Strategizing a small deprived country in global context

Lebanon this year did not get off to a great and happy start in policy making. Neither on the micro-level of this small country on the edge of the world’s politically most volatile region, nor as part of the larger levels of regional, geo-economic and geopolitical concerns. In the few weeks since the beginning of this year, judicial “reform” plans in Israel have shocked the peoples of this region with reminders on the human capacity to deny their fellow human’s dignity and safety in the name of “security and democracy.” A few hundred kilometers to the north, the earth itself, the vital foundation of our existence that we have proven ourselves a species capable of altering, defacing, and eroding, has reminded us that we cannot truly predict shifts and tremors, let alone control quakes and protect ourselves effectively against the mass destruction of lives and livelihoods. In Europe, the logic