Contributeurs


David Hale
Confusion in Syria

Recent developments in Syria are causing surprise and confusion. In a bold move, President Trump and his administration acquiesced to requests from the Turkish and Saudi leadership and lifted most sanctions on the Ahmed al-Sharaa regime, his Salafist HTS movement, and Syria itself. It did so without conditionality, without much effort to ...


Hussain Abdul-Hussain
Replacing Iran with Turkey Is a Recipe for Disaster in Syria

The Syrian revolution was not an uprising for liberty, freedom, or democracy. It was a manifestation of Sunni Islamists, backed by Turkey and Qatar, venting their rage against the rule of Assad, supported by Shia Islamist Iran. Syria’s Sunni Islamists did not care that Assad was a brutal dictator; they sought to replace him with their own ...


Amal Chmouny
Between the Dilemma of Disarming Hezbollah and the Challenge of Rising Israeli Tensions

The dialogue between the US and Lebanon concerning Hezbollah's disarmament has entered a crucial phase, characterized by urgency, skepticism and regional complexities. US envoy Tom Barrack emphasized the need for rapid and structured progress, a sentiment echoed in messages from Washington. However, as events unfold, the inherent challenges of ...


Johnny Kortbawi
Same Mistakes, Different Times

Lebanese history is marked by a long string of repeated missteps, errors that quietly pile up as the country resists any course correction. They’re the product of a persistent pattern of poor decisions, while entrenched political forces keep trying, in vain, to turn the tide in their favor. Today, Lebanon is repeating a familiar mistake, one ...


Maurice Matta
Government Finalizes Financial Appointments, Names Mazen Soueid as Head of the Banking Control Commission

At midnight between Monday and Tuesday, June 9, the terms of the four vice governors of the Central Bank of Lebanon (BDL) expired: Wassim Mansouri, Bachir Yaqzan, Salim Chahine, and Alexander Mouradian, along with the mandate of the president and members of the Banking Control Commission and three members appointed as experts to the Capital ...


Charles Chartouni
The Politics of Frozen Conflicts and Their Antidotes 

Paradoxically enough, the strategic contexts throughout the Middle and Near East extending between Iran and Gaza are in a state of volatility, and none of the security issues at stake have been addressed in a conclusive manner — or were ever meant to be. After the consecutive defeats that have unraveled the strategic and political realms of ...


David Sahyoun
The Fantasized Body: When the Image Erases the Woman (2/2)

In today’s world, the female body is under constant pressure. It must be smooth, toned, youthful, desirable but not vulgar, slim but not unhealthy, maternal yet flawless. On social media, in advertising and in television shows, a single ideal takes hold: a body that is controlled, edited and put on display. The ideal is now algorithmic. It is ...


Salam El Zaatari
The Middle East: Recalibrations, Fractures and a Coming Storm

By now, we should know that when the Middle East falls silent, it’s rarely a good sign. As if history itself were pausing for breath, the region today is locked in what I call a “violent pause”—not peace, not war, but something infinitely more dangerous: indecision. The past six months have redrawn the map of alliances and threats, but ...


Fady Noun
In Our National Life, Forgiveness Requests a Name

In every human being, there is a child who demands a story before falling asleep. The need for fiction is universal. But sometimes, as the title of a long-lost book once said, “Reality Surpasses Fiction.” Some true stories exceed in “unlikeliness” even the wildest inventions. Lebanon’s history is not far from illustrating this idea. ...


Bassam Abou Zeid
Israel and Hezbollah Tighten the Noose Around the Lebanese Government

President Joseph Aoun’s statement that he is holding talks with Hezbollah over its weapons and that negotiations are progressing slowly was especially noteworthy. Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Joumblatt’s remarks were equally notable, as he called on Hezbollah to give up its heavy weaponry, deeming it ineffective in confronting ...


Badih Karhani
Syrian Prisoners and Islamist Detainees in Lebanon: A Ticking Time Bomb

The issue of Syrian prisoners in Lebanon has resurfaced, alongside that of Islamist detainees, many of whom have been held for years without trial or clear charges. This tragic reality highlights a blatant pattern of ongoing political and judicial injustice, where hundreds of individuals are denied their most basic legal and human rights under ...


Tara B. Moussallem
Raids at Casino du Liban and OMT: Sweeping Out Parallel Financing Networks

It was an operation that took everyone by surprise and deserves to be loudly applauded: Lebanese security forces, in coordination with financial judiciary authorities, carried out raids on the 18th of June at Casino du Liban—seizing computers and servers—and at a branch of OMT, a money transfer company. This is a rare assertion of ...


Khalil Sehnaoui
The Great IT Blackout: How a CrowdStrike Update Paralyzed the World

  Last Friday morning, the world was hit by one of the most significant IT blackouts in history. Thousands of Windows machines failed to boot up or reboot, disrupting banks, airlines, TV broadcasters, healthcare companies, major retailers, and numerous other businesses globally. While the cause of the outage is known and efforts to restore ...


Amine Jules Iskandar
From Empire to Nation

In the Levant, Islam took root in the major Mediterranean coastal cities—Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Sidon, Beirut, Tripoli, Tartus and Latakia. Surrounded by Christian and Jewish hill communities or overshadowed by dominant Christian mountain ranges, these urban populations never felt isolated. Instead, they saw themselves as fully integrated into the ...


Roger Merheb
Hezbollah: Denial and Manipulation!

One might think that Hezbollah has a short memory. But no. It resorts to manipulation and counts on the very short memory of certain Lebanese who still see it as a protective shield because they do not want to – or dare not – face reality. They refuse to admit that if part of Lebanon is destroyed and if the Israeli army is present in certain ...