US Foreign Policy in Lebanon
Abstract
For Americans, Lebanon conjures up images of terrorism and Israeli invasions. More recently,
Lebanon's mass demonstrations to rid the country of its Syrian occupation swept the media in
2005. Often called the Cedar revolution, the West saw contrasting images of Western-looking
women and black-dad Islamists. The perspective of Lebanese politics neatly divided into
two--one western, Lebanese, and democratic, the other lslamist, non-Lebanese, and antidemocratic-
has permeated US perspectives of the country. Moreover, this divided view of
Lebanese domestic politics is usually equated with international and regional alignments and
conflicts. Domestic actors here are viewed as reflecting regional ambitions and not their own
political priorities. Throughout Lebanon's history, actors have been seen to represent the
opposing forces in the cold war, civilizational divisions, or neighboring hostile states. These
lenses, obscuring the domestic players' interests, transmit a skewed interpretation of Lebanese
politics and hinder a complete understanding of the effects of US foreign policy in Lebanon.
Description
In Robert Looney ed, Handbook on US. Middle East Relations, Routledge, pp. 310-323, 2009.
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.Collections
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