Global Security Watch—Lebanon

Why Lebanon? At roughly 4,000 square miles and with a population of just over 4,000,000 it is one of the smallest nations on earth. And yet it is perhaps the most violent and unstable countries in the Middle East, unable to develop its own institutions while seemingly always caught in the middle of conflicts between other nations.

A comprehensive examination of the complex domestic environment and the quarrelsome neighbors that contribute to Lebanon's condition as one of the most violent and unstable countries in the Middle East.

A comprehensive examination of the complex domestic environment and the quarrelsome neighbors that contribute to Lebanon's condition as one of the most violent and unstable countries in the Middle East.

Global Security Watch—Lebanon is the first volume to consider all factors—political, economic, religious, and actions by its neighbors—that have contributed to Lebanon's violent past and that shape its current security status.

In Global Security Watch—Lebanon, author David Sorenson explores Lebanon's arcane—almost dysfunctional—political structure and economic system, as well as the complex religious makeup of a country that is home to Christians, Jews, and Arabs with no majority faith. Sorenson also looks at how the nation has often served as a focal point of diplomatic and military conflict for other nations, including Syria, Iran, and Israel, as well as how ill-informed American policies toward Lebanon have ultimately harmed American strategic interests in the Middle East.

• Primary source documents include the Preamble to the 1926 Lebanese Constitution, provisions of the 1989 Ta'if Accords, the report of the assassination of Rafiq Hariri, and UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the Israeli-Hezbollah war of 2006
• Includes a chronology of key events in the history of Lebanon from earliest human civilizations there to the 2006 war