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Lebanon: a Remnant of the Carina Perelli Ottoman Empire Trying to Survive in a Region in Turmoil

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Lebanon: a Remnant of the Carina Perelli Ottoman Empire Trying to Survive in a Region in Turmoil Lebanon: A Remnant of the Carina Perelli Ottoman Empire trying to Survive in a Region in Turmoil Courtesy The Daily Star, Lebanon, July 16, 2014 Lebanon is the only multi-confessional country left in a region that is experiencing the collapse of the post-Otto- man order, the failure of the variegated experiments and formulas to create and sustain Arab States in the Middle East, the centrality of non-State actors, the proxy fight for SERIES PEACE& SECURITY supremacy between Saudi Arabia and Iran (with other re- gional players such as Turkey, Egypt and Qatar vying for influence), as well as the periodic escalation of the intrac- table conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis. SERIES PEACE& SECURITY About the author: CARINA PERELLI (RESDAL’s Member) Director of Silverkrieg Limited, she is a private consultant dedi- cated to confl ict and violence management, particularly in hostile environments. She performs tasks related to training, evaluation, auditing, regulation and facilitation. She is an expert in political negotiation, political analysis and designing institutional mecha- nisms to mitigate violence as well as in questions of political stabil- ity, security and defense in confl ict regions, whose fi eld of action includes Afghanistan, Haiti, Iraq, Mexico, Nigeria, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine and East Timor. Her experience also includes working in Latin American countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, Colom- bia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. She has held the position of Director of the Electoral Assistance Division of the Department of Political Affairs in the United Nations and UN International Commissioner ad interim, Indepen- dent Electoral Commissioner in Iraq for the Referendum of 2005. Former Executive VicePresident of IFES (International Founda- tion for Electoral Systems) in Washington DC and former Country Representative of IFES in Afghanistan (2009-2012). Copyright RESDAL. Rights reserved. This report was carried out within the framework of the ‘Gender Perspective in Peacekeeping Operations: Cases and Lessons from Contributing Countries’ project, which receives fi nancial support from: Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation October 2014 Other RESDAL publications https://www.facebook.com/resdal https://twitter.com/RESDAL_ http://www.resdal.org [email protected] Carina Perelli 1 Lebanon: A Remnant of the Ottoman Empire trying to Survive in a Region in Turmoil Lebanon is the only multi-confessional country left in a region that is experiencing the collapse of the post-Ott oman order, the failure of the variegated experiments and formu- las to create and sustain Arab States in the Middle East, the centrality of non-State ac- tors, the proxy fi ght for supremacy between Saudi Arabia and Iran (with other regional players such as Turkey, Egypt and Qatar vying for infl uence), as well as the periodic escalation of the intractable confl ict between the Palestinians and the Israelis. A Region in Upheaval The arc of instability in which Lebanese re- Lebanon is the only multi-confessional country ality is immersed is characterized by the “de- left in a region that is experiencing the collapse mocratization of violence”5 and the presence of the post-Ott oman order, the failure of the var- of motley armed coalitions of de-territorialized iegated experiments and formulas to create and fi ghters, warring alongside the disgruntled and sustain Arab States in the Middle East1, the cen- disenfranchised, political opportunists, profes- trality of non-State actors2, the proxy fi ght for su- sional revolutionaries and militants, members premacy between Saudi Arabia and Iran3 (with of criminal organizations, engaging in combat other regional players such as Turkey, Egypt and other groupings of combatants that also control Qatar vying for infl uence), as well as the periodic pockets of territory. In asymmetrical warfare, escalation of the intractable confl ict between the the cost of disruption has decreased signifi - Palestinians and the Israelis. cantly for insurgent groups thanks to a variety The demise of the Arab State project and the of factors (a black market fl ush with weapons, retreat of State structures from everyday life use of low cost technology for urban warfare, ef- have pushed people to seek the protection the fi cient use of social media, availability of pools State can no longer provide in sectarian identi- of candidates for recruitment amidst the disen- ties and allegiances. The wreckage of the State franchised and the disgruntled in a region with has brought with it the implosion of the notion a signifi cant youth bulge and an endemic defi cit of “citizenship” – the elusive, faulty, but funda- of hope and opportunities, lack of legitimacy mental principle of political equality of all deni- of State structures, to quote but a few) whereas zens of a territory vis-à-vis the power of State the cost of addressing that disruption with the structures and institutions - replacing it with current institutional mechanisms (armed forces, the particularism of membership to a specifi c police, prison services, judiciary, State media, group, affi liation to a particular sect, belonging etc.) remains high not only in violence-related to a distinct ethnicity. Against this backdrop, expenditures but also in the risks associated the combination of pauperization, marginaliza- with the erosion of legitimacy. For strong States tion, demographic bulge, and denial of political with institutionalized armed forces, this fi ght is voice has proven lethal. In the Middle East to- the equivalent of att empting to kill mosquitoes day, what divides takes preeminence over what with missiles: costly, ghastly and with a lot of unites. In that sense, the current confl agration in collateral damage. For fragile States, or those the region is not about terror and extremism, fi t- that are crumbling, the choice is between admit- na4 and jihad in Islam, sectarian confrontations ting defeat and surrendering or becoming one or oil and economic interests: it is a foundational of the many parties of combatants vying for pre- dispute about political order. eminence in a geographical location. Lebanon: A Remnant of the Ottoman Empire trying to Survive in a Region in Turmoil Carina Perelli 2 The line of demarcation between non-State been emasculated in the peripheries, whilst in and State combatants in the violent clashes in large urban sett ings the demise of “hidden pro- Libya, Syria, Iraq has blurred, with the State fessional political operators” inserted in State security forces becoming just one more armed bureaucratic structures has deprived the Sunni protagonist fi ghting alongside militias and bat- of important mechanisms of articulation within tling other bands of gunmen at the same time, the State.12 This perverse cycle breeds resent- backed and funded by regional and internation- ment, helplessness and rage, and sets up a fer- al players engaging in their own proxy wars. Al- tile breeding ground for extremism, particularly though the number of combatants is relatively amongst the young, who have seen their expec- small6, this type of warfare presupposes a mas- tations and hopes quashed time and time again tery of PSYOP7, particularly in social media, and when intransigent and short-sighted elites seize AGITPROP8 among the population of the region control of government and institutional machin- or potential adherents and recruits. The Internet eries13 and become predatory and exclusionary has become another batt leground, at the same power-holders, depriving other groupings of le- time (as the dams and cities where physical gal forms of access to legitimate political space combat takes place, with Twitt er and YouTube and dignity. In the meantime, there has been a as the new frontlines. They allow for the staging role reversal with the Shia, perennial underdog of the grim “Theater of Terror”9, “performance of the Middle East, witnessing the rise of Iran, violence” as Juergensmeyer calls it, a macabre a Shia State, and Hezbollah, a Shia movement, succession of beheadings and shootings, forced and the doctrine of Political Islam, of the Shia conversions and exemplary punishments des- Ayatollah Khomeini, consolidated. Aside from tined to horrify, anger and fascinate the viewer, the objective conditions, there is an element of sap the enemy’s morale and destroy its “will humiliation at play that facilitates the polariza- to fi ght”, and, equally important, capture the tion of the confl ict between the two communi- imagination of – and hence att ract - potential re- ties. As Yezid Sayigh points out in his Op-Ed of cruits.10 August 21, 2014 in Al-Hayat,14 Islamism is tak- If the Islamic State (IS) seems now to be so ing hold predominantly among the growing un- successful, it is because it incarnates a possible derclass of societies that are quickly urbanizing “solution” to a phenomenon long in the making framed by States that have failed to evolve. It but that sweeps the Middle East nowadays: that is the result of the degradation and mutation of “a Sunni majority with a minority complex — of the structures of socioeconomic and political a powerful though confused feeling of margin- power of States controlled by elites that failed to alization, dispossession and humiliation. More respond to social change. and more Sunnis throughout the region experi- Divisions and fault lines are no less profound ence and express the feeling that they have been within the communities in the Middle East, in- deprived of their fundamental rights and are cluding amidst extremist groups, with frequent suff ering persecution.”11 The Sunni communi- secessions and accusations of treachery and ties are confronted by a history of past political apostasy15 and acts of violence going concomi- failures while “remembering” a Golden Era of tantly with the labels. The permanent depura- power and might, caught between the stark al- tion of the membership of these groups, the oc- ternatives of the fear of State authoritarianism casional opportunistic alliances that end up in and the fear of chaos, fl oating in a perceived new killings and divisions, the expurgation of vacuum of hopelessness.
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