Constructivism and Lebanon's foreign policy following Syria's uprising. (c2014)

Abstract

This thesis examines the role of both domestic and foreign forces in the incapacity of Lebanon to draft a unified and coherent foreign policy. It argues that domestic actors go into alliances with regional as well as international powers to maintain their share of the power in their continuous struggle for control. Consequently, sectarian and sub-national identities have been manipulated by these actors to retain their rule. Therefore, an analysis of Lebanese foreign policy requires examining the role of sectarian and sub-national identities and how they have been constructed to serve the interest of the ruling elite. It also requires an examination of the sectarian nature of the country’s political parties which have been mostly dominated by a single leader, otherwise known as the “Zaiim”. In this regard, neither realism nor pluralism offer sufficient explanations of Lebanon’s foreign policy, or rather lack of it. The examination of Lebanon’s foreign policy requires a deeper look into the construction of identities in its complex society, the composition of state institutions and the rise of sectarianism as reflected in the composition of various political parties. Constructivism contributes in this regard by shedding the light on the primacy of identities and norms which are historically and socially created in determining a state’s behavior. This thesis, although acknowledges the limitation of constructivism, examines the role of identities and how they have been shaped in Lebanon, paying particular consideration to the internal turmoil unleashed by the Syrian civil war and the failure of the Baabda Declaration followed by institutional deadlocks.