Shaping Lebanon's Borderlands

Regional struggles, wars and local confrontations have marked the south of Lebanon since the end of the 1960s. They have transformed this marginalized and rural region into a battlefield and redefined the relationships between international, regional and local actors. The most recent of these actors the Palestinian refugees and their armed resistance, the Islamic Shi i movement Hizbullah, and the UN local mission (UNIFIL) have marked and shaped the place, and in turn operating in this borderland has affected their identities. Based on Daniel Meier s extensive fieldwork in the region, this book offers interviews with militants, his own observations of this conflict-ridden and dangerous region as well as incisive political analysis concerning the armed militias operating in the area. It is through this in-depth examination of the southern borderlands of Lebanon that Meier sheds new light on some of the major Middle Eastern confrontations of the last half a century."

Autorentext

Daniel Meier is Visiting Fellow of the Centre for Lebanese Studies at the Middle East Centre, St Antony s. He holds a PhD in Development Studies from the Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Geneva."

Inhalt

Introduction: South Lebanon as a Vantage Point, 1923-2013

Chapter 1: The Fedayeen in Lebanon: Armed Struggle, Symbols and Belonging

Chapter 2: Hizbullah: Resistance as an Identity and as a Means

Chapter 3: The Struggle for the South: Israeli Occupation and Lebanese Resistance

Chapter 4: Using the Borderland: Hizbullah's Socio-Political and Cultural Strategy

Chapter 5: Crossing/Bypassing the Border: Palestinian Civil Resistance (Sumud)

Chapter 6: Hegemony over Geography: UNIFIL and the Drawing of the Blue Line

Chapter 7: The Pending Issues in the Southern Borderland: Maritime and Aerial Borders

Conclusion