Challenging the sponsor-proxy model: the Iran–Hizbullah relationship

This article attempts to demystify the Iran–Hizbullah relationship and to challenge the widespread conceptualisation of this partnership as one between a sponsor and proxy. I argue that the proxy model is not only politically irresponsible but also over simplistic in that it reduces a complex, multidimensional relationship that is bound by ideational and normative factors to a materially-driven, transactional relationship. I begin with a brief survey of the historic and cultural ties between Iran and Hizbullah, and then explore their shared ideology, and strategic culture. Using Bertil Dunér’s proxy theory, and his focus on power, I further assess the relationship against Realist criteria, and highlight Hizbullah’s autonomy from Iran, using several interviews with Hizbullah officials and commanders that I have conducted. Not only does Hizbullah’s independence from Iran defy the proxy label, but I go further to argue that the resistance movement has become a regional power in its own right, based on both Realist hard power criteria and constructivist ideational understandings of power. I conclude that given the organic nature of the relationship between them, and the power modalities Hizbullah offers the partnership, the Iran–Hizbullah relationship is better understood as an interdependent symbiosis between close allies.