
- The foreign and colonial policies of Fascist Italy
Key Publications
Books:
From Byron to Bin Laden A History of Foreign War Volunteers (Harvard University Press, 2018)
Leah Trachtman-Palchan, Between Tel Aviv and Moscow A Life of Dissent and Exile in Mandate Palestine and the Soviet Union, edited by Nir Arielli (I. B. Tauris, 2015)
Nir Arielli and Bruce Collins, Transnational Soldiers: Foreign Military Enlistment in the Modern Era (Palgrave, 2012)
Fascist Italy and the Middle East, 1933 - 40 (Palgrave, 2010)
Articles:
Christopher Caden and Nir Arielli, ‘British Army and Palestine Police Deserters and the Arab–Israeli War of 1948’, War in History, 28.1 (2021), 200-222
‘Colonial soldiers in Italian counter-insurgency operations in Libya, 1922-32’, British Journal for Military History, 1.2 (2015), 47-66
‘When are foreign volunteers useful? Israel's transnational soldiers in the war of 1948 re-examined’, Journal of Military History, 78.2 (2014), 703-724
‘In search for meaning: foreign volunteers in the Croatian armed forces, 1991 - 1995’, Contemporary European History, 21.1 (2012), 1-17
‘Induced to volunteer? The predicament of Jewish Communists in Palestine and the Spanish Civil War’, Journal of Contemporary History, 46.4 (2011)
‘“Haifa is still burning”: Italian, German and French air raids on Palestine during the Second World War’, Middle Eastern Studies, 46.3 (2010), 331-347
Current Research
My current research project examines how the human history of the Dead Sea was shaped by the intricate relationship between geopolitical developments, shifting economic opportunities, and environmental changes. It explores how the same body of water was seen, understood and imagined in very different ways with the passage of time.
<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>