Assessing Effects of U.S. Sanctions on Hezbollah's Jihad Al-Bina
Abstract
In the wake of the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, the United States designated the Jihad al-Bina organization in 2007 and its postwar recovery project Waad in 2009 for its relationship with, and activities supporting, Lebanese Hezbollah. Because of this designation, Jihad al-Bina and Waad became subject to sanctions which, in theory, should have undermined their ability to support Hezbollahs strategic objectives by denying Jihad al-Bina access to necessary resources and funding to execute projects. This thesis examines Jihad al-Binas projects from 19882018 to determine how Jihad al-Bina contributed to Hezbollahs strategic objectives. It also examines how U.S. sanctions against Jihad al-Bina in 2007 and its Waad project in 2009 affected their ability to carry out that work. In detailing Jihad al-Binas activities and projects during this time period, this thesis compares the number, nature and scale of projects executed by Jihad al-Bina prior to and following U.S. sanctions against Jihad al-Bina in 2007 and 2009, respectively. This thesis found that these 2007 and 2009 sanctions were ineffective in the near- and long-term. The sanctions failed to deny Jihad al-Bina resources necessary to conduct immediate postwar reconstruction and recovery. Moreover, Jihad al-Bina expanded the size and scope of projects, and grew in size and legitimacy in the postwar era between 2009 and the present.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2018
- Accession Number
- AD1069831
Entities
People
- Aaron Pilkington
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School