Israel’s expanding war in Lebanon is unfolding alongside a domestic crisis over who controls the country’s decisions of war and peace. As Hezbollah confronts Israel on the battlefield, the Lebanese state is challenging the legitimacy of the group’s military activities—opening an unprecedented struggle over the state’s monopoly on arms.
Lebanon’s externally driven push to disarm Hezbollah reveals a deeper crisis of sovereignty, as the state lacks the legitimacy, institutional capacity, and public trust necessary to reclaim monopoly over force without risking deeper instability and communal backlash.