Ideology and international institutions

Abstract

In support of the hypothesis, Biddle provides an example: ‘even the German Wehrmacht in 1944 displayed strikingly’ guerilla-like ‘methods in important respects; even the Vietcong in 1965 did many things that most people associate with “conventional” war fighting’ (p. 28). Based on the 2006 Lebanon War between non-state Hezbollah and the State of Israel, Biddle shows the relationship between the choices of war methodologies within the Fabian-Napoleonic spectrum based. If tribal culture or inferior material are the most critical determinants of tactics and strategy, their mutual reinforcement ought to produce highly Fabian methods for Hezbollah (pp. 109–111). Materiel per se is the central explanation of nonstate behaviour, with materiel inferiority itself being a sufficient explanation for guerilla methods. In turn, Israel represented a classic example of state warfare at the edge of the Napoleonic spectrum. Consequently, Hezbollah in 2006 was a non-state actor from a tribal culture at a significant materiel disadvantage vis-à-vis a powerful state opponent (p. 145). However, the author refutes the expectations that Hezbollah used nonstate tools and methodologies, emphasising that since the 1900s no non-state actor can achieve success using the strong State actor’s methods. In the new theory’s terms, Hezbollah’s military behaviour was neither Fabian nor Napoleonic but well to the interior. The new theory predicts state-like, mid-spectrum methods for Hezbollah: its internal politics were highly institutionalised, it saw Israel as an existential threat, and it had access to advanced twenty-first-century technology, notwithstanding Hezbollah’s aid from its Iranian patron (p. 110). Nevertheless, this monograph is high-quality academic research and will be highly useful for political and social scientists and also to practitioners. Biddle’s book contributes to the theoretical understanding of non-state and state methods of warfare. Research can be made more valuable by using different methodologies, showing their interdependence of processes in society and methods of warfare. Analysing the Taliban movements in Afghanistan which combines classical state and guerilla methods of warfare could be more helpful. Finally, the example of Islamic State (IS) in the period of 2014–2017 shows how a terrorist non-state structure is trying to expand its arsenal using the methods of the Napoleonic spectrum achieves a short-term and tangible success.