Hezbollah : The Political Economy of the Party of God

Resumen del libro

Nothing has been written about the political economy of Hezbollah before -will be an important text for all those wanting a leftist angle. Unlike many authors writing on this topic, the author conducted xtensive fieldwork in Lebanon, using interviews as well as new archival and other primary sources. Written with academic rigour, this book will also be useful for students studying the Middle-East. Author will be visiting the UK around publication. Hezbollah: The Political Economy of the Party of God provides a new, grounded analysis of the controversial and misunderstood Lebanese party. Where previous books havefocused on aspects of the party's identity, the military question or its religious discourse, here Joseph Daher presents an alternative perspective, built upon political economy.Drawing on extensive fieldwork in Lebanon and dozens of nterviews, as well as new archival and other primary sources, Daher's analysis confidently positions Hezbollah within socio-economic and political developments in Lebanon and the Middle-East. He focuses on Hezbollah's historic ties with its main sponsor, the Islamic Republic of Iran, its media and cultural wings and its relationship with Western economic policies. Further chapters examine the party's policies towards workers' struggles, women's issues, and its orientation towards the sectarian Lebanese political system. Hezbollah is a truly informed and fresh analysis of a topic which remains central to our understanding of the world's most tumultuous and politically unstable regions. Joseph Daher, member of the Revolutionary Left Current in Syria, is a teaching assistant at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. He is co-author of The People Demand: A Short History of the Arab Revolutions (Counterfire, 2011)