BALANCING IDEOLOGY AND PRAGMATISM: HEZBOLLAH’S TRANSITION TO ATTRITION WARFARE IN ITS CONFLICT WITH ISRAEL

This article examines Hezbollah’s strategic evolution under Hassan Nasrallah’s leadership (1992–2024), focusing on its shift from ideological total war to a calculated policy of attrition warfare against Israel. Despite its foundational commitment to Israel’s destruction, Hezbollah during this period consistently prioritised sustaining the status quo through a protracted strategy of attrition. Rooted in decades of adaptation, this approach allowed the organisation to balance its ideological ambitions with practical constraints. The article traces Hezbollah’s implementation of attrition warfare from the mid-1980s, its strategic benefits, and the challenges it faced during the 2023–2024 Israel-Hezbollah conflict. Until this recent escalation, Hezbollah adhered to its doctrine of attrition, avoiding full-scale war while expanding political influence, bolstering deterrence, and solidifying its ideological narrative. This strategy explains why, despite acquiring advanced weapons, constructing assault tunnels, and revising its military plans, Hezbollah refrained from initiating a comprehensive war in the ongoing conflict.