Civil-Military Relations in Lebanon : Conflict, Cohesion and Confessionalism in a Divided Society

Description

This volume examines Lebanon’s post-2011 security dilemmas and the tenuous civil-military relations. The Syrian civil war has strained the Lebanese Armed Forces’ (LAF) cohesion and threatens its neutrality – its most valued assets in a divided society. The spill-over from the Syrian civil war and Hezbollah’s military engagement has magnified the security challenges facing the Army, making it a target. Massive foreign grants have sought to strengthen its military capability, stabilize the country and contain the Syria crisis. However, as this volume demonstrates, the real weakness of the LAF is not its lack of sophisticated armoury, but the fragile civil–military relations that compromise its fighting power, cripple its neutrality and expose it to accusations of partisanship and political bias. This testifies to both the importance of and the challenges facing multi-confessional armies in deeply divided countries. Front Matter ....Pages i-x The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF): A United Army for a Divided Country? (Are John Knudsen, Tine Gade)....Pages 1-22 The Lebanese Army After the Syrian Crisis: Alienating the Sunni Community? (Tine Gade, Nayla Moussa)....Pages 23-49 Allure of the Army? Recruiting Rural Youth in the Lebanese Armed Forces (Nasser Yassin, Maria El Solh)....Pages 51-70 Patrolling a Proxy War: Citizens, Soldiers and Zuʻama in Syria Street, Tripoli (Are John Knudsen)....Pages 71-99 Gendering (In-)Security: The Army, Barriers and Frontiers in Urban Tripoli (Marie Kortam)....Pages 101-120 Palestinian Camp–Military Relations in Lebanon: The Case of Nahr al-Bared (Ismael Sheikh Hassan)....Pages 121-144 Postscript: The Lebanese Armed Forces in Regional Perspective (Florence Gaub)....Pages 145-150 Back Matter ....Pages 151-155