State and Non-State Alliances in the Middle East

Abstract

Proxy relationships between non-state challengers and their external state patrons in the Middle East are a factor that can weaken regional stability as non-state proxies become both a tool and a decisive factor in shaping inter-state competition between regional powers. As a result, non-state actors with regional influence must increasingly be factored into policy decisions in military, diplomatic and legal terms.

Keywords:

• Middle East
• Hezbollah
• Muslim Brotherhood
• Kurds
• non-state actors
• alliances
• proxy wars

Acknowledgements

This article was adapted from the chapter “Proxy Agents: State and Non-State Alliances in the Middle East” of the book The Frailty of Authority: Borders, Non-State Actors and Power Vacuums in a Changing Middle East, edited by Lorenzo Kamel (Rome: Edizioni Nueva Cultura, 2017). The author would like to thank Emiliano Alessandri, Benedetta Berti, Lorenzo Kamel and Mark N. Katz for their valuable comments during the drafting process.

Notes

¹ Miodownik and Barak, Nonstate Actors in Intrastate Conflicts.

² Pearlman and Gallagher Cunningham, “Nonstate Actors, Fragmentation, and Conflict Processes”, 3.

³ See, for example, Williams, Violent Non-State Actors; Zohar, “Typology of Contemporary Armed Non-State Actors”; Bartolomei et al., Modeling Violent Non-State Actors.

⁴ Berti, “What’s in a name?”.

⁵ Valensi, ”Non-State Actors”.

⁶ For example, Fukuyama, “The Imperative of State-Building”; Milliken and Krause, ”State-Failure, Collapse and Reconstruction”.

⁷ Gaub, ”State Vacuums and Non-state Actors”.

⁸ See also Bassam Tibi on the “simultaneity of structural globalisation and cultural fragmentation”, in Tibi, “Islam in Global Politics”.

⁹ Treacher, ”Edward Said: Identity, Politics and History”.

¹⁰ Gaub, “State Vacuums and Non-state Actors”.

¹¹ Gause, Beyond Sectarianism.

¹² A notable exception is Vinci, “Anarchy, Failed States, and Armed Groups”, 295-314.

¹³ Gaub, “State Vacuums and Non-state Actors”.

¹⁴ Halawi, “Non-States of the Middle East”.

¹⁵ Gabrielsen, “Evolution of Hezbollah’s strategy”.

¹⁶ US State Department, 2015 Country Reports on Terrorism, https://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2015/257520.htm.

¹⁷ Berti, “Lebanon”.

¹⁸ Sadjadpour and Taleblu, ”Iran, Leveraging Chaos”.

¹⁹ El-Bar, ”Proxies and Politics”.

²⁰ Khatib, ”Hizbullah’s Political Strategy”.

²¹ Sadjadpour and Taleblu, ”Iran, Leveraging Chaos”.

²² Ibid.

²³ For a closer examination of the role of Syria in Iran-Hezbollah relations, see Samii, ”A Stable Structure on Shifting Sands”.

²⁴ Ramazani, “Ideology and Pragmatism”.

²⁵ Sadjadpour and Taleblu, ”Iran, Leveraging Chaos”.

²⁶ Berti, "Lebanon".

²⁷ Ibid.

²⁸ Levitt, “Waking Up the Neighbours”.

²⁹ Ibid.

³⁰ El-Bar, “Proxies and Politics”.

³¹ On the interplay between Iran’s regional ambitions and Hezbollah’s increasingly widened footprint, see Akbarzadeh, “Why does Iran need Hizbullah?”.

³² Levitt, “Waking Up the Neighbours”.

³³ See, for example, Roberts, “Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood”. On the broader evolution of the Muslim Brotherhood, see Rosefsky Wickham, “The Muslim Brotherhood”, and Al-Anani, Inside the Muslim Brotherhood.

³⁴ Fahmy, “Doha’s Domestic Troubles”.

³⁵ Khatib, “Qatar and the recalibration of power”.

³⁶ Echagüe, “Emboldened yet vulnerable”.

³⁷ Roberts, “Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood”

³⁸ Khatib, “Qatar and the recalibration of power”.

³⁹ Ibish, “Qatar changes course”.

⁴⁰ Roberts, “‘Qatar, the Ikhwan”.

⁴¹ See also Bacik, “Russia and Turkey’s Proxy War”.

⁴² Rabinovich, “The Russian-U.S. Relationship in Middle East”.

⁴³ Suchkov, “How Russia sees Kurdish quest”.

⁴⁴ Katz, ”Russia and the Syrian Kurds”.

⁴⁵ Rabinovich, “Russian-U.S. Relationship in Middle East”.

⁴⁶ Reynolds, “Vladimir Putin, Godfather of Kurdistan”.

⁴⁷ Grove and Kesling, ”Russia pursues ties with Kurds”.

⁴⁸ Ibid.

⁴⁹ Reynolds, “Vladimir Putin, Godfather of Kurdistan”.

⁵⁰ Baev, “Russia as an Opportunist or Spoiler?”.

⁵¹ Trofimov, “Russia’s long road to Middle East”.

⁵² Katz, ”Russia and the Syrian Kurds”.

⁵³ Suchkov, “How Russia sees Kurdish quest”.

⁵⁴ Katz, ”Russia and the Syrian Kurds”.

⁵⁵ Halawi, “The Non-States of the Middle East”.