Israel's Long War with Hezbollah: Military Innovation and Adaptation Under Fire

This book provides the first comprehensive military history of the decades-long conflict between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah. It begins in 1985 during the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, includes the Second Lebanon War (a.k.a. the July War) in 2006 and aftermath, and brings the story up to the present. Raphael Marcus conducted extensive research in primary sources in both Hebrew and Arabic and conducted dozens of interviews with Israeli military participants. A second contribution of the book is that it assesses both strategic and operational military learning and adaptation by each side, or lack thereof, during the guerilla and counterguerilla campaigns. His conclusions illustrate the complexity and messiness of military adaptation under fire. It tells the story of slow strategic adaptation and disjointed operational adaptation by the Israeli Defense Forces, where civil-military relations, regional and geostrategic factors, institutional dynamics, domestic pressures, and organizational culture each hindered change. An Afterword in the book discusses adaptation on both sides since the 2006 war and Hezbollah's involvement in the war in Syria. Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah have once again heated up in fall 2017, making this a timely book.

By:   Raphael D. Marcus
Imprint:   Georgetown University Press
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 229mm,  Width: 152mm, 
Weight:   522g
ISBN:   9781626166110
ISBN 10:   1626166110
Pages:   320
Publication Date:   September 2018
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Unspecified

Table of ContentsContentsAcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction Part I: Strategic AdaptationIntroduction to Part IChapter 1: IDF Routine Security and the Evolution of Hezbollah (1985-92)Chapter 2: Deterrence, Guerrilla Warfare, and the Establishment of the Rules of the Game (1993-99)Chapter 3: A Change in the Strategic Equation: The IDF Withdrawal from Lebanon (2000)Chapter 4: The Erosion of Deterrence, the 2006 War, and the Dahiya Doctrine (2000-17)Conclusion to Part I Part II: Operational AdaptationIntroduction to Part IIChapter 5: The Origins of the RMA in IsraelChapter 6: The RMA in Action: IDF Operations in Lebanon and Hezbollah's Adaptation in the 1990sChapter 7: The Rise of the IDF's Operational Theory Research Institute and Systemic Operational Design Chapter 8: The 2006 Lebanon War: Military Adaptation and CounteradaptationChapter 9: The Blame Game: A Reappraisal of the IDF's 2006 Operational ConceptConclusion to Part II ConclusionsAfterword: Back to the Future: IDF Force Planning and Hezbollah's Military Adaptation in Syria ChronologySelected BibliographyIndexAbout the Author

Raphael D. Marcus is a nonresident fellow at the Insurgency Research Group in the Department of War Studies, King's College London, where he received his PhD. His research interests include Middle East security issues, terrorism, military affairs, and organizational learning. He is currently working as an intelligence and counterterrorism analyst at a law-enforcement agency.

Marcus's own excellent analysis deserves the attention of any informed reader interested in Israel or modern military history. The long war isn't over, and its underlying dynamic, ably documented by Raphael Marcus, remains unchanged. --MOSAIC [Marcus] is a fine scholar. There doesn't seem to be an Israeli senior officer whose wisdom he has not sought. His work will no doubt appeal to military analysts interested in understanding the conflict in question and, perhaps, fitting it into the way other armed forces around the world are going. --Martin van Creveld, Professor Emeritus, Hebrew University of Jerusalem An impeccable, insightful, expertly written and timely study of one of the Middle East's most enduringly political, ideological, and military conflicts. --Midwest Book Review Marcus's own excellent analysis . . . deserves the attention of any informed reader interested in Israel or modern military history. . . . By skillfully pulling together many disparate events over a period of decades and sketching the evolution of the conflict from its inception, Marcus provides a kindred service in this book. --Mosaic Magazine The book is a significant contribution to the study of this conflict and of Hezbollah. But it also serves as a case study on how militaries--both state and nonstate--can learn from battlefield mistakes and evolve to match threats. . . . This book is worth the attention of anyone interested in learning the intricacies of the civil-military dynamic and those who seek a deeper knowledge of the military history surrounding the Israel-Hezbollah conflict --Parameters English-language readers will be rewarded with a clear understanding of current IDF strategy, constraints and planning, particularly as it relates to Hezbollah. --Jewish Herald-Voice