INSS Insight

Lebanon’s Growing Fragility

by Benedetta Berti, INSS

In the past few weeks, as Lebanon passed the one-year mark without a President, domestic tensions have yet again taken a turn for the worse. The Lebanese Army has targeted jihadist operations increasingly in the past weeks, while also declaring it is ready to confront the takfiri threat comprehensively. Hizbollah too has been preoccupied by the takfiri threat over the past year, and recent statements by the organization have sparked a heated national debate over the army’s next steps. This has further increased the tensions in the government coalition while threatening the Cabinet’s stability, along with that of the fragile Lebanese political institutions. • Political fragility and domestic polarization are a toxic combination, especially in a country that needs to face the pervasive impact of the Syrian civil war – including an ongoing security crisis and the economic, social, and political impact of absorbing the 1.2-1.5 million Syrians who are currently in the country. More fundamentally, the one year presidential vacuum and the ongoing political paralysis seem to call into question the entire political architecture based on sectarian power-sharing established in the aftermath of the Lebanese civil war.

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