Constructing Security Council Resolution 1701 in Lebanon in the Shadow of the “War on Terror”

Abstract

This chapter examines how the “war on terror” gave global meaning to the 2006 Lebanon-Israel War and to the construction of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which authorized a more robust mandate to the long-standing peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon: the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). After providing an interpretative framework showing how the “powerful discourse” that emerged after 9/11 linked Hizbullah and its assumed patron, Syria, with global terrorism, the chapter considers the construction of a UN-legitimated international regime, centered on Resolution 1559, that translated this war on terror discourse into domestic Lebanese terms. It then analyzes the construction of Resolution 1701, arguing that it made further violence in Lebanon inevitable. It also shows how the discursive contest over interpretations of Resolution 1701 transformed the conflict in Lebanon from an international to a domestic one and how the production of a hegemonic national discourse emerged following the signing of the 2008 Doha Agreement that precipitated the formation of a national unity government.

Resilience, conflict and areas of limited statehood in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria

“…As a result, Hezbollah was reincorporated into the Lebanese government and "the resistance [to Israel] as a national project that could coexist with the Lebanese armed forces [was confirmed]". 23 Another tipping point could have emerged with the civil war in Syria, Hezbollah's role in it, the threat of ISIS and the enormous refugee flows to Lebanonwhich, amongst other issues, have significant implications for the delicate demographic balance in the country. Yet it has managed to avoid a spill-over effect so far.…”