Pluralism and transcultural mediation
Contemporary Lebanon
Introduction
This course aims to open the horizon of pluralism and intercultural mediations from a particular case, that of Lebanon. The nation-state model of the Lebanese republic poses from the outset the challenge of accommodating various actors – known as sectarian groups (or communal groups) thus underscoring their political role – while none of them can dominate the system on its own. The reflection will be less technical in the sense of classical constitutional political science than sociological, bringing into play the many societal and political challenges that the Lebanese system has had to face since its independence in 1943. The course will thus examine the nature of the State, the regional and local actors of the Lebanese scene and society. A focus will be put on the refugees that gather almost a third of the entire Lebanese population (2 out of 6 mio) and on border issues intending to see what the margins of the State reveal of the politics, with the specific case study of South Lebanon.
PART 1: Introduction to the sociopolitical history of Lebanon (20 hours)
• The Lebanese State and Nation in the 20th Century: From Foundations to Collapse
The course firstly aims to present the main historical stages of the founding of the contemporary Lebanese state and to see in particular how the sectarian dynamics are structured within it. I will insist here on the National Pact (1926) and the Constitution (1943) which serve as benchmarks for understanding the properties and the structural weaknesses of the political system put in place during the end of the Ottoman Empire (1841-1918) and the French Mandate (1920-1943). The establishment of the political game, the organization of power and the relationships between communities will then be examined. This will make it possible to follow, step by step, the development of problems or questions that the political system has to face (nepotism, clientelism, sectarianism) by emphasizing the regional paradigm shift which, from 1948 hit the region with the creation of the State of Israel and the Palestinian exodus but also the rise of Arab nationalism in the context of the Cold War. Observing the role of the Palestinian issue and its politicization (PLO, Resistance) help to reveal the incapacity of the Lebanese political system to deal with it, to face up to protest or social demands. We will unwind the thread until the dawn of the civil war (1975) whose causes, social, political but also regional, will thus have been put into perspective.
• Post-Civil War Lebanon and Israeli and Syrian Withdrawals
The lecture will explain the phases of the civil war, analyzed as a self-sustaining system for 15 years that highly contribute to reshape sectarian geography and mental maps of Lebanon. Then, the post-war period will be read as a new configuration of the balance of power characterized by the supervision of Syria over Lebanon with disastrous consequences for the Lebanese political scene. The amnesia and amnesty shaped by the post-war elites served as a tabula rasa strategy to build a neoliberal environment where the former warlords have transformed into businessmen alongside new entrepreneurs (in financial, real-estate, banking sectors). This will be exemplified by the blending of public and private interests by former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The lecture will also discuss what actually did happen with the southern borderland region, the continuation of the Israeli occupation after the end of the civil war until the military withdrawal. The means of this long-lasting occupation will be explained as well as the reasons and effects of the Israeli withdrawal of May 2000.
• The post-Syrian era: between destabilization, adaptation and collapse
The changes on the international scene and the new US involvement in the Middle East during the G.W. Bush mandate (2001-2009) will push Syria to withdraw from Lebanon in 2005 and open a period of instability which will ease with the Doha agreement (May 2008). The new role played by Hezbollah, a Shi’i religious movement, in this post-Syrian era will appear in particular thanks to its new Manifesto (2009), in the face of the indictments of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) in the attack on Rafik Hariri and moreover since the beginning of the war in Syria (March 2011) – more particularly the party's growing investment alongside the Syrian regime, in contrast to its ideology of resistance of the oppressed against the oppressors. We will see how Lebanon was able to resist and adapt in the face of the very obvious risks of the Syrian war spreading to Lebanon, in particular the Sunni/Shiite divide. As a counterpoint, I will highlight the structural and eminently political nature of the major socio-economic crisis that Lebanon has been going through (since 2019) in the backdrop of several popular mobilizations since the Arab Spring underlining the clear disconnection between the elites and the population.
PART 2: The Palestinian and Syrian refugees in Lebanon: a comparison (4 hours)
• How Lebanon dealt with Palestinian and Syrian refugees.
The lecture will provide some key elements for a contextual understanding of the long-lasting presence of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, since 1948 and its key dynamics. Among them, the sociopolitical reading of this issue in the sectarian politics of Lebanon lead us to comprehend the reasons of their social marginalization. Beyond the period of the civil war, already seen, the Palestinian issue in Lebanon should also be apprehended through its geographical location in Lebanon and, last but not least, as a pawn in the local politics. The Syrian war created also a disruption for the Palestinian refugees, including for those among the Palestinians coming from Syria, that clearly contributed to the continuation of their marginalization within the Lebanese society. The Syrian refugees, on their side, experienced a contrasted reality in Lebanon since 2011 when thousands of them started to seek refuge in neighboring states of Syria. Between a warm welcome among Sunni populated areas, mainly in North Lebanon, to a strong indifference for those arriving later on in Beirut or in the Bekaa Valley. The shift in the border management of this refugee crisis (around 1 mio refugees arrived in Lebanon) highlight a strong state concern that chose to respond by removing its open border policy for Syrians. And since 2017, in the backdrop of some xenophobic speeches and behaviors towards them, the Lebanese government and most of the political parties behind it, decided to launch a return policy for those willing to go back to Syria, a policy that knew an extension since the beginning of the economic breakdown of Lebanon in 2020.
PART 3: Border issues, the South and Hezbollah (6 hours)
• Borders in the Middle East. Study based on a survey in South Lebanon.
The analysis of political and geopolitical issues has in recent years been increasingly taken into account of the importance of the spatiality of social and political processes. With this in mind, the study of borders in the Middle East region has undergone interesting developments, particularly by taking into account the scientific achievements of the specialized field of border studies. In particular, it deals the issues of conflicts and changes the region has experienced since the Arab uprisings in 2010-2011 from the prism of borders, treating them less as simple lines of sovereignty and more as complex processes articulating various actors, multiple rationalities and perceptions and temporalities that show the fluctuations and changes that these spaces experience. The Lebanese case will feed this reflection in more details from a study conducted in southern Lebanon since 2010 and articulated around three non-state actors: Hezbollah, UNIFIL and the borderlanders.
Evaluation
The evaluation is made of an essay/paper that each group of students (3-4 students) need to elaborate collectively. The groups will be formed during the first weeks and will identify a topic of study in Lebanon in coordination with the teacher. The teacher is expecting each group to sent him rather quickly a problematic, an index and a tentative bibliography. It is also possible for each group to organize a meeting with the teacher before 22nd February 2024. All the groups must achieve their written essay/paper by 7th April 2024, deadline for sending the final version of their essay/paper. The latter is an original written document of a length of 10-12 pages maximum, including the bibliography.
Contemporary Lebanon
Introduction
This course aims to open the horizon of pluralism and intercultural mediations from a particular case, that of Lebanon. The nation-state model of the Lebanese republic poses from the outset the challenge of accommodating various actors – known as sectarian groups (or communal groups) thus underscoring their political role – while none of them can dominate the system on its own. The reflection will be less technical in the sense of classical constitutional political science than sociological, bringing into play the many societal and political challenges that the Lebanese system has had to face since its independence in 1943. The course will thus examine the nature of the State, the regional and local actors of the Lebanese scene and society. A focus will be put on the refugees that gather almost a third of the entire Lebanese population (2 out of 6 mio) and on border issues intending to see what the margins of the State reveal of the politics, with the specific case study of South Lebanon.
PART 1: Introduction to the sociopolitical history of Lebanon (20 hours)
• The Lebanese State and Nation in the 20th Century: From Foundations to Collapse
The course firstly aims to present the main historical stages of the founding of the contemporary Lebanese state and to see in particular how the sectarian dynamics are structured within it. I will insist here on the National Pact (1926) and the Constitution (1943) which serve as benchmarks for understanding the properties and the structural weaknesses of the political system put in place during the end of the Ottoman Empire (1841-1918) and the French Mandate (1920-1943). The establishment of the political game, the organization of power and the relationships between communities will then be examined. This will make it possible to follow, step by step, the development of problems or questions that the political system has to face (nepotism, clientelism, sectarianism) by emphasizing the regional paradigm shift which, from 1948 hit the region with the creation of the State of Israel and the Palestinian exodus but also the rise of Arab nationalism in the context of the Cold War. Observing the role of the Palestinian issue and its politicization (PLO, Resistance) help to reveal the incapacity of the Lebanese political system to deal with it, to face up to protest or social demands. We will unwind the thread until the dawn of the civil war (1975) whose causes, social, political but also regional, will thus have been put into perspective.
• Post-Civil War Lebanon and Israeli and Syrian Withdrawals
The lecture will explain the phases of the civil war, analyzed as a self-sustaining system for 15 years that highly contribute to reshape sectarian geography and mental maps of Lebanon. Then, the post-war period will be read as a new configuration of the balance of power characterized by the supervision of Syria over Lebanon with disastrous consequences for the Lebanese political scene. The amnesia and amnesty shaped by the post-war elites served as a tabula rasa strategy to build a neoliberal environment where the former warlords have transformed into businessmen alongside new entrepreneurs (in financial, real-estate, banking sectors). This will be exemplified by the blending of public and private interests by former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The lecture will also discuss what actually did happen with the southern borderland region, the continuation of the Israeli occupation after the end of the civil war until the military withdrawal. The means of this long-lasting occupation will be explained as well as the reasons and effects of the Israeli withdrawal of May 2000.
• The post-Syrian era: between destabilization, adaptation and collapse
The changes on the international scene and the new US involvement in the Middle East during the G.W. Bush mandate (2001-2009) will push Syria to withdraw from Lebanon in 2005 and open a period of instability which will ease with the Doha agreement (May 2008). The new role played by Hezbollah, a Shi’i religious movement, in this post-Syrian era will appear in particular thanks to its new Manifesto (2009), in the face of the indictments of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) in the attack on Rafik Hariri and moreover since the beginning of the war in Syria (March 2011) – more particularly the party's growing investment alongside the Syrian regime, in contrast to its ideology of resistance of the oppressed against the oppressors. We will see how Lebanon was able to resist and adapt in the face of the very obvious risks of the Syrian war spreading to Lebanon, in particular the Sunni/Shiite divide. As a counterpoint, I will highlight the structural and eminently political nature of the major socio-economic crisis that Lebanon has been going through (since 2019) in the backdrop of several popular mobilizations since the Arab Spring underlining the clear disconnection between the elites and the population.
PART 2: The Palestinian and Syrian refugees in Lebanon: a comparison (4 hours)
• How Lebanon dealt with Palestinian and Syrian refugees.
The lecture will provide some key elements for a contextual understanding of the long-lasting presence of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, since 1948 and its key dynamics. Among them, the sociopolitical reading of this issue in the sectarian politics of Lebanon lead us to comprehend the reasons of their social marginalization. Beyond the period of the civil war, already seen, the Palestinian issue in Lebanon should also be apprehended through its geographical location in Lebanon and, last but not least, as a pawn in the local politics. The Syrian war created also a disruption for the Palestinian refugees, including for those among the Palestinians coming from Syria, that clearly contributed to the continuation of their marginalization within the Lebanese society. The Syrian refugees, on their side, experienced a contrasted reality in Lebanon since 2011 when thousands of them started to seek refuge in neighboring states of Syria. Between a warm welcome among Sunni populated areas, mainly in North Lebanon, to a strong indifference for those arriving later on in Beirut or in the Bekaa Valley. The shift in the border management of this refugee crisis (around 1 mio refugees arrived in Lebanon) highlight a strong state concern that chose to respond by removing its open border policy for Syrians. And since 2017, in the backdrop of some xenophobic speeches and behaviors towards them, the Lebanese government and most of the political parties behind it, decided to launch a return policy for those willing to go back to Syria, a policy that knew an extension since the beginning of the economic breakdown of Lebanon in 2020.
PART 3: Border issues, the South and Hezbollah (6 hours)
• Borders in the Middle East. Study based on a survey in South Lebanon.
The analysis of political and geopolitical issues has in recent years been increasingly taken into account of the importance of the spatiality of social and political processes. With this in mind, the study of borders in the Middle East region has undergone interesting developments, particularly by taking into account the scientific achievements of the specialized field of border studies. In particular, it deals the issues of conflicts and changes the region has experienced since the Arab uprisings in 2010-2011 from the prism of borders, treating them less as simple lines of sovereignty and more as complex processes articulating various actors, multiple rationalities and perceptions and temporalities that show the fluctuations and changes that these spaces experience. The Lebanese case will feed this reflection in more details from a study conducted in southern Lebanon since 2010 and articulated around three non-state actors: Hezbollah, UNIFIL and the borderlanders.
Evaluation
The evaluation is made of an essay/paper that each group of students (3-4 students) need to elaborate collectively. The groups will be formed during the first weeks and will identify a topic of study in Lebanon in coordination with the teacher. The teacher is expecting each group to sent him rather quickly a problematic, an index and a tentative bibliography. It is also possible for each group to organize a meeting with the teacher before 22nd February 2024. All the groups must achieve their written essay/paper by 7th April 2024, deadline for sending the final version of their essay/paper. The latter is an original written document of a length of 10-12 pages maximum, including the bibliography.
- Teacher: Daniel Serge MEIER