Axis of resistance
asymmetric deterrence and rules of the game in contemporary Middle East conflicts
- ISBN: 9798855800814
- Editorial: State University of New York Press
- Fecha de la edición: 2025
- Lugar de la edición: New York. Estados Unidos de Norteamérica
- Encuadernación: Rústica
- Medidas: 23 cm
- Nº Pág.: 290
- Idiomas: Inglés
An in-depth analysis of the primary conflicts animating the contemporary struggle over the regional order of the Middle East.
From the conflict between the United States and the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria to the recent Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, events in today's Middle East reflect the emergence of what has come to be known as an Iran-led "axis of resistance." A geopolitical network of state- and nonstate actors seeking to promote a new regional order, the "axis" primarily includes the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yemen's Houthi rebels, Syria, and multiple Iran-supported Shiite militias in Iraq. Drawing on qualitative in-depth research in Hebrew and Arabic, and on exclusive interviews with senior Israeli officials, Axis of Resistance offers the first comprehensive analysis of the evolution of the "axis" and its application of a distinct strategic approach to asymmetrical conflicts-that of "resistance." Author Daniel Sobelman shows that the various "resistance" forces in the region have pursued an analogous asymmetrical deterrent strategy whose origins trace back to the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in southern Lebanon, whereby the weaker actor attempts to subject the stronger state to limiting "rules of the game."
Chapter 1 The Emergence of a Resistance Community and Strategy
Variations of Resistance Failure and Success
The Argument
Resistance: Ideology, Geopolitics, Asymmetric Strategy
From Coordinated Discourse to Coordinated Action
Resistance as an Asymmetric Strategy
The Contours of Resistance Strategy
Hezbollah: The Primary Resistance Laboratory
The 2006 Lebanon War as a Resistance Model
The Resistance Challenge from Israel's Vantage Point
Case Selection, Research Design, Chapter Outline Chapter 2 The Logic of Asymmetric Rules of the Game
Rules of the Game: A Quest for Limitations and Predictability
From Nuclear Armageddon to Limited War
From Nuclear to Conventional Limitations
Vulnerability, Cooperation, and Rules of the Game
Vulnerability, Power, and Asymmetric Conflicts
Asymmetric Bargaining on Limitations
A Model for Asymmetric Rules of the Game
Research Design
Chapter 3 Hezbollah versus Israel in Southern Lebanon
Historical Background
The Emergence of Rules of the Game
The Origins of Asymmetric Deterrence Operation Accountability: Israel's First Major Attempt to Change the Rules
Operation Accountability Understandings, 1993 to 1996
Constructing an Intricate Language of Escalation
The Exclusion of Israel's Airpower from the Rules of the Game
Operation Grapes of Wrath: Would More Force Change the Rules?
Negotiating the April Understandings
Refining the Rules of the Game: Five Levels of Escalation
Bargaining Over the Use of Roadside Bombs
Assessing the Impact of the Understandings on Israel's Latitude New Rules of the Game, 2000 to 2006: From Unilateral Pullout to the 2006 War
Coercive Bargaining over the New Status Quo
The Rules of the Game Come into Sharper Focus
New Rules of the Game: Four Primary Areas
Shebaa Farms: Contested Land, Acceptable Playing Field
The Aerial Domain: Restraining Israel's Primary Asymmetric Asset
Tit-for-Tat Operations along the Israel-Lebanon Border
The Clandestine Realm: Assassinations, Intelligence, and Subversion
On the Path to War: The Unraveling of the Rules of the Game
The Emergence of Postwar Mutual Strategic Deterrence Postwar Deterrent Equations: Offsetting Israel's Airpower
Dialogues of Deterrence: Bargaining over the Next War's Thresholds
The Campaign between the Wars: New Rules of the Game in the Syrian Arena
Would Strategic Deterrence Normalize Limited Friction?
Hezbollah's Model for Rules of the Game
Conclusion
Chapter 4 Hamas versus Israel in the Gaza Strip
Historical Background
The Hezbollah Connection
Hamas Seeks to Introduce Limited Attrition
Bargaining over Acceptable Rules of the Game
Rockets as a Coercive Instrument
