Lebanon

Description

Lebanon is in freefall. Poverty is rising exponentially, healthcare is at breaking point, corruption is rampant, and educated professionals are leaving the country in droves. How did this happen?

Lebanon: Anatomy of a Collapse explores the unravelling of the Lebanese state. Bringing together industry experts and academics, this timely collection analyses the complex and interconnected crises that have driven Lebanon into the abyss, whether political or social, financial or legal. With a clear and compelling narrative, the contributors highlight the economic mismanagement, infrastructure devastation, and government, educational and media breakdowns that have left the country in ruins. From the financial collapse of 2019 to the 2020 Beirut port explosion, and from the latest Israel–Lebanon war to the disastrous repercussions of the Syrian refugee crisis, this volume reveals the compounding effects of systemic failures, historical fractures and political ineptitude. It also examines the struggles of Lebanese society to maintain a semblance of institutional life and functionality, despite widespread disruption and chronic uncertainty.

This is an urgent and nuanced perspective on Lebanon’s tumultuous recent years, offering crucial insights for readers seeking to understand and learn from the calamitous implications of state failure. Can Lebanon recover from the traumas of its past?

Reviews

‘An ambitious, analytically sharp and morally urgent volume that seeks to document, dissect and theorise Lebanon’s multifaceted collapse since 2019. An empirically grounded and conceptually rich account.’ — Melani Cammett, Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs, Harvard University, and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook on Politics in Muslim Societies

‘A wide-ranging, multidisciplinary analysis of Lebanon’s economic, political and social collapse. Grounding analysis in lived experience, this book will become an important reference volume.’ — Adeel Malik, Associate Professor of Development Economics, University of Oxford, and co-editor of Crony Capitalism in the Middle East

Editor(s)

Joelle M. Abi-Rached is Associate Professor of Medicine and Founding Director of the Program on Medical History, Ethics & Politics at the American University of Beirut. She is the author of ʿAṣfūriyyeh: A History of Madness, Modernity, and War in the Middle East, and the co-author of Neuro: The New Brain Sciences and the Management of the Mind. 

Sarah El-Richani is Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Media and Communication Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. She is the author of The Lebanese Media: Anatomy of a System in Perpetual Crisis.