After Qassem Soleimani: An Assessment of the Future Iran-Hezbollah Response

In the aftermath of the US airstrike that killed top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, Iran responded by launching missile strikes on two US airbases in Iraq, and has threatened further retaliation. This talk explores what that future response will look like from both Iran and its most capable nonstate proxy - Hezbollah in Lebanon. It recounts the origins and development of the proxy relationship, and examines the past global operations and the advanced asymmetric warfare capabilities of Iran and Hezbollah.

The event will be chaired by Dr Ahron Bregman (War Studies).

Raphael D. Marcus is a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of War Studies at King's College London, where he received his PhD. He is also affiliated with the College's Insurgency Research Group, where his research interests include Middle East security issues, terrorism, military affairs, and organizational learning.

He is the author of Israel’s Long War with Hezbollah: Military Innovation and Adaptation Under Fire (Georgetown University Press, 2018), which is the first complete military history of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, and analyzes ongoing processes of strategic and operational innovation and adaptation by both sides throughout the guerrilla conflict.