## FURTHER READING

Unfortunately, despite the party’s evident impact on the politics and culture of the region, English-language histories and analyses specifically related to Hezbollah, and especially to Nasrallah himself, have been few and far between.

One recent publication that helps to fill in at least part of the gap—that is, Hezbollah’s relationship with the various premierships of Rafik Hariri—has recently been put forth by the author of this volume’s introduction, Nicholas Blanford. His Killing Mr. Lebanon provides an important addition, and update, to Judith Palmer Harik’s 2004 book, Hezbollah: The Changing Face of Terrorism, which itself provided a much-needed framework for understanding how domestic Lebanese politics intersected with regional and international interests, especially following the events of September 11, 2001.

Amal Saad-Ghoreyeb’s 2002 book, Hezbollah: Politics and Religion, and Ahmad Nizar Hamzeh’s 2004 book, In The Path of Hezbollah, both provide excellent bases for understanding the party’s internal structure, as well as the various twists and turns, contradictions, and pragmatic reconciliations that Hezbollah’s ideological stance has undergone over the years. Augustus Richard Norton’s 1987 book, Amal and the Shia (which also makes the full text of Hezbollah’s 1985 “Open Letter” available), his recent publication Hezbollah: An Introduction, as well as his scholarly articles (most notably Hizballah of Lebanon: Extremist Ideals vs. Mundane Politics for the Council on Foreign Relations), also all provide a rare, on-the-ground perspective for understanding the party’s birth, as well as its approach to contemporary challenges (Norton was a UN officer in the mid-1980s and a frequent visitor to Lebanon thereafter). One should add to this Martin Kramer’s work from outside Lebanon on both Sayyed Fadlallah and Hezbollah itself—work that helped to lay the basis for the generally dominant view in Western circles that the party’s “Lebanonization” has mostly been a cover for unrelenting Islamic radicalism (see specifically, “The Oracle of Hezbollah, Sayyed Muhammad Fadlallah,” in Spokesmen for the Despised: Fundamentalist Leaders of the Middle East, and “The Moral Logic of Hezbollah,” in Modern Origins of Terrorism: Psychologies, Ideologies, Theologies, States of Mind). For an alternative view of Fadlallah, see Jamal Sakari’s 2005 Fadlallah: The Making of a Radical Shi’ite Leader). Hala Jaber’s 1997 Hezbollah: Born With A Vengeance and Magnus Ranstorp’s Hizb’allah in Lebanon, also 1997, also both provide valuable book-length investigations into the party’s early development and post-civil war challenges.

In contrast to all of the above, Sheikh Naim Qassem’s 2005 book, Hezbollah: The Story From Within, stands as the only publication written and researched by the party itself—and by Hezbollah’s second-in-command, no less. Qassem’s book, although predictably criticized in the Israeli media as pure propaganda and deception, provides one of the few point-by-point accounts of Hezbollah’s history and stances over a wide range of events and subjects (the full text of the party’s 1992 parliamentary platform is included in its Appendix). It also provides, arguably, more of an epistemological basis for Hezbollah’s policies and practices than perhaps even Nasrallah himself has offered—indeed, Qassem is reputed to be the party intellectual, immersed in both Western and Islamic philosophical texts. Qassem’s book therefore stands as an indispensable volume for any researcher interested in truly testing the party’s rhetoric.

Among Israeli analysts, the seminal work of Daniel Sobelman has probably contributed as much to English-language scholarship on the party as any other. His 2004 New Rules of the Game offers what is undoubtedly the most accurate, comprehensive, and generally objective work on the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. Indeed, his analysis has even been taken up by party leaders, including Nasrallah himself, who at times has publicly referred to Sobelman’s understanding of the complex situation that prevailed at the border following the 2000 Israeli withdrawal. Sobelmen, as well as other Israeli analysts and academics, most notably Eyal Zisser, have also contributed to various report-length assessments of the party through the Jaffee Center, which has repeatedly offered trenchant analyses of both Hezbollah’s strategy and Israel’s own approach to the conflict. The Center’s Strategic Assessment of the 2006 Summer War (Vol. 9, No. 3, November 2006) is especially valuable in this regard, although it should be read alongside Alastair Crooke and Mark Penn’s October 2006 analyses in the Asia Times (published online under the overall title “How Hezbollah Defeated Israel”), which provide a somewhat different view from both sides of the border (including from Washington).

The International Crisis Group’s (ICG) periodic reports on the situation in Lebanon, and specifically of the Israel–Hezbollah conflict, provide some of the most incisive and thought-provoking work available to the interested reader—especially to the extent that Hezbollah is clearly historicized within a domestic and regional framework. Their 2003 “Rebel Without A Cause?” and 2002 “Old Games, New Rules” stand apart from other such analyses, if nothing else by virtue of their deep investigation and access on all sides of the conflict. The ICG’s 2005 “Lebanon: Managing the Gathering Storm” is also notable in this regard, providing one of the few comprehensive reviews of the party’s position after the Hariri assassination and the Syrian withdrawal of that same year (the former in-country director for ICG Lebanon, Reinoud Leenders, has contributed several articles and scholarly works in recent years, several co-authored with Mona Harb, including “Know Thy Enemy” for the Third World Quarterly which offers one of the few investigations into the epistemological consequences of naming Hezbollah a terrorist organization).

As far as US-based analyses of the party are concerned, the work has generally been limited—which is ironic since Washington has consistently labeled Hezbollah the most dangerous terrorist group facing the United States. Nevertheless, Sami Hajjar’s 2002 report, “Hizballah: Terrorism, National Liberation, or Menace?” provides an insightful and balanced view of the party, especially in regard to its changing character over time and the limited military options available to US policymakers. Daniel Byman, Anthony Cordesman, and Gary Gambill’s work over the years—mostly in journal articles and occasional white papers—also provide thoughtful analyses of Hezbollah, although all three are mainly interesting as reflections of US strategic thinking generally, rather than as illuminating investigations into the party itself (see especially Byman’s 2003 “Should Hezbollah Be Next?” in Foreign Affairs, Cordesman’s 2002 “Israel and Lebanon: The Risk of New Conflicts” for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Gambill’s 2004 “Dossier: Hassan Nasrallah” for Middle East Intelligence Bulletin).

Finally, for those readers interested in English-language interviews with Nasrallah, the Financial Times, Independent (especially Robert Fisk’s columns), and Washington Post (Robin Wright and David Ignatius) provide the best periodic engagements with Hezbollah’s secretary-general. The Saudi-owned daily Al Hayat also has available on its website at least one in-depth interview with Nasrallah (though roughly translated), from January 18–19, 2006, that provides critical insight into Nasrallah’s stance between the Hariri assassination and the July War. Seymour Hersh and Jeffrey Goldberg, for the New Yorker, were also both afforded interviews, and both provide excellent frameworks for understanding the party’s role in the region after September 11, as well as after the evident collapse of the peace process. Hersh’s latest piece, entitled “Redirection,” is particularly noteworthy as the only interview granted by Nasrallah to a Western reporter after the July War.

That said, one hopes that this handful of journalists, academics, and analysts will not be the only ones afforded access to Nasrallah in the future; and that their organizations are not the only ones willing and able to commit resources to a further investigation of Nasrallah, Hezbollah, and indeed Lebanon as a whole.

Byman, Daniel “Should Hezbollah Be Next?” Foreign Affairs, November/December 2003.

Cordesman, Anthony H., “Israel and Lebanon: The Risk of New Conflicts,” Center for Strategic and International Studies, Working Paper, 2002.

Ghorayeb, Amal-Saad, Hizbu’llah: Politics and Religion (London: Pluto Press, 2002).

Goldberg, Jeffrey, “In the Party of God,” New Yorker, July 14, 2002.

Hajjar, Sami G., Hizballah: Terrorism, National Liberation, or Menace? (Washington: US army War College, August 2002).

Hamzeh, Ahmad Nizar, In The Path of Hezbollah (New York: Syracuse University Press, 2004).

Harb, Mona and Reinoud Leenders, “The Politics of Naming,” Third World Quarterly, 26: 1 (2005).

———“Know Thy Enemy,” Third World Quarterly, 26: 1 (2005).

Harik, Judith Palmer, Hezbollah: The Changing Face of Terrorism (London: IB Tauris, 2004).

International Crisis Group, “Rebel Without A Cause?,” July 30, 2003.

———“Lebanon: Managing the Gathering Storm,” December 5, 2005.

———“Old Games, New Rules,” November 18, 2002.

Jaber, Hala, Born With a Vengeance (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997).

Kramer, Martin, “The Oracle of Hezbollah, Sayyid Muhammad Fadlallah,” in Appleby (ed.), Spokesmen for the Despised: Fundamentalist Leaders of the Middle East (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997), pp. 83–181.

Norton, Augustus Richard, Amal and the Shia (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987).

———Hizballah of Lebanon: Extremist Ideals vs. Mundane Politics (New York: Council on Foreign Relations Press, February 2000).

Qassem, Naim, Hezbollah: The Story From Within (London: Saqi, 2005).

Ranstorp, Magnus, “Between a Rock and a Hard Place,” St Andrews Working Paper, October 2000.

———Hizb’allah in Lebanon (London: Macmillan Press, 1997).

Sankari, Jamal, Fadlallah: The Making of a Radical Shi’ite Leader (London: Saqi, 2005).

Sobelman, Daniel, “Four Years After the Withdrawal,” Strategic Assessment 7, August 2004.

———New Rules of the Game (Tel Aviv: Jaffe Center, January 2004).

Zisser, Eyal, “Hizballah and Israel: Strategic Threat on the Northern Border,” Israel Affairs, 12 (1), January 2006, pp. 86–106.