The Governance of Non-State Armed Actors in Failing States: The Case of Hezbollah
Abstract
Using the case of the Lebanese movement Hezbollah, the article deals with
the phenomenon of the governance of non-state armed groups in failing
states and the conditions for its emergence. It argues that one of the key
requirements for the emergence and long-term preservation of a non-state
armed group’s authority is its fulfillment of functions usually associated
with the state (such as the provision of security, public goods and services
and the legitimation of its authority) that the failing state is not able to
provide. The study specifically shows how Hezbollah is able to substitute for
or complement the Lebanese state in each of its functions and
consecutively use the wide network of its governance institutions for
strengthening its political authority. As a result of Hezbollah’s practices and
strategies of governance, the forms of political control of the territory are
being gradually changed and hybridized.
Keywords
non-state governance, security governance, non-state armed actors, territorial authority, failing state, Hezbollah, Lebanon
Author Biography
Jan Daniel
Born in 1987, he is a PhD candidate at the Department of International
Relations of the Institute of Political Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences
of Charles University in Prague. He completed a master's degree in
International Relations at the Faculty of Social Studies at Masaryk University
in Brno and a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Security
Studies, also at Masaryk University. Academically he focuses on armed nonstate actors, hybrid security regimes, the Middle East, international political
sociology and critical theory of security. During his studies, he completed
internships and study abroad programmes in Berlin, Beirut and Bologna.