Suchergebnisse

Explains Hezbollah's ceaseless drive for survival and the unintended, tragic consequences it has generatedWhat drives Hezbollah's political behaviour? For three decades we believed that the impetus of establishing an Islamic state in Lebanon was its main goal. This book disagrees. Drawn from over fifteen years of research, it traces Hezbollah's political trajectory, or socialisation process, from its birth in 1982 to 2017. It identifies the religio-political identity and doctrine that inspire Hezbollah and the politico-strategic goals that motivate it. It argues that war-making with Israel has driven Hezbollah's socialisation in Lebanon and the region, transforming the Islamist movement from a loose organization into one of the world's most powerful and sophisticated armed political movements.Key FeaturesUses a theoretical framework rooted in the intellectual tradition of Historical Sociology to offer a new conceptualisation of Hezbollah as an armed political movementDraws from International Relations and Sociological theories to advance an explanation of the causes and consequences of Hezbollah's socialisation processUses field interviews in Lebanon, speeches and religio-political writings of Hezbollah officials, testaments of its fighters, and party communiquésShows how Hezbollah's motivation to make war with Israel has generated unintended consequences including security paradoxes, political conformity, and ethical dilemmas

The concepts and theories of what constitutes a 'middle power' have played a key part in explaining the identity, behaviour and foreign policy roles of many states in the international system, including the United Kingdom, France, Australia and Brazil. But, with a few exceptions, these frameworks have failed to travel to scholarship on the Middle East, despite the theoretical and empirical potential that they offer for understanding regional dynamics. This book addresses that major gap by interrogating the conceptual, theoretical and empirical underpinnings of the concept of 'middle power' at a regional level.

1. States and social fields -- 2. Constructing the Middle East : international anarchy, indigenous responses -- 3. The late-forming state : ontology, dilemmas and conditions of survival -- 4. Saudi Arabia : the survival of a homogeneous state -- 5. Iraq : the survival of a divided state -- 6. Conclusion : why do states survive in the Middle East?

This text is concerned with state formation and collapse in the Middle East. In particular it examines the conditions under which states remain intact during late formation and how they resist various internal and external pressures.

This short piece responds to Saad's 'Challenging the sponsor-proxy model'. Saad's article raises serious questions about the sponsor-proxy model. Saad successfully shows how the model reduces the ties between the sponsor and the proxy to material factors while striping the 'proxy' from its cultural and political agency. This, she shows, fails to capture the complex relationship that ties Iran to Hizbullah. While this attempt to problematise the model should be commended, the framework she proposes requires some further elucidation, which may offer important avenues to understand the Iran–Hizbullah connection.

AbstractAlthough Iraq and Lebanon are deeply divided societies, they have followed varying political trajectories. Whilst Lebanon has accommodated sectarianism within a consociational democracy since its inception, until 2003 Iraq had an authoritarian regime that ostensibly repressed sectarianism. However, after 2003, Iraqi politics began to converge with the consociationalism of Lebanon. Taking a longitudinal approach, the study explains this puzzle by focusing on one factor: sectarianism. It asks how and why sectarianism has shaped the political trajectories and regime types in the two cases and, conversely, how sectarianism has been shaped by these trajectories and regimes.

In January/February 2011, the world watched with admiration the Egyptian revolution that toppled President Housni Mubarak. The demonstration in Midan al-Tahrir (Liberation Square in central Cairo), which was the nucleus of the revolution, highlighted a largely spontaneous, civil and peaceful political performance. However, this performance was temporary, contradicting subsequent bloody conflicts in post-revolutionary Egypt. This article examines the socio-political origins of the Midan performance. It argues that the demonstrators exercised collective restraint, which was temporary but necessary, in order to topple Mubarak. Building on Norbert Elias' civilising process theory and social movements literature, it is argued that the origins of this performance are found in a collective knowledge of regime strategy and narrative, Egyptian socio-political values and existing repertoires of contention. Drawing on primary sources and semi-structured interviews, the article contends that the demonstrators exercised collective restraint to reframe regime narrative and draw public support for the revolution.

"Like previous political upheavals in the history of the Middle East, the Arab uprisings are reconstituting the domestic politics of several Arab countries and reconfiguring regional alignments. The overthrowing of authoritarian and pro-Western regimes in Tunisia and - especially - Egypt promised a favourable regional order for the two non-state actors of Hizbullah and Hamas. Both movements celebrated the change as a triumph for the 'Axis of Resistance', which unites them with Syria and Iran. But when the protests diffused to Syria, and threatened the Asad regime, the two movements faced a strategic dilemma. Whilst Hizbullah decided to back the Asad regime, Hamas supported the uprising - in effect creating a rupture in the alliance." (author's abstract)