There’s an excellent paper here by Stephen Biddle and Jeffrey A. Friedman about the military performance of Hezbollah in its 2006 conflict with Israel. Its main focus is on the extent to which this performance represented a shift on the part of the Shiite militia from the sort of irregular warfare long practised by terrorists and guerillas, to a more conventional form of fighting, such as that which has usually been been the preserve of the armies of nation states.

The authors conclude that,

On balance, Hezbollah’s behaviour in 2006 […] places them within a band that includes many state miltaries in interstate warfare.

And they place this assessment in the context of similar changes in the behavior of comparable groups in other parts of the world.

Even if you are not someone who normally takes much interest in military affairs you won’t find this paper a difficult read. The quality of the analysis displayed in it is light years ahead of the half-baked drivel that gets served up on these questions in the press. The extensive comparisons it draws with other conflicts might also serve as a useful model for those analysing other aspects of the Arab-Israeli conflict.