The refugee crisis has been one of the main foci in western media the last years. Many European countries are raising their concerns on the refugees and how they are not able to help them. This thesis is a desk study which seeks to examine the Syrian refugee influx upon Lebanon.  Michael Brown’s book about reasons about internal conflicts have been the guideline to mark out any eventual internal conflicts a big refugee influx can eventually stir upon a country. The thesis will try to analyse and figure out if the refugee crisis will fuel the already existing sectarian tensions in the country. The do not clearly establish whether the refugee influx in Lebanon will potentially produce a new civil war or not. The refugee crisis has proven itself to be a burden for Lebanon within many of its internal sectors and the political tensions run higher now than earlier. The possibility for a renewed civil war is therefore not impossible but at the same time it might as well be avoided completely.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the role that political ideologies plays in determining the target of insurgency movements. In order to understand how these groups operate, I use Janowitz's military establishment to apply it on the three main revolutionary ideologies of the 20th century, Khomeinism, Marxism/Leninism and Fanonian. Based on these analyses, I hypothesize the three main targets by ideology based on the clarity of the indoctrination and on the level of bureaucracy entailed in the revolutionary texts. I then proceed to compare these theories to three case studies, the Hezbollah, the FARC and finally the PKK. I try to offer an explanation on why religious insurgencies target most of their attacks towards rival factions or why nationalist left-wing groups are mostly focused on attacking security forces. I argue that a well-structured hierarchy, a reliance on the civil society and a clear definition of the political and military targets are quintessential to prevent civilian causalities. But contrarily to most papers on the topic, I find that a strict military discipline has the reversed result that expected. For instance, the FARC and the PKK have such a strict internal code of discipline that it led the members to desert the organizations by thousands and have civilians as...

This study attempts to explore the strains that terror organization members experience prior to the training process in the organization. The primary goal of this research is to understand the relationship between the earlier experienced strains of terrorists and their violent behaviors. In the study a Turkish Hezbollah terror organization sample (N = 144) was utilized in the frame of Agnew's (1992) general strain theory. Initially, quantitative methods, such as bivariate analysis and multivariate analysis, were utilized to identify the cumulative effect of strains on the violent behaviors of terrorists. Later, by utilizing case studies with a qualitative approach the mediating effect of negative emotions (anger, frustration, depression and fear) were identified. This study found that among Turkish Hezbollah members, prior to joining the terrorist organization, individuals who experience higher levels of strain are more likely to perform violent acts when compared to individuals who experience lower levels of strain. This study affirmed earlier studies on strain-crime relationship. Moreover, utilized case studies support that negative emotions -specifically anger- mediate between strains and violent actions. In sum, this research retests and builds on Agnew's theory and argues that general strain theory can help terrorism studies to understand the sources of strains of terrorists and the effect of strains on their violent behavior.

The thesis follows the political development of the Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah from its radical beginnings in the 80th, through the first political success in the early years of the 90th, to the contemporary situation. Hezbollah is an example of phenomenal transformation to the politically powerful entity with its own political party and significant power, which was often stronger than a real power of Lebanese government. The aim of the paper is to highlight the dynamic process of transformation of terrorist movement into a political party. The process is operationalized at two levels than. The analysis follows the external nature of the Lebanese political system allowing the transformation of Hezbollah; the interior follows the development of participation of Hezbollah. The process of transformation is depicted not only during key parliamentary elections in 1992, but also in the context of subsequent political developments, which resulted in a dominant position of Hezbollah in the Lebanese government. The text also embedded Hezbollah to the overall context of the Shia fundamentalist movements and the author tries to provide the potential outlines for its further development. The author also believes that the conclusions of the work can enrich the overall outlook on Lebanese Hezbollah and to provide...

The author of the graduation research on the theme Visual Matter of Hezbollah on Southern Suburb of Beirut deals with the issue by unconventional approach of sociocultural anthropology. Through the application of Alfred Gell's and Robert Layton's art theory he assess what are the values incorporated in material culture of Hezbollah using to its self presentation. The author provides a description of examples and subsequently finds parallels in the material objects and what kind of an agency these objects are carrying. The paper is divided into theoretical and empirical part. The opening of the work also briefly deals with the history of Lebanon's shia confession and as well as history of the movement itself. Further, the empirical part is divided into three sections. The first is devoted to poster's and billboard's expression of Hezbollah, the second is focused on the urban estate of southern suburbs of Beirut and in the last section the author focused on small souvenir items and things of daily use. Finally, he concludes that the material culture of Hezbollah in Dahieh seem to be connected in logical but unexpected contexts - the art with politics, communication with the urban space and technology with culture. Moreover, the author also describes a noticeable trend in the commoditization of goods bearing...

The master's theses, which examines the phenomenon of state-sponsored terrorism giving the example of Islamic Republic of Iran, consists of two sections, general and specific. In the first part main theoretical concepts and definitions are be introduced. The author gives priority to differentiation between the terms of terrorism, state-sponsored terrorism and marginally also to the problematic definition of state terrorism. Detailed description of the concept of state-sponsored terrorism follow. Last but not least the author provides an insight into the history of the occurrence of this form of terrorism. The merit of the work, however, remains in particular case study of the state- sponsored terrorism, the Islamic Republic of Iran. To understand the context and causes of supporting terrorism, it is necessary to become familiar with the history of Iran (especially since 1979), its political system and the current situation in the country. This thesis will examine the reasons that led Iran to support terrorism on domestic and foreign soil, and specifically focusing on the terrorist organization Hezbollah, which Iran founded and have significantly sponsored for a long time. The intention of the thesis is to identify the main causes of Iranian support for terrorism, to determine how the relationship...

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Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 Iran has employed a deliberate and successful strategy centered around the use and support of various proxies, notably Hezbollah and Hamas who are part of the Iranian led Axis of Resistance. There is a vast literature that has studied different aspects of this Iranian proxy dimension, but relatively little research has been conducted on propaganda as a unifying mechanism. This thesis thus expanded upon the current literature through a content analysis of the propaganda produced by Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas in order to gain a fuller understanding of how cross-group cohesion has been achieved. The analysis incorporated social identity theory, and identified how the propaganda could be used in accordance with three theoretical dimensions: Identity constructions, Justification for Violence, and Weaponization of the ummah. The findings revealed how cross-group cohesion was achieved through the creation of a dichotomous worldview, consisting of an ingroup that is existentially threatened by an outgroup consisting of the West and Jews. Moreover, they use conspiratorial rhetoric combined with victimhood in order to frame the struggle as an ongoing religious war against Islam. The thesis concludes with a theoretical discussion on the normative assumptions that underpin the propaganda, arguing that the cross-group cohesion is dependent on the creation of shared identities based on victimhood, religious references, and the creation of shared external enemies.

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Le moins qu’on puisse dire est que l’Iran depuis la prise de pouvoir par les Ayatollahs en 1979 est un pays qui intéresse les hebdomadaires français et plus généralement les journalistes de notre pays. Une approche quantitative des articles consacrés à ce pays le prouve aisément. Mais il est particulièrement intéressant de constater que chacun des hebdomadaires français étudiés apporte une vision assez spécifique de ce qui caractérise l’Iran d’aujourd’hui. Toutefois, si la plupart des hebdomadaires sont d’accord pour reconnaître la complexité du problème iranien et de la société perse, "Valeurs Actuelles" par exemple va stigmatiser la barbarie du régime en place alors que"Courrier International", à l’inverse, va s’efforcer d’offrir un kaléidoscope d’opinions souvent contradictoires sur cette république islamique. De même, "Le Point" insiste sur la dangerosité de l’Iran d’aujourd’hui alors que "L’Express" met surtout l’accent sur les problèmes de nucléaire. "Marianne" pour sa part offre une étude équilibrée des problèmes tant internes qu’externes de l’Iran des Ayatollahs. En réalité, on peut constater un consensus des journalistes français spécialistes du monde persan sur le fait qu’en matière de politique intérieure, l’Iran ne cesse d’osciller entre démocratie et totalitarisme alors même que le pays semble avoir fait de la possession de l’arme nucléaire le futur point d’ancrage de sa politique extérieure à l’échelle internationale et de la sous-région. / The least we can say is that Iran since the seizure of power by the Ayatollahs in 1979 is a country that interests French weekly magazines and journalists. A quantitative approach of the articles concerning this country proves this assertion easily. But it is particularly interesting to note that each of the French weekly magazines provides a fairly specific approach that characterizes today's Iran. Nevertheless most French magazines recognize the complexity of the problems of Iran and Persian society. However, Valeurs Actuelles stigmatizes the barbaric regime while Courrier International, conversely provides a kaleidoscope of rather conflicting opinions on this Islamic republic. Similarly, Le Point emphasizes the danger of Iran today while L'Express focuses primarily on nuclear issues. Marianne on the other hand offers a balanced study of both internal and external problems of this country ruled by Ayatollahs. In reality, there may be a consensus among French journalists who are specialists of the Persian world due to the fact that concerning its domestic policy Iran continues to oscillate between democracy and totalitarianism even though the country seems to consider the possession of nuclear weapons as the future anchor of its foreign policy and sub-regional diplomatic role.