CJPME Analysis, published July 24, 2015: It has been well over a year since Lebanon has had a President – the longest in Lebanese history. With no political consensus in sight, the perpetual deadlock in Parliament has effectively paralyzed the government and state institutions, and has polarized both Lebanon’s political parties and its pluralistic society. Moreover, three years of spill-over from the Syrian crisis has embroiled the Lebanese armed forces – with its capricious ‘ally’[*] Hezbollah – in an interminable fight against extremist groups, which risks unravelling Lebanon’s fragile stability.

CJPME Factsheet 185, published September, 2014: This factsheet provides an overview of Hezbollah: its emergence, its primary goals, and the source for its popular support in Lebanon. It also discusses how Hezbollah operates within Lebanon, and the services it provides.  Finally, this factsheet discusses the international disagreement over Hezbollah’s status.

CJPME Factsheet 26, published May, 2007: Lebanon is extremely diverse religiously, culturally and politically.  This diversity has complicated the development of a stable political arrangement, and impeded the development of a single national identity.  As for diversity,  there are six different Muslim sects (in numeric order: Shi'a, Sunni, Druze, Isma'ili, Alawite or Nusayri), and twelve different Christian sects (in numeric order: Maronite Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Melkite Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Syrian Catholic, Armenian Catholic, Syrian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Chaldean, Assyrian, Copt, Protestant.)  These sects are largely geographically defined.  This mosaic of peoples and politics has led the Lebanese to historically seek a balance of power through a political arrangement known as confessionalism.