World affairs, seen from BeirutThe Lebanese Lens
Test
This article is about the testing of tests
Analysis
When Gulf policy shifts, Lebanon feels it first
Opinion
The gap between what is promised and what is delivered
BEIRUT
Analysis and opinion on international affairs and public policy, written from Beirut by Ziad S. Mikati.
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When Gulf policy shifts, Lebanon feels it first
When Gulf policy shifts, Lebanon feels it first
Riyadh and Abu Dhabi rarely announce a change of course. Beirut learns of it through its banks, its ports and its politics.
TopicAnalysis · DiplomacyRead3 min
The gap between what is promised and what is delivered
The gap between what is promised and what is delivered
Every reform conference ends with a communiqué. The test is what happens in the eighteen months after, and on that test Lebanon and its partners keep failing together.
TopicOpinion · Reform & GovernanceRead3 min
Reading a vote at the Security Council from Beirut
Reading a vote at the Security Council from Beirut
A resolution is a negotiated text, and its weaker clauses say as much as its strong ones. What the latest vote on the south tells us about who is really committed.
TopicAnalysis · International InstitutionsRead3 min
What a decision in Washington means for a small state across the Mediterranean, and why it arrives here before it arrives anywhere else
What a decision in Washington means for a small state across the Mediterranean, and why it arrives here before it arrives anywhere else
Sanctions designations, aid conditions and envoy appointments are made for other reasons. Their first real-world test is often in Lebanon.
TopicAnalysis · Economy & Sanctions · Great-Power PoliticsRead3 min
Europe should stop treating Lebanon as a migration file
Europe should stop treating Lebanon as a migration file
Brussels speaks to Beirut almost only about borders and boats. A partnership built on one anxiety will not survive the next crisis.
TopicDiplomacy · OpinionRead3 min
Ceasefires that hold and ceasefires that don’t
Ceasefires that hold and ceasefires that don’t
The difference is rarely in the text. It lies in who monitors, who pays when a line is crossed, and whether either side believes the other has more to lose…
TopicAnalysis · Conflict & CeasefiresRead3 min
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Ziad S. Mikati
More than twenty years in public policy. Since 2011, international affairs advisor to H.E. Najib Mikati, including during his terms as Prime Minister of Lebanon. Before that, international agencies in Beirut and New York.
Longer pieces on how decisions are made and what they mean.
Shorter arguments on what should be done.