Regional turmoil threatens to engulf Lebanon
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by Mohanad Hage Ali October 7, 2019

written by Mohanad Hage Ali October 7, 2019

Three sets of regional conflicts and turmoil are impacting Lebanon. The country, yet again, finds itself in the most volatile of all regions, with a weak state and a corrupt set of politicians. You would not wish this storm on your worst enemies. The first is the ongoing turmoil emanating from the growing wealth gap, soaring unemployment, large youth demographic, and the ailing arrangements or social contracts in rentier states. The Arab region, according to a report by Carnegie Middle East Center fellow, Lydia Assouad, is by far the most unequal region in the world today, even when compared to Latin America and South Asia. This dim reality was only sustainable when governments, either oil producing or backed by an oil-producing state, grew the public sector enormously to provide employment to the widest strata of Arab societies. In Jordan, for instance, the government employs a third of the working population.

Mohanad Hage Ali

Mohamad Hage Ali is the deputy director for research at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut where his work focuses on the shifting geopolitics and Islamist groups after the Arab Uprisings. Hage Ali teaches politics at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and has lectured at the Lebanese American University in Beirut. In his work, Hage Ali focuses on Levant politics, and has published a book titled “Nationalism, Transnationalism and Political Islam: Hizbullah’s Institutional Identity” in 2017, and co-edited “A Restless Revival: Political Islam After the 2011 Uprisings”. Prior to Carnegie, Hage Ali worked as a reporter at al-Hayat newspaper in London, and as an editor in chief of NOW Arabic in Beirut, where his work focused on political Islam and Iraq.

Regional turmoil threatens to engulf LebanonENAR

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Regional turmoil threatens to engulf Lebanon
EN AR