Rivalités mimétiques et transformations militaires au Levant : une relecture du conflit israélo-arabe

This thesis consists in a re-reading of the Arab-Israeli conflict since its origins (in the Ottoman Palestine) through an analysis of the military transformations conducted by actors involved in this conflict. These changes are driven by mimetic rivalries processes. Over the clashes, each opponent adapts its defense system according to his enemy's one and vice versa. Thus, forms of continuity between the different armed groups are perceptible on the long-time conflict in spite of the ideological differences and historical-political circumstances.

These Transformations favor alternative or di-symmetrical strategies, because they aim mostly to symmetrically re-balance the differential of power with the opponent. They involve innovations impacting the whole society, suggesting the existence of war mechanisms which affect societies for and through the war.

The highly polemic nature of the region's societies ensues from these mechanisms as well as the survival of different forms of irregular combatants within them. Based on these forms, it could be proposed a typology of the partisan's contemporary figures, including the Islamic State, the Palestinian and Lebanese armed groups, as well as the issue of the religious-nationalist settlers' violence in the Palestinian Occupied Territories.

This plurality of the modern partisan warfare patterns provides tools for analyzing the evolutions of violence forms in the regions (chain crisis, disintegration of nation states, revolutionary uprisings, etc.).