“La Guerre Des Autres”: Transnational Military Alliances in the Quest for Sovereignty

From 1975-1900, Lebanon was embroiled in a civil war characterized by the collapse of the state and the militarization of its nearly twenty politico-religious parties. The tensions which provoked the conflict reflected the social, political and economic imbalances generated while Lebanon was under imperial and colonial rule. Sustaining the conflict were the actions of numerous additional external actors, including Israel, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Syria, Iran, the United States, France, and Libya. As a result, many in Lebanon refer to the conflict as une guerre des autres: a war fought by other countries and political interests on Lebanese soil. While this colloquialism displaces too much responsibility, it would certainly be accurate to describe the conflict as an internationalized civil war.

This paper thus considers the militarization of Lebanon’s civilian population in the context of regional patterns in militarization, paramount among them: the Palestinian-Israeli conflict; proxy wars for Sunni and Shi’a powers; the maneuverings of Syrian dictator Hafez al-Assad; and, the Cold War. This inquiry is motivated by Lebanon’s current, complex relations with neighboring and nearby countries – relations which continue to call the country’s sovereignty into question, twenty-five years after the war’s end.