Download or read book Balancing on the Brink Lebanon Tangled Up in the Syrian War Struggles to Maintain Its Stability written by Heiko Wimmen and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 7 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: So far, the Syrian war and the involvement of Lebanese actors in it has not spread to Lebanon, despite the fears of many. In spite of irreconcilable differences on the Syrian issue, Lebanon's political camps have reached a fragile consensus that makes it possible for political institutions to function at least rudimentarily and for the security situation to be provisionally stabilized. However, this consensus remains precarious and threatened by the ambitions of Lebanese actors and by regional tensions. Moreover, Hezbollah's active involvement in the Syria conflict steadily increases the likelihood of a renewed military confrontation with Israel. Germany and its European partners must do their part to pre-empt such a confrontation, to support the dialogue between the Lebanese parties through mediation, and to stop regional tensions from spilling over. (Autorenreferat)
Download or read book A Precarious Balancing Act written by and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Syria's conflict is leaking out of its borders, but in few places are risks higher than in Lebanon. This is not just a matter of history, although history bodes ill: the country seldom has been immune to the travails of its neighbour. It also is a function of recent events, of which the most dramatic was the 19 October assassination of top security official Wissam Hassan, an illustration of the country's fragility and the short-sightedness of politicians unwilling to address it. Lebanon's two principal coalitions see events in Syria in a starkly different light -- as a dream come true for one; as a potentially apocalyptical nightmare for the other. It would be unrealistic to expect Lebanese actors to be passive in the face of what is unfolding next door. But it is imperative to shield the country as much as possible and resist efforts by third parties -- whether allies or foes of Damascus -- to drag the nation in a perilous direction. In the wake of Hassan's assassination, this almost certainly requires a new, more balanced government and commitments by local and regional actors not to use Lebanese soil as an arena in which to wage the Syrian struggle.
Download or read book War and Intervention in Lebanon Routledge Revivals written by Yair Evron and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-14 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the bitter conflict that divided Jerusalem and Damascus, a fascinating process of indirect – through the United States – and tacit understandings emerged with regard to Lebanon in the 1970s. This derived largely from the Israeli deterrence posture which held in check Syrian military involvement in Lebanon. This book, first published in 1987, traces the development of the Israeli and Syrian involvement in Lebanon between 1975 and 1985, and of the deterrence dialogue which evolved between them. It also places this dialogue within the larger context of the overall Israeli-Syrian deterrence equation. War and Intervention in Lebanon is a fascinating and relevant work, of great value to those with an interest in International Relations and Middle Eastern history, politics and diplomacy.
Download or read book Lebanon written by Julien Barnes-Dacey and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "How Europe can help Lebanon to avoid a descent into chaos--sanctions against Hezbollah are not the way forward. After more than a year of conflict in Syria, neighboring Lebanon is increasingly vulnerable. The civil war in Syria is amplifying Lebanese divisions, fuelling militancy and pushing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to stir up regional instability. Most significantly, the Syria conflict is shifting the Lebanese balance of power, opening up new possibilities for those intent on weakening Hezbollah, the country's dominant political and military force. For the moment key political actors--particularly Hezbollah--are intent on preventing wider conflict, and the country has strong resilience mechanisms in place.While outright civil war therefore remains unlikely, the country is facing a period of prolonged instability. In a worst case scenario tensions could still push the country into the abyss. In a new ECFR policy brief, "Lebanon: Containing spillover from Syria", Julien Barnes-Dacey argues that Europe should use its influence to support efforts aimed at forging political consensus and deescalating tensions. In particular, European states should-in firm contrast to US policy-continue to talk to Hezbollah in order to assuage fears about an international conspiracy against the movement and contain its more incendiary instincts. Calls by the British and Dutch foreign ministers last Friday for EU sanctions on Hezbollah's military wing should be rejected. European pressure on Hezbollah at this moment could provoke an offensive response to the detriment of Lebanon's fragile stability. Current uncertainties should not be seen as an opportunity to weaken Hezbollah--and by extension its patron Iran. What Europe should do: Talk to all sides: European states should offer firm support for consensus politics aimed at deescalating tensions. This will necessitate Europe taking a different line from the US, primarily by continuing engagement with Hezbollah -- Focus on security: European states must back efforts aimed at strengthening Lebanon's institutional capacity to resist dangerous escalation. This should include greater support for the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and maintaining a commitment to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). -- Smart use of economic tools: Europe should channel economic assistance towards the north of the country and resist pressure to sanction Lebanese banks -- Help with the humanitarian crisis: The huge influx of Syrian refugees may strain Lebanon's economic and social fabric. Europe must step up to share the burden of this humanitarian crisis. "Lebanon can overcome the challenge of destabilisation. But Europe must do all it can to support this process. Its support, pressure and dialogue with all parties can act as a force for both stability and positive reform." - Julien Barnes-Dacey. Key facts: Lebanon shares a 375km-long border with Syria -- Power is distributed among communal groups according to pre-assigned quotas, creating a weak central state -- Syria has long exploited Lebanese vulnerabilities. Since its military withdrawal in 2005 Syria has remained a crucial power broker in Lebanon especially through its support of Hezbollah -- Hezbollah is a Shiite militant and political movement that was founded in 1982 in response to Israel's invasion. Its non-state militia is Lebanon's strongest armed force -- The US government lists Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. Europe does not and many member states maintain some form of relations with the movement -- Lebanese politics is split between two main coalitions: the pro-Syrian 'March 8' bloc currently in power (Hezbollah, Amal party, Christian Free Patriotic Movement) and the 'March 14' opposition bloc (Future Movement, Lebanese Forces, Phalange Party) -- The EU is Lebanon's most important trading partner: The EU accounts for 29% of Lebanon's total trade in 2011 (worth €5.6 billion).
Download or read book Lebanon and the Arab Uprisings written by Maximilian Felsch and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-06-23 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Arab uprisings have put Lebanon under increased strain. While the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt caused limited reverberations, the war in Syria echoed in the fine-tuned political and confessional balance of Lebanon. Over one million refugees, equal to one-quarter of Lebanon’s population, have moved in from Syria. The country’s economy and its already weak public infrastructure have been impacted heavily. Hizbullah’s engagement in Syria has posed questions about Lebanon’s disassociation policy. Terrorist attacks by ISIL and the growing risk of radicalization across the confessional spectrum have left the country at unease. However, Lebanon’s political elites have vowed to shield the country from regional turbulences. Lebanon recently saw a series of demonstrations because of the inability of the government to manage the garbage crisis, but it has been far from witnessing a large-scale citizen uprising similar to the 2005 Cedar Revolution or the revolts next door. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the current situation in Lebanon, and a detailed assessment of the difficulties which the country is currently facing.
Download or read book Syrian Intervention in Lebanon written by Naomi Joy Weinberger and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1986-11-20 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conflict and intervention in the Middle East are not uncommon occurrences. Yet when civil strife erupted in Lebanon in 1975, the events that followed were unusual indeed. Unlike most patterns of intervention, Syria displayed remarkable tactical flexibility by first intervening on behalf of the rebels, its traditional allies, then shifting its allegiance mid-war to the Lebanese incumbents. Also, whereas most intervention scenarios end with a process of decommitment, Syria eventually occupied parts of Lebanon to become an enduring military entity there. Delving into primary Syrian and Lebanese sources, Weinberger unravels the history, competing factions, religion, politics, and culture of the region and presents an intriguing and complex portrait of intervention by a regional power.
Download or read book Ending Syria s Occupation of Lebanon written by Daniel Pipes and published by Daniel Pipes. This book was released on 2000 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book On the Edge of the Battlefield written by Violet Wentland and published by Winepress Publishing. This book was released on 2012-04 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: September 5, 1978. As the plane made its final descent into Beirut, Lebanon, Violet Wentland, an English teacher at Middle East College, knew that she was returning to a country in the midst of a bloody civil war. What she couldn't have known, however, was that just two weeks later, Syrian "peacekeeping" forces would set up an antiaircraft gun on a ridge just five hundred meters away-an action that would prompt the opposing Lebanese Christian militia to occupy the administration building on campus to keep an eye on them. Suddenly, the school was on the front line of the war. Would the school survive? Would God protect them as He always had done in the past? Or would outside forces compel them to leave? On the Edge of the Battlefield tells the remarkable story of Violet and the staff at Middle East College who, in the midst of mounting hostilities-including shellings and sniper attacks-strove to keep the school open while, at the same time, keep themselves and their students alive. It is a tale of courage in the face of insurmountable odds, stubborn determination to maintain a sense of normalcy in an incredibly chaotic situation and, ultimately, a story of an uncompromising faith in God. "With wide-open hazel eyes, steel-trap memory, wry humor, and a devotion to God and the people He sent her to serve, Violet invites you to share the anxieties and the joys of a hilltop campus protected only by God's power. This memoir is a wonderful read, a rare chance to watch the Lord at work among His warring children." - Maylan Schurch, coauthor of A Thousand Shall Fall
Download or read book Civil Military Relations in Lebanon written by Are John Knudsen and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2017-09-14 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines Lebanon’s post-2011 security dilemmas and the tenuous civil-military relations. The Syrian civil war has strained the Lebanese Armed Forces’ (LAF) cohesion and threatens its neutrality – its most valued assets in a divided society. The spill-over from the Syrian civil war and Hezbollah’s military engagement has magnified the security challenges facing the Army, making it a target. Massive foreign grants have sought to strengthen its military capability, stabilize the country and contain the Syria crisis. However, as this volume demonstrates, the real weakness of the LAF is not its lack of sophisticated armoury, but the fragile civil–military relations that compromise its fighting power, cripple its neutrality and expose it to accusations of partisanship and political bias. This testifies to both the importance of and the challenges facing multi-confessional armies in deeply divided countries.
Download or read book Syria s Uprising and the Fracturing of the Levant written by Emile Hokayem and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-10-03 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As an upbeat and peaceful uprising quickly and brutally descended into a zero-sum civil war, Syria has crumbled from a regional player into an arena in which a multitude of local and foreign actors compete. The volatile regional fault lines that run through Syria have ruptured during this conflict, and the course of events in this fragile yet strategically significant country will profoundly shape the future of the Levant.
Download or read book Lebanon written by Michael Kerr and published by Hurst & Company. This book was released on 2012 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines the changes that recent events have brought to Lebanon, whether lasting or ephemeral, and the challenges they represent for a state, which despite the resilience of its power-sharing system of government remains hotly contested and unconsolidated.
Download or read book Lebanon at the Crossroads written by Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South a and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-12-31 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lebanon is at a crossroads. The Syrian conflict has devastated Syria and many of its neighbors, but Lebanon is often an overlooked neighbor with respect to stories about the Syrian crisis. Lebanon has been extremely generous in welcoming Syrian refugees into the country. And it has paid the highest price, in terms of the stability and security of the country. The population of Lebanon is a little bit over 4 million and there is nearly a million-by many accounts, more than a million-Syrian refugees in Lebanon from Syria on top of refugees who have already been there from Palestine for many decades. Lebanon deserves our attention and continued investment and partnership, and if we do that the right way, it will be good for the country and good for regional and global security.
Download or read book Breaking the Cycle written by Youssef M. Choueiri and published by Stacey International Publishers. This book was released on 2007 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sandwiched between Syria and Israel, Lebanon is perhaps fated to be engulfed in the frequent bouts of violence that plague the wider Middle East region. In summer 2006, Beirut found itself once more under siege as Israeli missiles rained upon the capital. More often than not, however, the fighting has been internal - Lebanon has suffered frequent civil wars throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Download or read book Lebanon written by Christopher Michael Hemmer and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 2 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the three decades following independence from France in 1943, Lebanon was considered to be a model of a pluralistic, progressive, and moderate state in the Arab world. The achievements of the Lebanese state appeared all the more remarkable given the deeply divided nature of Lebanese society. With the onset of a 15-year civil war in 1975, however, the Lebanese model quickly took a darker meaning, signifying violent internal conflict exacerbated by external intervention leading eventually to a failed state. Since 1990, as a result, in part, of a large-scale Syrian presence in Lebanon, some measure of stability has returned. This stability, unfortunately, is probably more akin to an extended ceasefire rather than a political settlement as the basic issues that fueled the civil war in the first place have remained unresolved. Rather than offer a direct model that offers positive lessons that could in some way be applied to Iraq today, Lebanon instead offers a cautionary tale of problems to avoid if the US-led occupation of Iraq is to launch a stable and pluralistic regime in Baghdad.
Download or read book Impact of the Syrian Crisis on Lebanon Local and Regional Rationales for Hezbollah s Involvement in Syria written by Charles-Brian Biondi and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Syria and the Lebanese Crisis written by A. I. Dawisha and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analyse af Syriens politiske system og udenrigspolitiske handlingsmønstre under kriser forårsaget af uro i Libanon
Download or read book The Ghosts of Martyrs Square written by Michael Young and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2010-04-13 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NOT SINCE THOMAS FRIEDMAN’SFROM BEIRUT TO JERUSALEM IN 1989 HAS A JOURNALIST OFFERED SUCH A POIGNANT AND PASSIONATE PORTRAIT OF LEBANON—A UNIQUELY PLURALIST ARAB COUNTRY STRUGGLING TO DEFEND ITS VIABILITY IN A TURBULENT AND TREACHEROUS MIDDLE EAST. Michael Young, who was taken to Lebanon at age seven by his Lebanese mother after the death of his American father and who has worked most of his career as a journalist there for American publications, brings to life a country in the crossfire of invasions, war, domestic division, incessant sectarian scheming, and often living in fear of its neighbors. Young knows or has known many of the players, politicians, writers, and religious leaders. A country riven by domestic tensions that have often resulted in assassinations, under the considerable sway of Hezbollah (in alliance with Iran and Syria), frequently set upon by Israel and Syria, nearly destroyed by civil war, Lebanon remains an exception among Arab countries because it is a place where liberal instincts and tolerance struggle to stay alive. An important and enduring symbol, Lebanon was once the outstanding example of an (almost) democratic society in an inhospitable, dangerous region—a laboratory both for modernity and violence, as a Lebanese intellectual who was later assassinated once put it. Young relates the growing tension between a domineering Syria and a Lebanese opposition in which charismatic leader and politician Rafiq al-Hariri was assassinated and the Independence Intifada—the Cedar Revolution—broke out. His searing account of his country’s confrontation with its domestic and regional demons is one of hope found and possibly lost. In this stunning narrative, Young tells us what might have been his country’s history, and what it may yet be.
