Republic of Lebanon

Abstract

Lebanon is an exceptional entity. It features a consociational political structure marked by confessionalism, all knit together by regnant tensions, frail institutions, and the shadow of foreign intervention. The trauma of Lebanon’s civil war, and the communal conflicts that portend the breakdown of governance, lingers. With new challenges, from the Syrian refugee crisis to fiscal emergencies, confronting its administration, the polarized yet extant Lebanese state continues to meander forward – stable, but not static.