[LCM Articles] Articles on Lebanon, and Report on Lebanon/Syria

[Walid Georges Chamoun]

Lebanon: Elections Endangered
Carnegie Endowment -- Walid Choucair
April 2005

The opposition's insistence on investigating the Hariri assassination, in addition to pro-Syrian forces' attempt to improve their electoral chances, increase the likelihood that parliamentary elections scheduled for May will be postponed, according to Al Hayat's Beirut bureau chief.

http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=16773#lebanon


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A New Lebanon?
New York Review of Books -- Max Rodenbeck
April 8, 2005

Lebanon is smaller than Connecticut and scarcely more populous. Its economy, still struggling to recoup the losses of the 1975-1990 civil war, hardly amounts to the annual turnover at McDonald's. What is so special about the country? The immediate answer is that this statelet, which was subtracted by French imperialists from greater Syria, has suddenly found itself to be the fine point upon which the fate of a much wider region balances. That sounds an oversized claim, but an extraordinary passion play has been unfolding in Beirut over the last few weeks. It is a drama that happens to pit forces which, in a particularly stark fashion, seem to represent the competing narratives that will ultimately define the Arabs' vision of their recent past and soon-to-be-revealed destiny. These forces are, in many ways, similar to those that have clashed within every Arab society, and continue to do so, in what some historians describe as a struggle between the cosmopolitan Arabs of the coastal cities and those of the inward-looking hinterland. And just now, on the Arab airwaves transmitting scenes from the streets of Beirut, a turning of the tide in this struggle may be fleetingly discerned.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17952


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Syria After Lebanon, Lebanon After Syria
International Crisis Group -- Report
April 12, 2005

Recent developments have brought close the prospect of Syrian withdrawal and free Lebanese elections. But ensuring a peaceful and successful transition requires insulating Lebanon from wider regional dynamics. The assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri has heightened pressure on Syria, and brought together once disparate actors -- the U.S., France, and Lebanese activists -- on core demands, including complete withdrawal of Syria's military and intelligence; truth on Hariri's assassination; and free elections under international supervision. But for Lebanon, awash with weapons and on the verge of a major power redistribution, the means and motivations for violence abound. The U.S. must avoid temptations to use the situation to achieve its larger regional objectives and should focus on the goal of a sovereign, stable Lebanon.

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=3368
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