Shaping Lebanon's Borderlands: Armed Resistance and International Intervention in South Lebanon (Library of Modern Middle East Studies Book 176)

Shaping Lebanon'sB orderlands examines at iny patch of the earth's surface -b ut one of immense contemporary significance. This is the borderland of Southern Lebanon -t hat unmarked boundary between Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. Meier draws upon his deep understanding of Palestinian-Lebanese relationships to inform this intelligent and intriguing study of the political relationships between space and identity in the limited territory of Southern Lebanon. This book is of tremendous importance in understanding the complex relationships of the Lebanese people with four major actors: Palestinian refugees in Lebanon; Hizbollah; the UN military presence in the area (UNIFIL); and the Lebanese state. These relationships and the nature of bordering will become critically important to understanding the post-Arab Uprising era to come.' Dawn Chatty,Emeritus Professor of Anthropology and Forced Migration, Oxford University 'A comprehensive study on aregion that, since the 1970s, has been the most volatile frontline of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is essential reading not only for students of the modern Middle East but also for those who are interested in border dynamics worldwide, in militant non-state actors and in identity construction in conflict zones.' "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."--Bloomsbury Publishing. Daniel Meier. Includes Bibliographical References (pages [259]-275) And Index.