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.

'Oren Barak undertakes a remarkable comparison of two states established to reflect and represent tight-knit communities - Jews in Israel and Maronite Christians in Lebanon. In each case, something went terribly wrong on the way to becoming nation-states. State expansion by Israel in 1967 and by Lebanon in 1920 ended up crippling the state, undermining security, and leading to divided societies. State Expansion and Conflict is a tour de force, demonstrating the dark dangers of state ambition and enlargement.' Joel Migdal, University of Washington