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Seller notes: Glued binding. Paper over boards. [10], 187, [1] p. Illustrations. Glossary. Additional Reading. Sources Cited. Index. This is one of the Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics. Most policymakers in the United States and Israel have it wrong. Hezbollah isn't a simple terrorist organization-nor is it likely to disappear soon. Following Israel's war against Hezbollah in the summer of 2006, the Shi'i group-which combines the functions of a militia, a social service and public works provider, and a political party-is more popular than ever in the Middle East while retaining its strong base of support in Lebanon. And Hezbollah didn't merely confront Israel and withstand its military onslaught. Hezbollah's postwar reconstruction efforts were judged better than the U.S. government's response to Hurricane Katrina-not by al-Jazeera, but by an American TV journalist. In "Hezbollah", one of the world's leading experts on Hezbollah has written the essential guide to understanding the complexities and paradoxes of a group that remains entrenched at the heart of Middle East politics. With unmatched clarity and authority, Augustus Richard Norton tells how Hezbollah developed, how it has evolved, and what direction it might take in the future. Far from being a one-dimensional terrorist group, Norton explains, Hezbollah is a "janus-faced" organization in the middle of an incomplete metamorphosis from extremism to mundane politics, an evolution whose outcome is far from certain. Beginning as a terrorist cat's-paw of Iran, Hezbollah has since transformed itself into an impressive political party with an admiring Lebanese constituency, but it has also insisted on maintaining the potent militia that forced Israel to withdraw from Lebanon in 2000 after almost two decades of occupation. The most accessible, informed, and balanced analysis of the group yet written, Hezbollah is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the Middle East. From an on-line posting: "Augustus Richard Norton is a faculty member of both International Relations and Anthropology. He is also a Visiting Professor in Politics of the Middle East at the University of Oxford and a Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. His research experience in the Middle East spans nearly three decades, including residences in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait and Lebanon. His current research interests include inter-sectarian relations in the Middle East, reformist Muslim thought, and strategies of political reform and opposition in authoritarian states. In the 1990s he headed a widely-cited three-year project funded by the Ford Foundation that examined state-society relations in the Middle East and the question of civil society in the region. It is indicative of his interests that many of his courses are often cross-listed with the departments of Anthropology and Political Science. He has held academic appointments at New York University and the United States Military Academy. In 2006 he was an adviser to the Iraq Study Group (Baker-Hamilton Commission). He is a member of the Boston Study Group on Middle East Peace."