Hezbollah: Socialisation and its Tragic Ironies - Softcover

Saouli, Adham

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1474419518 ISBN 13: 9781474419512

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press, 2019

Synopsis

What 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.

About this title

About the Author

Adham Saouli is Senior Lecturer in International Relations, University of St. Andrews. His research focuses on state formation, social movements, and international relations of the Middle East. He is the author of The Arab State: Dilemmas of Late Formation (Routledge, 2012). His study "Performing the Egyptian Revolution: Origins of Collective Restraint Action in the Midan" (Political Studies, 2015) was nominated for the Harrison Prize.

Review

"This theoretically innovative and empirically rich treatment of Hezbollah's socialisation disrupts many myths about the organization. In situating its trajectory within both Hobbesian and Lockean anarchical spheres, Saouli demonstrates the flexibility and responsiveness of the group to its immediate domestic and regional surroundings." -- Samer Abboud, Associate Professor Global Interdisciplinary Studies, Villanova University

"In his exquisite study, Adham Saouli places Hezbollah somewhere between domestic Lebanese politics and its armed struggles against Israel. On one side the narrative battles of a militant subnational consciousness and on the other an asymmetrical warfare with a massive military machinery: Hezbollah here in fact emerges as a postnational twist to Schmittean concept of the political, crafting militant virtues out of existential threats to its very viability. Impeccably researched, thoroughly documented, judiciously balanced, and beautifully written, Adham Saouli's book sets a new measure for a new generation of scholarship in this field." -- Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University

"This book provides a most interesting account of the Hezbollah phenomenon by examining the dynamics of socialization of the movement. It highlights in an extremely usefully way the interaction between the nature of conflict in Lebanon and in the region, and the formation of an adaptative Hezbollah identity and practice." -- Frédéric Volpi, University of Edinburgh

About this edition

• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1474419518
• ISBN 13: 9781474419512
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256