Lebanon is sliding into "failed state" status. The country has been limping along with a weak interim executive while the presidency has been vacant for over six months. A full restoration of the country's leading governance institutions is needed as a first step to implement the long-awaited economic and fiscal reforms required to fulfill an International Monetary Fund bailout of $3 billion. Given the negative experience of the government under former Lebanese President Michel Aoun, the new prime minister and cabinet must be fully empowered. At the expense of their compatriots, Lebanon's rapacious political class and the beneficiaries of the country's corrosive sectarian division-of-spoils system will do their utmost to maintain their privileged status.
Authors
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- The author would like to thank Adam Lammon for editing and Rachel Slattery for layout.
- Published in
- United States of America
