Contemporary Wars: Reflections on their External and Internal Objectives

Wars have become one of the defining characteristics of our era. In our region, they have been so for decades. Given our long “experience” of living through them as victims, it may be time to reflect on the interaction —the mutually shaping relationship —between the external and international dimensions and objectives of these wars, on the one hand, and the internal dimensions and objectives tied to the political struggle for power within the states involved in them, on the other.

This essay represents only a preliminary attempt — a form of “thinking aloud” —intended to move beyond conventional analytical frameworks. The focus here is on war between states, or between states and quasi-state actors, rather than on civil wars. Its central hypothesis is that the relationship between the external and internal objectives of war is organic and structural in nature, such that neither dimension can be overlooked or underestimated in the analysis of any conflict.

This requires a closer examination of the possible forms of interaction between these two sets of objectives, as well as an exploration of several key questions:

This analytical reflection unfolds against the backdrop is the ongoing war involving the United States, Israel, and Iran, with a particular attention given to the Lebanese case, which will be addressed in a separate section later in the text.