Lebanese American University from Michel Chiha To
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Troubled Geography Imagining Lebanon in 1960S Tourist Promotion
CHAPTER 7 Troubled Geography Imagining Lebanon in 1960s Tourist Promotion Zeina Maasri At the turn of 1969, a peculiar advertisement appeared in The Economist issue of 27 Dec.–2 Jan. (Fig. 7.1). The ad featured two attractive young women posing fashionably in a prototypical Mediterranean beach setting on a per- fectly sunny day. Their shimmering golden bikinis further intensify the sun- shine while evoking the futuristic glamour of the day. Here’s an image that would get anyone in the northern hemisphere dreaming of escape – at least from the December freeze. The country advertised is one where you can enjoy the much-desired sun, beach and associated fun, in utmost modernity. This is Lebanon as represented in the 1960s and early 1970s by the Lebanese Council for Tourism, a then newly established state agency. Shortly after the appearance of the ad in The Economist, a Mr and Mrs Robertson wrote a letter of complaint in the English periodical the New Statesman questioning: ‘Why is a colour ad for the Lebanon running in last week’s Economist posed against the Fraglioni of Capri?’1 Their public inquisition illustrates how this ad might have stirred some confusion in the tourism imaginary of a Euro-American public to whom it was addressed, assertively expressed here at least by the distrusting couple. The Economist ad and ensuing response provoke a series of questions con- cerning Lebanon’s tourism publicity at the time. To begin with, why would the Lebanese state, by way of its Tourism Council and its agents – graphic design- ers included – choose to promote the country as a modern European-styled Mediterranean tourist destination? And second, what does this image mean in a context of conflicting politics of nationhood and belonging to the Arab world? Notes for this section begin on page 139. -
A Conversation with Raghida Dergham
TM: Welcome everybody to this sixth installment in the Harvard Kennedy School American University in Cairo series of conversations with Arab thought leaders on the 2020 U.S. election and America's changing role in the Middle East. I’m going to turn this over to my co-pilot Karim Haggag to introduce our distinguished guest for today but let me Just remind everybody what it is we are doing here. Each weeK we've been meeting with leading Arabs from the worlds of policy practice and ideas to explore their perceptions of the current season of politics in the United States and to get their sense of where they thinK the United States, the world's sole superpower, is heading, and particularly, what all of this means for the Middle East. So far in this series, we've interviewed some really interesting and extraordinary people, including prime minister Ayad Allawi, the Emirati intellectual AbdulKhaleq Abdulla, the Iraqi-Emirati Journalist Mina al-Oraibi, and these conversations will soon be available on our website and on podcast streaming services. We also have one more conversation. This is the penultimate conversation before we break for the winter, one more conversation next weeK with the Saudi editor of the al-Arabiya English, Mohammed Alyahya, and we hope that you'll Join us for that. Let me now turn it over to my co-pilot in this endeavor, Karim Haggag of the American University in Cairo School of Global affairs and Public Policy. Karim. KH: ThanK you, TareK, and thanK you everyone for Joining us for this afternoon's discussion. -
U.S. Department of State
1998 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices -- Lebanon Page 1 of 10 The State Department web site below is a permanent electro information released prior to January 20, 2001. Please see w material released since President George W. Bush took offic This site is not updated so external links may no longer func us with any questions about finding information. NOTE: External links to other Internet sites should not be co endorsement of the views contained therein. U.S. Department of State Lebanon Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1998 Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, February 26, 1999. LEBANON Lebanon is a parliamentary republic in which the President is by tradition a Maronite Christian, the Prime Minister a Sunni Muslim, and the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies a Shiâa Muslim. The Parliament consists of 128 deputies, equally divided between Christian and Muslim representatives. In October Parliament chose a new president, Emile Lahoud, in an election heavily influenced by Syria. He took office in November. The judiciary is independent in principle but is subject to political pressure. Non-Lebanese military forces control much of the country. These include about 25,000 Syrian troops, a contingent of approximately 2,000 Israeli army regulars and 1,500 Israeli-supported militia in the south, and several armed Palestinian factions located in camps and subject to restrictions on their movements. All undermine the authority of the central Government and prevent the application of law in the patchwork of areas not under the Governmentâs control. In 1991 the governments of Syria and Lebanon concluded a security agreement that provided a framework for security cooperation between their armed forces. -
Lebanon: Managing the Gathering Storm
LEBANON: MANAGING THE GATHERING STORM Middle East Report N°48 – 5 December 2005 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS................................................. i I. A SYSTEM BETWEEN OLD AND NEW.................................................................. 1 A. SETTING THE STAGE: THE ELECTORAL CONTEST..................................................................1 B. THE MEHLIS EFFECT.............................................................................................................5 II. SECTARIANISM AND INTERNATIONALISATION ............................................. 8 A. FROM SYRIAN TUTELAGE TO WESTERN UMBRELLA?............................................................8 B. SHIFTING ALLIANCES..........................................................................................................12 III. THE HIZBOLLAH QUESTION ................................................................................ 16 A. “A NEW PHASE OF CONFRONTATION” ................................................................................17 B. HIZBOLLAH AS THE SHIITE GUARDIAN?..............................................................................19 C. THE PARTY OF GOD TURNS PARTY OF GOVERNMENT.........................................................20 IV. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................. 22 A. A BROAD INTERNATIONAL COALITION FOR A NARROW AGENDA .......................................22 B. A LEBANESE COURT ON FOREIGN -
Lebanon: Background and U.S. Relations
Lebanon: Background and U.S. Relations Casey L. Addis Analyst in Middle Eastern Affairs February 1, 2011 Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov R40054 CRS Report for Congress Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Lebanon: Background and U.S. Relations Summary Lebanon is a religiously diverse country transitioning toward independence and democratic consolidation after a ruinous civil war and the subsequent Syrian and Israeli occupations. The United States and Lebanon have historically enjoyed a good relationship due in part to cultural and religious ties; the democratic character of the state; a large, Lebanese-American community in the United States; and the pro-western orientation of Lebanon, particularly during the cold war. Current policy priorities of the United States include strengthening the weak democratic institutions of the state, limiting the influence of Iran, Syria, and others in Lebanon’s political process, and countering threats from Hezbollah and other militant groups in Lebanon. Following Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon in 2005 and the war between Israel and Hezbollah in the summer of 2006, the Bush Administration requested and Congress appropriated a significant increase in U.S. assistance to Lebanon. Since 2006, U.S. assistance to Lebanon has topped $1 billion total over three years, including for the first time U.S. security assistance for the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and Internal Security Forces (ISF) of Lebanon. Several key issues in U.S.-Lebanon relations could potentially affect future U.S. assistance to Lebanon. The scope and influence of foreign actors, primarily Syria and Iran; unresolved territorial disputes; concerns about extremist groups operating in Lebanon; and potential indictments by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) are among the challenges facing the Lebanese government and U.S. -
Lebanese Christian Nationalism: a Theoretical Analyses of a National Movement
1 Lebanese Christian nationalism: A theoretical analyses of a national movement A Masters Thesis Presented by Penelope Zogheib To the faculty of the department of Political Science at Northeastern University In partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Arts in Political Science Northeastern University Boston, MA December, 2013 2 Lebanese Christian nationalism: A theoretical analyses of a national movement by Penelope Zogheib ABSTRACT OF THESIS Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Political Science in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities of Northeastern University December, 2013 3 ABSTRACT OF THESIS This thesis examines the distinctiveness of Lebanese Christian identity, and the creation of two interconnected narratives pre and during the civil war: the secular that rejects Arab nationalism and embraces the Phoenician origins of the Lebanese, and the marriage of the concepts of dying and fighting for the sacred land and faith. This study portrays the Lebanese Christian national movement as a social movement with a national agenda struggling to disseminate its conception of the identity of a country within very diverse and hostile societal settings. I concentrate on the creation process by the ethnic entrepreneurs and their construction of the self-image of the Lebanese Christian and the perception of the "other" in the Arab world. I study the rhetoric of the Christian intelligentsia through an examination of their writings and speeches before, during and after the civil war, and the evolution of that rhetoric along the periods of peace and war. I look at how the image of “us” vs. -
Lebanon: Background and US Policy
Lebanon: Background and U.S. Policy name redacted Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs April 4, 2014 Congressional Research Service 7-.... www.crs.gov R42816 Lebanon: Background and U.S. Policy Summary Lebanon’s small geographic size and population belie the important role it has long played in the security, stability, and economy of the Levant and the broader Middle East. Congress and the executive branch have recognized Lebanon’s status as a venue for regional strategic competition and have engaged diplomatically, financially, and at times, militarily to influence events there. For most of its independent existence, Lebanon has been torn by periodic civil conflict and political battles between rival religious sects and ideological groups. External military intervention, occupation, and interference have exacerbated Lebanon’s political struggles in recent decades. Lebanon is an important factor in U.S. calculations regarding regional security, particularly regarding Israel and Iran. Congressional concerns have focused on the prominent role that Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shia Muslim militia, political party, and U.S.-designated terrorist organization, continues to play in Lebanon and beyond, including its recent armed intervention in Syria. Congress has appropriated more than $1 billion since the end of the brief Israel-Hezbollah war of 2006 to support U.S. policies designed to extend Lebanese security forces’ control over the country and promote economic growth. The civil war in neighboring Syria is progressively destabilizing Lebanon. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 1 million predominantly Sunni Syrian refugees have fled to Lebanon, equivalent to close to one-quarter of Lebanon’s population. -
The WLCU History
History of the R W o n rld nio Le ral U NG banese Cultu O UN Ass GC- ociated with the D A ccr -UN edited at ECOSOC World Lebanese Cultural Union 1959 - 2020 Dr Natalio Chidiac Havana -Cuba 1959 uJanuary 31st 1959: Dr Natalio Chidiac founded The Federation of Intercontinental Lebanese Entities (FIEL) in Havana, Cuba. It brought under its umbrella Lebanese entities from the Americas only. The origin of FIEL and WLCU The Lebanese Cabinet August 29th 1959: The Lebanese Cabinet decided at its meeting, to lay the ground for a “conference” that connects all the Lebanese living abroad. 1st FIEL Congress - 1960 u January 31st 1960: 1st FIEL Congress was held in Mexico City and founded the World Lebanese Union (WLU), an organization that embraces Lebanese entities from both inside and outside the Americas. Regions such as Australia and Africa would also be involved. A Lebanese presidential decree - 1960 u March 1st 1960: A Lebanese presidential decree number 3423 was issued creating a permanent central committee headed by the Lebanese Foreign Minister, its mission was to plan a Diaspora conference aiming to adopt a permanent “official institution” for the Lebanese emigrants worldwide. The 1st WLU Congress – Beirut 1960 u September 15th 1960: The 1st WLU Congress was held at the UNESCO Palace in Beirut, Lebanon. The World Lebanese Union is adopted as the sole official representative of the Lebanese Diaspora. The Congress was inaugurated by the Lebanese President of the Republic Fouad Chehab, the Prime Minister Saeb Salam and the Foreign Minister Philip Takla. The World Lebanese Union according to its first constitution, selected an executive office, headed temporarily by the Foreign Minister to oversee the Union until the future elections of a World President and World Council. -
Perspectives on the Return of Syrian Refugees Leïla Vignal
Syrians in displacement 69 FMR 57 February 2018 www.fmreview.org/syria2018 Perspectives on the return of Syrian refugees Leïla Vignal There are many reasons why discussions about the imminent return of large numbers of Syrian refugees are premature. Since 2015, the military dynamics of the estimate the number of Syrians outside Syrian conflict have shifted in favour of Syria at seven to eight million, if not more. the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Damascus The adding up of these numbers is has retaken control of many cities and important. If the number of Syrians outside areas that were previously held by armed Syria is added to the 6.3 million Syrians opposition groups, with the battle for currently internally displaced, it means that the eastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo – almost two thirds of the former 21 million concluded in December 2016 – a significant inhabitants of Syria have been forced to leave turning point in this regard. By late their homes. Previously populated areas 2017, the Islamic State group had been have been largely destroyed and emptied of expelled from the last towns and regions their inhabitants, while other areas, mostly under its control in eastern Syria. in the regions held by the al-Assad regime, These developments, as well as the are now crammed with displaced Syrians. implementation of ‘de-escalation zones’, The magnitude of this displacement and the agreed in May 2017 and guaranteed by transformation of the spatial and political Russia, Iran and Turkey, have given new features of Syria are the result of a specific impetus to discussions about the future type of warfare: tactics that have targeted the of the country, post-war reconstruction civilian population in opposition-held areas and the return of Syrian refugees to Syria. -
Public Sounds, Private Spaces: Towards a Fairouz Museum in Zokak ElBlat
OIS 3 (2015) ± Divercities: Competing Narratives and Urban Practices in Beirut, Cairo and Tehran Mazen Haidar and Akram Rayess Public Sounds, Private Spaces: Towards a Fairouz Museum in Zokak el-Blat Figure 1: Young Nouhad Haddad (Fairouz) to the right, with one of the neighbours, on the staircase of her family©s house in Zokak el Blat in the late 1940s. Source: Fairouz 1981 USA Tour catalogue. <1> The idea of dedicating a museum to Fairouz, the famous singer and doyenne of musical theatre in Lebanon, at her childhood home in Beirut has circulated in the local media for several years.1 The persistent media 1 A variety of articles and television reports from Lebanese and Arab newspapers and TV stations from 2009 to 2015 have covered the issue of the "Fairouz Museum" in Beirut, in parallel to studies and research conducted by institutions and civil society associations such as MAJAL ± see for instance MAJAL Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts, Urban Conservation in Zokak el-Blat (Université de Balamand, 2012) ± and Save Beirut Heritage. Among these we mention the following media resources: Chirine Lahoud, "The House where a Star was Born", Daily Star, Beirut, 18 June 2013; Haifa Lizenzhinweis: Dieser Beitrag unterliegt der Creative-Commons-Lizenz Namensnennung-Keine kommerzielle Nutzung-Keine Bearbeitung (CC-BY-NC-ND), darf also unter diesen Bedingungen elektronisch benutzt, übermittelt, ausgedruckt und zum Download bereitgestellt werden. Den Text der Lizenz erreichen Sie hier: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/de campaign, initiated by a number of associations and activists calling for the preservation of plots 565 and 567, the cadastral numbers of the two properties on which Fairouz©s childhood home was located, came to fruition when the endangered nineteenth-century mansion in the Zokak el-Blat district was declared a building of public interest.2 <2> This paper discusses Fairouz©s house as part of a contested urban space, and the multiple readings and interpretations of Beirut©s architectural heritage that have arisen in this contentious context. -
Terrorism, Diasporas, and Permissive Threat Environments: a Study Of
NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA THESIS TERRORISM, DIASPORAS, AND PERMISSIVE THREAT ENVIRONMENTS. A STUDY OF HIZBALLAH’S FUNDRAISING OPERATIONS IN PARAGUAY AND ECUADOR. by Howard Vincent Meehan December 2004 Thesis Advisor: Jeanne Giraldo Thesis Advisor: Harold Trinkunas Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE Form Approved OMB No. 0704-0188 Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instruction, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington, VA 22202-4302, and to the Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project (0704-0188) Washington DC 20503. 1. AGENCY USE ONLY (Leave blank) 2. REPORT DATE 3. REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED December 2004 Master’s Thesis 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE: Terrorism, Diasporas, and Permissive Threat 5. FUNDING NUMBERS Environments. A Study of Hizballah’s Fundraising Operations in Paraguay and Ecuador. 6. AUTHOR(S) Howard Vincent Meehan 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 8. PERFORMING Naval Postgraduate School ORGANIZATION REPORT Monterey, CA 93943-5000 NUMBER 9. SPONSORING /MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 10. SPONSORING/MONITORING N/A AGENCY REPORT NUMBER 11. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES The views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Defense or the U.S. -
Methodological and Political Issues in the Lebanese Planning Experiences Éric Verdeil
Methodological and Political Issues in the Lebanese Planning Experiences Éric Verdeil To cite this version: Éric Verdeil. Methodological and Political Issues in the Lebanese Planning Experiences. Conference City Debates, The Lebanese National Master Plan, City Debates 2003 Proceedings, 2004, pp.16-22. halshs-00002801 HAL Id: halshs-00002801 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00002801 Submitted on 7 Sep 2004 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. This is not a definitive version Please quote as : Eric Verdeil, “Methodological and Political Issues in the Lebanese Planning Experiences”, Conference City Debates, The Lebanese National Master Plan, City Debates 2003 Proceedings, M. Harb (ed.), Beirut, American University of Beirut, 2004, pp.16-22 Methodological and Political Issues in the Lebanese Planning Experiences Eric Verdeil Eric Verdeil has a PhD in urban geography from Université Paris I–Sorbonne. He is now a researcher at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in the University of Lyon, at the Institute of Planning. He was a researcher at the Institut Français du Proche-Orient (IFPO, ex-CERMOC) in Beirut, where he was responsible for the Urban Observatory. He studied the Lebanese experience of planning from the country’s independence to its reconstruction.