Introduction

This book has its earliest origins in a research paper on the external intervention of regional and international actors in Lebanon and its impact on the Lebanese consociational system that I presented at the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) conference in Washington a few years ago. The panel was on Lebanon and external intervention in destabilizing the system after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri on 14 February 2005, the ‘Cedar Revolution’ and the withdrawal of the Syrian forces from Lebanon in May 2005. Hariri’s assassination broke the post-civil war (1989-2005) stability that was initiated by the Tai’f Agreement in 1989 (discussed in Chapter 2) and consolidated by Syria’s dominant role with international support. The topic attracted a number of colleagues whom I met at the conference because the dramatic political and violent events that followed Hariri’s assassination are the least studied period in the scholarly books written on Lebanon. I learned a tremendous amount throughout this research not only from the topic of my study but also from the colleagues who graciously shared their ideas and expertise with me.