Oren Barak is the Maurice B. Hexter Chair in International Relations-Middle East Studies and Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of The Lebanese Army: A National Institution in a Divided Society (2009) and co-author of Israel's Security Networks: A Theoretical and Comparative Perspective (with Gabriel Sheffer, Cambridge, 2013).

List of figures; Acknowledgements; Preface; Chronology; 1. Introduction; 2. State expansion and its effects; 3. From nation-states to divided societies: Lebanon and Israel/Palestine; 4. Lebanon: weak and legitimate; 5. Israel/Palestine: strong and illegitimate; 6. Lebanon and Israel/Palestine compared; 7. The deterioration of Israeli-Lebanese relations; 8. Two conflicts intertwined; 9. Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

A detailed comparison of Lebanon and Israel/Palestine, two expanded states which have experienced conflict and stability domestically and in their mutual relations.