Logo: to the web site of the Swedish Defence University

Hezbollahs success during the second Lebanon war in 2006 caused a great stirr through the field of military theorists and analysts. The organization was by most numericals clearly out-gunned and out-numbered compared to the combat-experienced Israel defense forces. The Lebanese forces however managed to not only stifle the Israeli offensive actions but held their ground through the 34 days long war resulting in a stalemate and a United Nations resolution.

Theories have evolved from or in ways of explaining this puzzling case. Dual approaches have been identified as some theorize that hybrid warfare is a completely new phenomenon where others state it’s a flavor of the month expression for the same old tactics seen many times before.

This study seeks to further explore the complex nature of irregular conflicts and find whether a new theory of hybrid warfare ’Unrestricted warfare’ or a senior compendium’On guerrilla warfare’ best can explain this.The findings of this study concludes that neither theory can be out-ruled and opens for further research within the the second Lebanon war as well as on the theories ’On guerrilla warfare’ and ’Unrestricted warfare’.