Axis of resistance : asymmetric deterrence and rules of the game in contemporary Middle East conflicts / Daniel Sobelman.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Table Of Contents -- Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 The Emergence of a Resistance Community and Strategy -- Variations of Resistance Failure and Success -- The Argument -- Resistance: Ideology, Geopolitics, Asymmetric Strategy -- From Coordinated Discourse to Coordinated Action -- Resistance as an Asymmetric Strategy -- The Contours of Resistance Strategy -- Hezbollah: The Primary Resistance Laboratory -- The 2006 Lebanon War as a Resistance Model -- The Resistance Challenge from Israel’s Vantage Point -- Case Selection, Research Design, Chapter Outline -- Chapter 2 The Logic of Asymmetric Rules of the Game -- Rules of the Game: A Quest for Limitations and Predictability -- From Nuclear Armageddon to Limited War -- From Nuclear to Conventional Limitations -- Vulnerability, Cooperation, and Rules of the Game -- Vulnerability, Power, and Asymmetric Conflicts -- Asymmetric Bargaining on Limitations -- A Model for Asymmetric Rules of the Game -- Research Design -- Chapter 3 Hezbollah versus Israel in Southern Lebanon -- Historical Background -- The Emergence of Rules of the Game -- The Origins of Asymmetric Deterrence -- Operation Accountability: Israel’s First Major Attempt to Change the Rules -- Operation Accountability Understandings, 1993 to 1996 -- Constructing an Intricate Language of Escalation -- The Exclusion of Israel’s Airpower from the Rules of the Game -- Operation Grapes of Wrath: Would More Force Change the Rules? -- Negotiating the April Understandings -- Refining the Rules of the Game: Five Levels of Escalation -- Bargaining Over the Use of Roadside Bombs -- Assessing the Impact of the Understandings on Israel’s Latitude -- New Rules of the Game, 2000 to 2006: From Unilateral Pullout to the 2006 War -- Coercive Bargaining over the New Status Quo -- The Rules of the Game Come into Sharper Focus -- New Rules of the Game: Four Primary Areas -- Shebaa Farms: Contested Land, Acceptable Playing Field -- The Aerial Domain: Restraining Israel’s Primary Asymmetric Asset -- Tit-for-Tat Operations along the Israel-Lebanon Border -- The Clandestine Realm: Assassinations, Intelligence, and Subversion -- On the Path to War: The Unraveling of the Rules of the Game -- The Emergence of Postwar Mutual Strategic Deterrence -- Postwar Deterrent Equations: Offsetting Israel’s Airpower -- Dialogues of Deterrence: Bargaining over the Next War’s Thresholds -- The Campaign between the Wars: New Rules of the Game in the Syrian Arena -- Would Strategic Deterrence Normalize Limited Friction? -- Hezbollah’s Model for Rules of the Game -- Conclusion -- Chapter 4 Hamas versus Israel in the Gaza Strip -- Historical Background -- The Hezbollah Connection -- Hamas Seeks to Introduce Limited Attrition -- Bargaining over Acceptable Rules of the Game -- Rockets as a Coercive Instrument -- Hamas Tries and Fails to Introduce Acceptable Level of Attrition -- Raising the Threshold: The Great March of Return, 2018 to 2020 -- The Great March of Return: A New Coercive Instrument -- Israeli Policy Adjustments -- Fighting on the Lowest Rungs of Escalation Ladder -- Expanding the Rules of the Game: Operation Guardian of the Walls, May 2021 -- New Deterrent Equations and Tighter Integration into the Axis of Resistance -- Conclusion -- Chapter 5 The Houthis versus Saudi Arabia in Yemen -- Saudi Arabia Seeks Decisive Victory -- Iranian and Hezbollah Prewar Support -- Hezbollah Publicly Intervenes in the War -- The Evolution of the Houthi Deterrent Efforts -- The Houthi Missile Force Emerges -- Precision-Guided Ballistic Missiles, Cruise Missiles, and Armed Drones -- A New Class of Attacks: Balance of Deterrence Operations -- Assessing Houthi Efforts to Establish Rules of the Game -- Houthi Association with the Axis of Resistance -- Operational Convergence with the Axis of Resistance -- Conclusion -- Chapter 6 Iran versus Israel (and the United States) in the Syrian Arena -- Background -- On a Collision Course: Israel Escalates Offensive against Iran -- Iran Fails to Change the Rules of the Game -- Initial Strategic Outcome: Iran Relocates Eastward -- In Search of Israeli Vulnerabilities -- Conclusion -- Conclusion and Discussion -- Afterword -- Hezbollah Initiates an Incremental, Rules-Based War of Attrition -- The First Coordinated Multifront War: The Axis of Resistance Mobilizes -- Looking Forward -- Notes -- References -- Index.

From the conflict between the United States and the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria to the recent Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, events in today's Middle East reflect the emergence of what has come to be known as an Iran-led "axis of resistance." A geopolitical network of state- and nonstate actors seeking to promote a new regional order, the "axis" primarily includes the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yemen's Houthi rebels, Syria, and multiple Iran-supported Shiite militias in Iraq. Drawing on qualitative in-depth research in Hebrew and Arabic, and on exclusive interviews with senior Israeli officials, Axis of Resistance offers the first comprehensive analysis of the evolution of the "axis" and its application of a distinct strategic approach to asymmetrical conflicts-that of "resistance." Author Daniel Sobelman shows that the various "resistance" forces in the region have pursued an analogous asymmetrical deterrent strategy whose origins trace back to the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in southern Lebanon, whereby the weaker actor attempts to subject the stronger state to limiting "rules of the game."

Description based on print version record.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest affiliated libraries.