Armed Forces & Society XX(X) 1–18 © © 2010 Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society. All rights reserved. Reprints and permission: http://www. sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0095327X10362052 http://afs.sagepub.com The Second Lebanon War: Examining “Democratization of War” Theory Yagil Levy 1 Abstract Israel’s Second Lebanon War (2006) is a typical manifestation of a flawed war fought by a democratic society. As such, it represents an important opportunity to provide significant evidence regarding the validity of theories that deal with the“democratization of war” syndrome, that is, the limitations imposed on the way democracies wage war and how they cope with these limitations. This article argues that the events of the war exhibit four theoretical propositions, all of which are drawn from the U.S. post- Vietnam experience: speedy decision making to avert public disputes, a weak “civilian” government that struggles to restrain the military, the proclivity to shorten the war and reduce its costs, and the setting of overly ambitious war goals as a means of mobilizing public support. In short, the imperatives derived from the democratization of war syndrome produce mechanisms that work to heighten belligerence rather than temper it. Keywords democratization of war, war sacriice, war goals, war legitimacy, decision making On July 12, 2006, a few hours after two IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers had been abducted by Hezbollah on the border between Israel and Lebanon, Israel launched the Second Lebanon War. Disarming Hezbollah and deploying the Lebanese army in south Lebanon were the declared goals of the war, along with recovering the captured soldiers. After a month of fighting, it became apparent that Israel had failed to achieve the war goals and, therefore, accepted a ceasefire brokered by UN Security Council 1 Open University of Israel, Raanana, Israel Corresponding Author: Yagil Levy, Open University of Israel, Department of Sociology, Political Science & Communication, PO Box 808, Raanana 43107, Israel Email: yagille@openu.ac.il Armed Forces & Society OnlineFirst, published on March 19, 2010 as doi:10.1177/0095327X10362052