Beware the bully

ENAR

It is a wild and wondrous time. Almost a Big Bang moment. If all goes perfectly, Lebanon in April and May 2018 laid crucial seeds for a dual process of political maturation and economic resurrection. The two-month long excitement began with better than anticipated commitments from the CEDRE conference, an immense hope for billions of dollars in international economic investment inflows that was not dented even as the results of the Brussels II conference on Syria and refugees left much to be desired in every regard. The period peaked on May 6 with a development that less than a year ago many verbose and not so outspoken naysayers had doubted would ever happen: smooth elections. In short, government formation is progressing, all the while in between these epochal moments of the past two months, Lebanon saw almost an overburden of investment conferences, international statements of encouragement, and local ones of