Hezbollah. (c2017)

Abstract

This thesis examines what kind of label as a non-state actor does Hezbollah fit. Can it be described as an autonomous non-state actor or, alternatively, a proxy one? To explain this puzzle, the thesis focuses on specific theatres of operation: namely, the Lebanese context and its environs along the border area with Syria, and the larger geopolitical context in which Hezbollah operates as a proxy for Iran’s geopolitical interests, in Iraq, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Syria, and Yemen. The thesis argues that the more Hezbollah operates in the former context the more it approaches the status of an autonomous nonstate actor, while its extensive activities in the latter turn it into a proxy non-state actor. The implications of this argument to International Relations (IR) theory are straightforward: in the ongoing geopolitical battle over the Middle East, non-state actors are as important as state actors.