Tracing the Political Origins of The Hezbollah’s Resistance Discourse: From Revisionism to Status Quo

Abstract Discourses are politically-oriented realities that explain their selective and instrumental nature. That means discourses are mostly (re)produced by the political actors, and they conform to the changing agendas of these actors. The trajectory of the resistance discourse, which reflects Hezbollah’s ideological (religious) approach, seems to confirm this generalisation owing to its noticeable association with Hezbollah’s political motivations over time. This allegedly revisionist discourse has two intertwined dimensions: One dimension regards Hezbollah’s position towards internal affairs, while the other concerns its external orientation. Hezbollah often claimed to champion the revisionist camp in these two realms, albeit its pro-status quo policies unfolded during the Syrian civil war and the recent Lebanese protests. These two events further manifested the positioned nature of the resistance discourse. In this context, this article will attempt to illustrate the political nature of the resistance discourse by disputing its long-held revisionist claims. To empirically support our argument, the status-quo-based factors behind the regular practice of the resistance discourse during the Syrian civil war and the Lebanese protests will be deeply investigated.