Angelina Eichhorst – Optimism despite crisis

Angelina Eichhorst, the European Union’s Ambassador to Lebanon, is well aware of the challenges of mustering international support for the country and changing dynamics in the region. She took the top job in Beirut in January 2011 after six years at the EU’s embassies in Jordan and Syria, and several years in Cairo at the beginning of her career. Heading the efforts of an organization that has tripled its funding and provided over $338 million to date in humanitarian aid and other mechanisms to support Lebanon with the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis, she also helps to coordinate the actions of the 28 European member states in the country. Yet, as she explained to Executive, she is deeply concerned that the crisis is not adequately understood. “I spoke to so many people in France, in Belgium, in the Netherlands,” she says. “People would say, ‘Oh really? A quarter of the population