Lebanon: a state in political paralysis?
23 November 2023. From 18:30 | Conference | English | IEMed
In the past decade, the Middle East and North African countries faced internal and external conflicts that threatened the institutional setups of the authoritarian/hybrid regimes. One of the countries that has been suffering from the repercussions of the regional conflicts, the Arab uprisings, and the Syrian refugee crisis, along with the serious economic and financial crisis that has been ongoing for almost 5 years, is Lebanon.
The multiple crises that Lebanon is suffering from have increased the pressure on the basic democratic institutions and resulted in State paralysis. Against this background, some questions can be raised: to what extent have the multiple crises revealed the vulnerability of the state structures? And what impact did they have in strengthening the role of hybrid groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) at the expense of democratic institutions? Answering these questions, Dandashly will explain the polarization of the national political scene domestically and how society and elites have normalized the ‘crisis.’ He will also look into the role of external regional/international players (US, France, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Russia) in setting scores internally – thus prolonging the crises and deepening the collapse of the state’s institutions.
Assem Dandashly is an associate professor at the University of Maastricht and holds a PhD from the University of Victoria, Canada. He has been a researcher at several universities, such as the Freie Universität Berlin, the University of Victoria, the Economic University of Krakow and the Central European University of Budapest. His main interests are comparative politics and international relations, in addition to international economic policy. His research focuses on issues related to democratization, state building, security and development in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP). Some recent publications are: The provision of Arab Gulf aid: The emergence of new donors (in International Politics, 2023. With C. Kourtelis), External democracy promotion in times of internal rule-of-law crisis: the EU and its neighbourhood (in Journal of European Public Policy, 2023.With O. Burlyuk and G. Noutcheva) and “EU and LGBTI Activism in the MENA – The Case of Lebanon” (Mediterranean Politics, 2022), among others.
Session moderated by Elisabeth Johansson-Nogués, associate professor, IBEI
This conference takes place in English at the IEMed conference room, Girona, 20 – Barcelona.
It can also be followed on IEMed’s Youtube Channel.
Read Dandashly’s AulaMed article.
Speakers
Assem Dandashly
Associate professor University of Maastricht
Elisabeth Johansson-Nogués
Associate professor IBEIOrganised by
