Understanding the Power of Hezbollah: the Secret to its Victories, and its Permanence in the Lebanese Political Arena

Bagheri Dolatabadi, Ali; Beigi, Mehdi; Choul, Āʾicha

Understanding the Power of Hezbollah: the Secret to its Victories, and its Permanence in the Lebanese Political Arena

Document Type : Science - Research

Authors

¹ Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Yasouj University, Yasouj, IRAN.

² Ph.D. International Relations, Allameh Tabatabaei University, Tehran, IRAN.

³ M.A. International Relations, Ahlul Bayt International University of Iran, Tunisia, TUNISIA.

Abstract

Over the past four decades, Hezbollah has thrived in achieving widespread political and military success in Lebanon. All this while the group has been under constant external pressure as well as internal conspiracies to weaken it. The main question that comes to mind is, ‘how was Hezbollah able to overcome these problems? And what is the role of the Islamic Republic of Iran in this regard? The research hypothesis emphasizes Hezbollah’s strengthening of its soft power as well as the impact of the Islamic Revolution's pattern on the successes of Hezbollah. The result, with the descriptive-analytical method, shows that Lebanon’s Hezbollah relies on the concepts of divine grace and help, the culture of resistance, jihad, and martyrdom, the spiritual position of the Leadership and the principle of The guardianship of the Islamic jurist (Velayat-e Faqih), courage and resilience against foreign enemies, Acting to serve the deprived areas, and the proper use of media, which joined together have strengthened Hezbollah’s soft power. Accordingly, Hezbollah's soft power has continuously reproduced, and along with its hard power, it has become a factor that contributes to Hezbollah’s admiration. That is why much of the West's efforts, after failing to disarm Hezbollah, have been to defeat and silent its soft power.

Keywords

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