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Lebanon: a fate beyond its control? (Open Security)

Sep 2012
With violence in Syria making the headlines, Zahbia Yousuf and Marie-Joelle Zahar examine to what extent Lebanon can be responsible for its own fate, plus who's working to build peace, and how.

Reconciliation, reform and resilience: Positive peace for Lebanon (Accord 24) - English version

Jul 2012

Lebanon’s model of post-war power sharing and liberal economic growth has been widely praised. But it has failed to deliver for most Lebanese. Repeated outbreaks of political violence since the 1989 Taif Peace Agreement, and today fear of spillover from insecurity in Syria, show that a fundamentally different approach is needed to transform negative and precarious stability in Lebanon into positive and resilient peace.

Policy brief – Reconciliation, reform and resilience: Positive peace for Lebanon

Jul 2012
A fundamentally different approach is needed to transform precarious stability in Lebanon into durable peace. Repeated outbreaks of political violence since the 1989 Taif Peace Accord show that Lebanon’s model of power sharing and liberal economic growth, while widely praised, has in reality failed to deliver a noticeable peace dividend. This 6-page policy brief summarises the findings of Accord 24 and sets out 10 priorities for change.

Whose Lebanon? A post-war history of people, power and peace initiatives

Positive peace for Lebanon: reconciliation, reform and resilience
Jul 2012
In this article, Accord 24 co-editors Alexander Ramsbotham and Elizabeth Picard offer a brief reflection on Lebanon's recent history. They outline the challenges facing a durable peace in Lebanon, including a lack of political reform, threats to Lebanese sovereignty, and an inegalitarian economic development.

Box 5 - Priorities for peace in Lebanon: opposing outlooks from 8 & 14 March Alliances

Positive peace for Lebanon: reconciliation, reform and resilience
Jul 2012
Interviews with Ali Fayyad (8 March Alliance/Hezbollah MP) and Samir Frangieh (member of the General Secretariat of 14 March Alliance and a former MP) present ‘opposing outlooks’ from Lebanon’s two main political blocs. They discuss: internal and external sources of tension; implications of Taif for contemporary political stability; developing the social contract in Lebanon; and priorities for the future.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon

Positive peace for Lebanon: reconciliation, reform and resilience
Jul 2012
Chandra Lekha Sriram asks if the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, set up to investigate the 2005 assassination of Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri, can support a broader function for transitional justice and peace. To date, both the creation and subsequent operation of the tribunal have been politically divisive, generating parliamentary stand-offs and government collapse.

Internal choice or external fate?

Positive peace for Lebanon: reconciliation, reform and resilience
Jul 2012
Marie-Joëlle Zahar challenges prevailing perceptions of the Lebanese as powerless victims of their external environment. She suggests that the roots of Lebanon’s vulnerability are internal and emanate from state weakness, as suspicion among Lebanese communities and endemic distrust of Beirut to uphold citizens’ interests encourages Lebanese leaders to actively seek protection from abroad.

Armed groups and sovereignty

Positive peace for Lebanon: reconciliation, reform and resilience
Jul 2012
Joseph Bahout examines armed groups in Lebanon and their various agendas, internal and external. He focuses on Hezbollah: its relations with both its domestic constituency and with Syria, and its role as a resistance force to Israel. He reflects on the potential impact of the Syrian crisis, and the challenges that overlapping agendas present within Lebanon – for dialogue and internal consensus, and for stability and sovereignty.

Negative external intervention and peace in Lebanon

Positive peace for Lebanon: reconciliation, reform and resilience
Jul 2012
Michael Kerr reviews the largely negative impact of external interventions in Lebanon with regard to consolidating peace. These are primarily driven by external (often conflicting) strategic interests, and interact with Lebanon’s sectarian political power sharing system to encourage and embed rivalry amongst Lebanese leaders seeking external patronage. The online version of Michael Kerr’s article includes a comparative analysis of power sharing and external relationships in Lebanon and Northern Ireland.

Palestinians in Lebanon

Positive peace for Lebanon: reconciliation, reform and resilience
Jul 2012
The Palestinian question has weighed heavily in Lebanon, before, during and after the war. Sari Hanafi explores the contemporary status of Palestinians in Lebanon – legally and socio-economically. He focuses on governance within Palestinian camps and relations with broader Lebanese politics, arguing that a more constructive approach to governance and rights for Palestinians would in fact reinforce Lebanese sovereignty and security.

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