The focus of this paper is the unofficial alliance between Hezbollah, Iran, Syria and Hamas occasionally referred to as the HISH-alliance. The paper aims to view this constellation in light of the systemic impact of unipolarity emphasizing the importance of the alliance’s internal relations, in terms of relative strength, as being essential in understanding the alliance. It then goes on to look at what the Arab-spring has so far meant for the different actors and how this has impacted the alliance.
It is argued that the ability of the non-state armed entities, Hezbollah and Hamas, to accumulate resources and act independently indicates a significant increase in their capabilities under unipolarity, which makes it ever harder to view these as mere proxies. Furthermore the member states of the alliance, Syria and Iran, has seen a decrease in their abilities with regards to acting freely within the global community, due to the current systemic situation and the Arab-spring.
In short, the paper aims to establish a correlation between the international and regional changes, the newly found autonomy of the non-state entities and the decreasing capabilities of the states, in order to evaluate the future status of the alliance.