Leiden University Student Repository

Kalowska, Aleksandra Katarzyna (2018)

HEZBOLLAH’S IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION AND THE DECISION TO ENTER THE SYRIAN CIVIL WAR

Research master thesis | Middle Eastern Studies (research) (MA)

The thesis is based within the theories of constructivism and looks for the connection between the identity construction and the foreign policy decision-making process. The research question posed is: why is Hezbollah stepping in the Syrian civil war? What is the relation between this decision and the group’s identity that has been continuously constructed and re-constructed in the past 30 years? Moreover, is the relationship between the decision to go to war and Hezbollah identity construction linear? Can the conflict in Syria affect, or even re-shape the construction of Hezbollah’s identity? How does this comply (or disconnect) with Hezbollah’s own ideas about self and role in the serves in the region? The paper analyses the relation between the identity construction and the decision to go to the Syrian war, and based on this example draws a conclusion that the relationship between the two is rather reciprocal than linear.

Lebanon

Syria

Hezbollah

civil war

identity construction

Author

Kalowska, Aleksandra Katarzyna

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Supervisors

Warnaar, Maaike

ECTS Credits

25

Language

en