Lebanon is a nation on the brink of collapse. Wider crises of the Middle East are finding themselves at a devastating crossroad in Lebanon. In this issue we investigate the country’s complex, diverse issues – with analyses from notable scholars: Diwan’s editor Michael Young, the highly-regarded historian David Abulafia and two leading Middle-East analysts Michael Tanchum and Eyal Zisser explain the complex trajectory of Lebanon. Our people in Lebanon bring detailed on-the-ground reports of the country’s tribulations.
Just days before the two-year anniversary of the 4 August 2020 Beirut Port explosion, a part of the burnt-out hulk of the nation’s grain silos destroyed in the blast, collapsed. For weeks, a fire had been smouldering in the silos as the extreme summer heat ignited the fermenting grains left to rot inside the mangled […] Continue reading
Why Lebanon? Some years ago the distinguished historian Jonathan Steinberg wrote a book entitled Why Switzerland? And a similar question can be posed for Lebanon which, like Switzerland, is host to several different communities. In the Lebanese case we need to go much further back in time than the thirteenth century AD which saw the […] Continue reading
