Commentary
Most of Moscow’s military resources are tied up in Ukraine, while Beijing’s foreign policy prioritizes economic ties and avoids direct conflict.
Alexander Gabuev, Temur Umarov
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Source: Getty
Hybridizing Security: Armies and Militias in Fractured Arab States
The hybridization of security governance in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen leaves them with forms of sovereignty that are both constrained and constantly contested.
Published on Oct 30, 2018
Source: Italian Institute for International Political Studies
Defense and security sectors in the Arab states have been undergoing significant, and sometimes radical, transformation as a result of local rebellions and civil wars, state crisis and fracturing, and external intervention since the start of the 21st century. In Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, unfamiliar and fluid coalitions of national armed forces (or their remnants) and armed non-state actors are increasingly engaged in complex patterns of de-confliction, coexistence, and cooperation embedded within a wider context of persistent competition among them and of geopolitical rivalry between an array of external backers. A joint effort of the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) and the Program on Civil-Military Relations in Arab States (CMRAS) of the Carnegie Middle East Center, this dossier explores how the resulting hybridization of security governance in these countries leaves them with forms of sovereignty that are both constrained and constantly contested.
Hybridizing Security: Armies, Militias and Constrained Sovereignty, Yezid Sayigh, Carnegie Middle East Center
The Lebanese Armed Forces and Hezbollah: Military Dualism in Post-War Lebanon, Aram Nerguizian, Carnegie Middle East Center
Legacies of Survival: Syria's Uncomfortable Security Hybridity, Abdulla M. Erfan, Geneva Centre for Security Policy
The Osmotic Path: The PMU and The Iraqi State, Riccardo Redaelli, Catholic University of Milan
Patchwork Security: The New Face of Yemen’s Hybridity, Eleonora Ardemagni, ISPI
Armies, Militias and (Re)-Integration in Fractured States, Frederic Wehrey, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
About the Authors
Yezid Sayigh
Senior Fellow, Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center
Yezid Sayigh is a senior fellow at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, where he leads the program on Civil-Military Relations in Arab States (CMRAS). His work focuses on the comparative political and economic roles of Arab armed forces, the impact of war on states and societies, the politics of postconflict reconstruction and security sector transformation in Arab transitions, and authoritarian resurgence.
Eleonora Ardemagni
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
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