Post 2006 Lebanon & discontent via Paris III. (c2011)

Abstract

Lebanon has been a landmark for regional power plays and a key entity for the international community’s geopolitical influence within the Middle East. Above all else, Lebanon’s openness to Western influence and policy reforms have set it apart from the rest of the Arab world. And yet, fifty years of ongoing turmoil and conflict have led the Lebanese government to continuously reach out to the international community for foreign aid within the sectors of reconstruction, humanitarian relief and social development. With the events of the July 2006 war and incapacity to uphold itself on the reconstructive front, a call for international aid was set forth and with it, the implementation of Paris III, an inside into the domestic governance of Lebanon and control of the Middle East. All major powers pledged grants and/or loans to the Lebanese government; however, for most key stakeholders, these pledges would introduce and justify their own political and economic agendas. For the US, financial allocations to the sector of security was given as well as to the UNIFEL; the EU’s focus was more on the economic side where trade regulations were reformed; International Financial Institutions had finally a major influence on financial institutions, domestic market functions and basic policy making, and a few Arab States had even bigger reason to be of importance to the Lebanese government where full consideration on matter of domestic and regional policy decisions now have them as key players. Between the West, the Arabs and the Financial Institutions, Lebanon’s entire social, economic and political institutions have become hostage of international and regional foreign policy strategies.