Abstract
Israel's quest for security on its northern border with Lebanon has a history dating back to the foundation of the Palestine mandate. In the early period from the First World War to the end of the 1960s the quest was dominated with attaining economic and environmental security by seeking to acquire rights to the waters of South Lebanon. Recent decades in contrast have witnessed the rise in importance of border security and strategic security requirements in the face of military threats to northern Israel. Israel's interventionist policy in South Lebanon has been formalised to include a permanent presence on Lebanese territory in the form of the “security zone”. It is argued that despite the positive events that have occurred in the region in the early 1990s, it remains unlikely that Israel will easily relinquish its security shield in South Lebanon thus ultimately undermining the possibility of moving away from elusive to permanent security.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Agnew, C.; Anderson, E.: Water Resources in the Arid Realm. Routledge, London 1992.
Bardawil, S.: Israeli Claims on Lebanese Water: The Litani River. Unpublished thesis. St. Anthony's College, Oxford, May 1991.
Cobban, H.: The Superpowers and the Syrian-Israeli Conflict. Praeger, New York 1991.
Ghobashy, O. Z.: The Deployment of the Jordan River, pp. 279–285. In: Alexander, Y.; Kittrie, N. N. (eds.), “Crescent and Star”. AMS, New York 1973.
Harris, W.: Israel and the Security Belt: Prospects for the Implementation of UN Resolution 425, unpublished paper given at conference on Peace-Keeping, Water and Security in South Lebanon organised by the Centre for Lebanese Studies, University of Oxford and the Norwegian Institute for International Affairs, London, 4th October 1991.
Harris, W.: The Syria-Israel Front in the 1990s: Lebanon, the Golan and the “Peace Process”, unpublished paper given at the conference on “Boundary and Territorial Issues in the Mediterranean Basin in an Age of Geopolitical Change”, International Boundaries Research Unit, Durham and Foundation for International Studies, Malta, Malta, 24–26 September 1992.
Heidberg, M.: Peacekeepers and Local Populations. Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), Oslo 1990.
Hof, F. C.: Galilee Divided. Westview, Boulder & London 1985.
Israeli Defence Forces Spokesman: The Lebanese Border, Israeli Defence Forces, 1981.
Kolars, J.: The Litani River in the Context of Middle Eastern Water Resources, unpublished paper given at conference on Peace-Keeping, Water and Security in South Lebanon organised by the Centre for Lebanese Studies, University of Oxford and the Norwegian Institute for International Affairs, London, 4th October 1991.
Lebanese Ministry of Information: South Lebanon 1948–1986: Fact and Figures. Beirut 1987.
Lowdermilk, W. C.: Palestine Land of Promise. Greenwood, New York 1968.
Naff, T.: Israel and the Waters of South Lebanon, unpublished paper paper given at conference on Peace-Keeping, Water and Security in South Lebanon organised by the Centre for Lebanese Studies, University of Oxford and the Norwegian Institute for International Affairs, London, 4th October 1991.
Naff, T.: Does Israel Use Water from the Litani River? BRISMES Newsletter (April 1993)
Nasrallah, F.: Prospects for Lebanon. Centre for Lebanese Studies, Oxford 1992.
Norton, A. R.: (In)Security and (Dis)Order in South Lebanon, unpublished paper given at conference on Peace-Keeping, Water and Security in South Lebanon organised by the Centre for Lebanese Studies, University of Oxford and the Norwegian Institute for International Affairs, London, 4th October 1991.
Petch, J.: Water and Israel and the Occupied Territories, pp. 65–80. In: Beschorner, N.; Gould, St. J. B. (eds.), Altered States? Israel, Palestine and the Future. School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, London 1992.
Sachar, H. M.: The Emergence of the Middle East: 1914–24. Knopf, New York 1969.
Saliba, S. N.: The Jordan River Dispute. Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague 1968.
Schiff, Z.; Ya'ari, E.: Israel's Lebanon War. Counterpoint/Unwin, 1968.
Schofield, C. H.: The Arab-Israeli Conflict. Bounder and Security Bulletin 1: 1, 11–15. Durham International Boundaries Research Unit (1993)
Shahak, I.: Israel's “rules of the game” in Lebanon. Middle East International (18 December, 1992)
Stevens, G. G.: Jordan River Partition. Hoover Institution on War Revolution and Peace, 1965.
Yaniv, A.: Dilemmas of Security. Oxford University Press, New York & Oxford 1987.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schofield, C.H. Elusive security: The military and political geography of South Lebanon. GeoJournal 31, 149–161 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00808687
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00808687