Leiden University Student Repository

Wijk, Koen van (2018)

Hezbollah in the Syrian War: Pragmatism in the Party of God

Master thesis | International Relations (MA)

This thesis looks into the motivations behind Hezbollah's military support for Syria's president Assad, despite its ideological opposition to repression and initial support for the Arab Spring. It compares these findings to the existing literature on the nature of Hezbollah. It is found that pragmatic considerations concerning Hezbollah's own security and its weapons supplies through Syria were its main motivators, despite ideologically charged rhetoric. In the literature, this reality is best reflected by those that acknowledge the duality of Hezbollah's ties to Lebanon and aims of integration into Lebanese politics on the one hand and its ties to Iran and fight against Israel on the other.

Hezbollah

Syrian War

Syria

Iran

Islamism

Author

Wijk, Koen van

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Global Conflict in the Modern Era

Supervisors

Valk, John-Harmen

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en