In the span of two decades, Hizballah has evolved from an armed resistance movement against Israeli occupation into an efficient political party and---by extension---into a permanent fixture on Lebanon's mainstream political stage. The present analysis traces the evolution of the party from its inception and assesses its performance vis-a-vis the major players of Iran, Israel and Syria. Factors including the characteristics of the movement and the Shiite community itself, the shifting position, interests and policies of various regional actors, and the changing domestic conditions in Lebanon were isolated in order to adequately explain the behaviour and development of Hizballah. As a result, such alternatives to cultural factors (i.e the "Islamic variable") were found to be stronger explanatory factors rather than the Islamic factor. Ultimately, the essay illustrates that Islamic considerations are secondary, if not tertiary, when political decisions are to be made in different contexts. Rather, it is the interests of the more powerful actors that govern the organization's next move, in addition to the aforementioned variables. On the basis of such assumptions and findings, conclusions were finally drawn regarding Hizballah's future developments and its prospects following an Israeli withdrawal.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.33319 |
| Date | January 2000 |
| Creators | Zigby, Mohammed Ak. |
| Contributors | Brynn, Rex (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of Political Science.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001778246, proquestno: MQ70627, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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