From Excess Power to State Power

The Middle East is undergoing unprecedented transformations that are reshaping the region’s security and power landscape. After years of open wars and proxy conflicts, the region is gradually moving toward a new approach built on strengthening the nation-state, reducing the influence of non-state armed organizations, and rebuilding military and security institutions as the sole guarantor of stability. Against this backdrop, Lebanon has a rare opportunity to rethink its defense architecture in a manner that reflects these regional changes while safeguarding its national interests.

Over the decades, Hezbollah has accumulated advanced military and technological expertise in command, intelligence, drones, electronic warfare, communications, and logistics. This expertise represents valuable human capital that should not be allowed to go to waste. Instead, within the framework of the state’s legitimate authority, it should be integrated into the Lebanese Armed Forces and the country’s security institutions, thereby strengthening state sovereignty instead of perpetuating divided authority over national security.

International experience, from South Africa to Colombia, has consistently shown that ending conflict does not require excluding former fighters or discarding their expertise. Rather, it depends on reintegrating them into state institutions under clear professional and legal standards. The success of any transition ultimately rests on the state’s ability to absorb these capabilities while firmly establishing its exclusive monopoly over the use of force and over the authority to decide on war and peace.

The transformations now reshaping the region, together with the new economic and security priorities they impose, make it imperative for Lebanon to launch a national dialogue on a comprehensive defense strategy. This should be accompanied by a plan to modernize the Lebanese Armed Forces, establish a National Center for Defense Innovation and Cybersecurity, and capitalize on Lebanese expertise in advanced technologies and cutting-edge defense industries. The new equation is no longer based on multiple centers of power, but on a state strengthened by its institutions, capable of protecting its borders, earning the confidence of the international community, and attracting investment.

The present moment is not one for settling scores, but for building a new national compact that places every talent and every area of expertise at the service of the Republic. States do not recover because one faction prevails over another. They recover when the state itself becomes the only victor, and when arms, sovereign decision-making, and sovereignty itself are brought entirely under the authority of constitutional institutions. Only then can Lebanon open the way toward stability and prosperity in a Middle East that is changing at remarkable speed.