New Imaginings: Hizballah, Iran, and the Dynamics of Articulation
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The American University in Cairo School of Humanities and Social Sciences NEW IMAGININGS: HIZBALLAH, IRAN, AND THE DYNAMICS OF ARTICULATION A Thesis Submitted to Middle East Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of the Arts by Hebah H Farrag Under the supervision of: Advisor: Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim Primary Reader: Dr. Martina Rieker Secondary Reader: Dr. Pandeli Glavanis Spring 2007 ABSTRACT “New Imaginings: Hizballah, Iran, and the Dynamics of Articulation,” a masters thesis for the American University in Cairo by Hebah H. Farrag, under the supervision of Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Dr. Martina Rieker, and Dr. Pandeli Glavanis addresses the rise in the politics of identification in Islamism today. The resistance narrative in the Middle East has undergone radical changes in the last two decades; transforming, adapting, and metamorphosing in response to local, regional and global conditions. Corresponding with these rapid changes, the politics of identification has taken center stage. The recent alliance between Iran and Venezuela, corresponding with a shift in Venezuela’s policy towards Israel and enhanced through its ideological and financial support of Hizballah, has excited Middle Eastern populations, frightened Arab leaders, and left many an academic wondering where exactly the resistance narrative is heading. This combined with a flurry of perceived sectarian divisions and internal domestic struggles has left many questing: What is behind these recent connections and how have these changes impacted our understanding of Islamism, anti-imperialism, third worldism, and resistance? The actors and issues that are the main focus of this work are, first, Hizballah and its attempt to forge new understandings of resistance, identity, and Islam within and without a nation-state context, and secondly, Iran and its current re-definition of conceptions such as development and sovereignty in response to conditions of ‘geopolitical exclusion.’ An original and integral element in this study is the inclusion of comparative regional experiences, drawing mainly from Latin America, specifically Venezuela, in order to show not only the extent of south-south relations being formed today and on what basis, but also the variance within these assorted discourses even within self-defined anti-imperialistic alliances. Methodologically, this work uses theories such as articulation and tools such as the ‘border guard’ and ‘mythomotuer’ in order to garner a deeper understanding of if and how Islamist movements such as Hizballah, and nations such as Iran, remain ideologically consistent by transforming and adapting to political, social, and culturally trends. By complicating an often used and interrelated example, such as the relationship between Hizballah and Iran, this work delves into the question of identity formation and defines what it means to use modern means to search for a post-modern identity. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: the Stage 5 a. Methods and Sources 7 b. Literature Review 9 i. The American Century: Making of an Imagining ii. What’s in a Name? Post-Cold War What? c. Methodology and Definition 14 i. The Modern in Postmodern ii. Articulation and Imagination iii. Border Guards and the Mythomoteur I. DECIPHERING THE PALIMPSEST: Islamism in the Twenty-First Century 23 a. Islamism in Review 23 i. Shi’a Islam: Methodological Problems b. Towards a Methodology 30 II. LEBANON AND IRAN CONNECTED 39 a. Defining Iran and Lebanon 39 b. The Ties that Bind 42 i. Musa Al-Sadr c. The Islamic Republic: the Export of the Revolution 52 III. IRAN ARTICULATED: In Between Promises and Contradiction 58 a. Iran and Social Movements 61 i. Revolution and War: 1979 – 1988 ii. The ‘Second’ Islamic Republic: 1989 - 2005 iii. A Third Way: 2005 Presidential Elections b. The ‘Geopolitics of Exclusion’: Towards Anti-Imperialist High Politics 73 i. Geopolitics of Exclusion ii. Participation in the United Nations iii. Double Standards iv. Discriminatory Non-Proliferation Regime v. Participation in the World Economy IV. HIZBALLAH CONCIEVED: Geopolitics of Resistance 90 a. Hizballah Perceived 91 b. Lebanon, Briefly 94 i. The First National Crisis ii. Socio-Political Mobilization: The Lebanese Shi’a c. The Second National Crisis and the Birth of Hizballah 110 i. The Era of Invasions and the Birth of Resistance ii. Foreign Interference iii. In Closing 3 V. HIZBALLAH ARTICULATED: The Party and its Worldview 126 a. A Worldview Deconstructed 127 i. The Oppressors and the Oppressed ii. Secularism iii. Resistance iv. Identity and Identification b. The Politics of Identification 143 i. The Muslim Ummah: Religion ii. Arab Identity: Ethnicity iii. Lebanese Identity: Nationalism VI. THE TRANSFORMING MYTHOMOTEUR 149 a. The Transformations of Hizballah 150 i. The Use of Media ii. The Beginning: 1985 – 1989 b. Transformation, Cooptation, or Articulation: 1989 – 2000 154 i. The First Challenge: Lebanon after Khomeini and the Civil War ii. The Decision to Enter Politics 1. Clerical Splits in the Theory of Wilayat al-Faqih or Velayat-e-Faqih iii. Participating in Democracy: Election Politics iv. Retribution and its Affects v. 1998 Municipal Council Elections c. The Post-Withdrawal Period: 2000 – 2004 166 i. September 11 and the War in Iraq ii. 2004 Municipal Council Elections d. Lebanon’s Third National Crisis: 2004 – Today 174 i. The ‘Cedar Revolution’ 1. The Assassination of Rafik al-Hariri and the Rise of the Politics of Identification ii. Post-Syria Lebanon 1. Entering Government 2. The Survival of Resistance e. The July War: Retribution in the Twenty-First Century 187 i. Hizballah Victories ii. The War on the War 1. Protecting the Resistance in the Capital f. Resistance and its Reverberations 197 i. The Response from Arab Regimes: the Political Appeal of the ‘Shi’a Revival’ ii. Populist Currents iii. New Alliances: Islamism and the Left g. In Closing 207 AFTERWORD 208 WORKS CITED 214 4 INTRODUCTION The Stage In the last five years we have seen an explosion of interest in the region known as the Middle East. The region has not only become the center of the world's attention regarding the threat of terrorism and the need for democratization it has also become the new focus of foreign intervention; militarily, economically, socially, culturally, and politically. From the Sudan to Afghanistan, the global spotlight has been narrowing in on the endemic need for control and stability in the region; a control that has been sought through not only political and militaristic means, but through trade, aid, and Qualified Industrial Zones. The costs of such intervention and attention have been acutely felt on the whole of the world stage in ways particular to our moment in time. The nature of international governance has been questioned to its core and what was fundamental to our system of nation-states has now begun to be debated, questioned, and challenged. Questions such as the place of international law, the sanctity of the Geneva Conventions, the centrality of torture to security, the extent of sovereignty, the meaning of self- determination, the rights of non-state actors, all once primary and essential elements to an order revered and protected to an almost divine extent by hegemonic nations or international cooperations no longer have simple answers that can be defended. The region and its populations have become hopeless and uncertain with very few options for advance and not many alternatives for a way out, but with the unique opportunity to stand at the center of a global dialogue on the future of international governance and its limits, the new ‘playground’ of the imagination. Latin America serves as an important comparison to the Middle East, one that has been often overlooked in the scholarship especially regarding anti-imperialist organizing. Not only do many examples in these two regions share a similar pattern of economic development (structural adjustment, state-led economic and social engineering, etc.) and a long history of foreign intervention and entanglement, the methods and ideologies with which these various countries in these two regions where 5 penetrated are also very similar. Adam Isacson, of the Center for International Policy in Washington D.C., states rhetorically, "Latin Americanists know all about unilateral interventions, pre-emption, 'regime change,' botched counter-insurgency efforts, torture allegations, nation-building schemes, proxy wars, empty rhetoric about democracy and charges of imperial behavior. It’s been going on for a century or more."1 Its no wonder that a survey conducted by the Gallup International Association at the end of 2003, as part of the Voice of the People annual survey, to measure people's opinion regarding the effect of US foreign policy across countries and around the world, found respondents in South America and the Middle East sharing the most critical views of U.S. foreign policy.2 Economically, politically, militarily, ideologically; these two regions, broadly, have much in common in terms of their development, and have cooperated politically and economically in the past (think Nasser and Castro). In recent times we see Latin American and Middle Eastern players being connected in distinct ways; Hugo Chavez of Venezuela leading the way in the creation of new alliances. Beyond their similarities and differences, the two regions and their various actors have often been construed in similar ways in the minds of US foreign policy makers, and additionally, a comparison of these two regions responses to comparable actions, and on what basis they are now forming alliances, may enhance our understanding of imperialism and the impetus of anti-imperialistic action. What are these players seeking to influence and how is it important to current conceptions of global order? How and on what basis are these alliances being formed? How is identity and resistance being formulated to unite these various actors? The answers to the above questions may help to re-draw understandings of current resistance movements while furthering existing literature on the Middle East and its place within an ongoing struggle.