Oren Barak’s latest volume takes the unusual step of engaging in a comparative study of Israel and Lebanon through the prism of state formation and expansion. Although some elements of this analysis have appeared in, for example, the work of Joel Migdal, especially his (1988) Strong Societies and Weak States on which this volume draws and from whom a prominent endorsement appears on the back cover, this remains a rare and valuable approach that unearths some fruitful similarities and provokes many stimulating thoughts. Like most good ideas, it appears to be both obvious and is deceptively simple. In many ways the book seems to form the final part of a loose trilogy that Professor Barak has published over the past decade. It began with his 2009 study, The Lebanese Army: A National Institution in a Divided Society, and was followed in 2013 by Israel’s Security Networks: A Theoretical and Comparative Perspective, coauthored with Gabriel Sheffer. The influence of those two volumes is readily apparent here, but the ideas are combined and tested to produce something that really helps draw out both similarities and differences and highlights key path dependencies affecting the two states. The slightly clunky title nevertheless reveals the richness of the volume and highlights the key goals of the book: to explore how the state formation and consolidation processes, which were effectively parallel for most of the twentieth century and which should have led to small but secure ethnoreligious states, were corrupted by processes of state expansion into lands containing other ethnic or religious groups, which fundamentally altered the political and security realities of the states in question.

Barak deliberately frames Israel as Israel/Palestine to reinforce the intertwined nature of the two polities, especially the de facto expansion of Israel and all of the demographic and security threats this has brought to Israel’s status as both a Jewish and a democratic state. This framing, of course, makes a great deal of sense and is essential for the book, although it does create a small element of dissonance for those of us used to thinking in terms of the Israel/Palestine conflict and a two-state solution. The problem is that it is difficult to think of an alternative phraseology that fully captures the importance of the changes that the occupation of the West Bank in particular have brought for Israeli politics and society and that, given demographic trends, seem likely to only worsen. One might suggest Muammar Gadaffi’s famous “Isratine,” but that of course reflected a proposed one-state solution, although it does have the benefit of demonstrating the realities of the deep interconnections and impacts of the occupation on Israel. Once one has forced oneself not to automatically think of the conflict and the two-state solution, the mental wall is broken, and the book’s detailed treatment of the challenges caused to Israel by the occupation is very well handled.

After a preface and introduction that together frame the book nicely by both explaining the genesis of the volume and its context in the wider literature, Barak begins with a discussion of state expansion in general: he draws on examples from across the globe, usefully situating ideas within wider literatures on, for example, intercommunal and ethnic violence, security and strategy, and state formation. This material also introduces the book’s tripartite framing of core foci in terms of the relationship between the state, community, and security, which is explained clearly and used consistently throughout the volume. This is a very useful construct that facilitates engagement with multiple levels of analysis and generates some fascinating insights, especially in the book’s second half. At times, however, this relationship does feel a little undertheorized, perhaps needing to go a bit beyond Migdal and notions of strong and weak states to more fully create a framework that can capture the complexities of relationships and interdependencies. Having said that, the framing of the state formation process through processes of state building, state construction, and national integration was very well done, and the two elements combined do offer real value.

This first chapter begins with a fascinating example of the influence of maps on identity (p. 17). The anecdote concerns the advertising campaign of an Israeli coffee chain named Cofizz, which published a map of its branch locations under the slogan, “We have expanded for your comfort,” apparently presenting Israel as being within its 1967 borders, leaving out the West Bank and the Golan Heights. This prompted a public outcry, and the chain was forced to issue a lengthy apology. It defended itself by saying that the error was accidental and that “the owners of the studio which had drawn the map had themselves originated from the [Occupied] Territories” (p. 17). Needless to say the map was replaced with one that included not just annexed and occupied land but also the Gaza Strip, which had of course been “evacuated” in 2005. This anecdote gets across the complex, multifaceted, multilayered, and profound impacts that state expansion can have on a society and its political discourse, an expansion that the book demonstrates has actually seemingly been better handled, remarkably, in Lebanon than in Israel.

This reality is (partly) pointed out in the titles of the third and fourth chapters: “Lebanon: Weak and Legitimate” and “Israel/Palestine: Strong and Illegitimate.” These chapters are rich in detail and focus on explaining the stories of the process and impacts of state expansion in both states. Although experts are unlikely to learn much new from these chapters, their framing is crucial to the book, and they provide superb summaries that will be of real use in teaching because they synthesize the literature well and make the complex stories accessible and engaging. Before these two fairly lengthy individual chapters, there is a short chapter that offers some useful general comparisons between the two cases and specifically the processes through which they expanded. Chapter 5 is a direct comparison and draws effectively on the previous discussions, using the tripartite structure of state, community, and security to demonstrate why, in both cases and despite major traumas for the leading ethnic groups, attempts to retreat from the expansion of the state into more tightly defined nation-states have been thwarted.

In its final two chapters the book explores the history of relations between the two states and their leading communities (Maronites and Jews), focusing on the deterioration in relations caused by the expansions and changes in politics on both sides. The sixth chapter draws well on recent IR trends that demonstrate that the actions and identity of others outside the state can have significant impacts on events and processes within a state. In its final chapter, the story of the intertwined nature of the two states is brought into the more recent era through an examination of the period from 1977 to 2006. What is especially good about this chapter is that it does not get too bogged down in the usual military operations, but instead explores their connections to significant changes within both countries and their shifting perceptions of each other. Throughout this impeccably researched book there is a desire to go beyond the usual materials and to draw on different sources in a range of languages, including some interesting discussions on the role of key films in highlighting and influencing some of these dynamics, which is a promising addition and brings further interest and originality to the book.

In sum then, this is a very good volume indeed that forces reflection, brings together a range of ideas from both IR and comparative politics, and does so in a readable and engaging manner. One of the many contributions of this volume is to move away from the generally sui generis manner in which Israel is often treated in the literature, as being some kind of Western outpost in the Middle East. Instead it shows that Israel is much more like the states that surround it than people generally like to recognize. In this way (among others) the book offers a powerful jolt to the reader and will, one hopes, encourage further study of the ways in which the occupation is changing Israeli society and generate additional comparative studies concerning Israel and its neighbors.