Rather than viewing Lebanon (not to mention Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan) as sectarian conflicts, it is arguably more realistic to view the instability as a competition between feudalism and modernity, but with some twists that Americans may have a hard time digesting. By “feudal,” I mean a political system that remains under the control of traditional oligarchical families who effectively inherit power. They are no less feudal for having replaced war horses with Mercedes. The feudal forces, albeit with a modern capitalist veneer, are supported by the U.S.

On the other side are the modernizers, but modernizers with an Islamic twist: it is arguably the case that the main road to political modernization in the Mideast is not the Western road of middle class democratization and civil rights but the road of what we might call “sectarian nationalism.” In the case of Lebanon, it may be Shi’ite nationalism that will offer the successful alternative to continued control by traditional oligarchies. It is, after all, Hizbollah, that has the most modern political party in the country (i.e., a party structured bureaucratically and pursuing a platform rather than structured under a family and run for that family’s benefit). I explored this idea a bit further in a recent post at shadowedforest.blogspot.com.

Comments from all you Lebanon bloggers in English ou en francais would be much appreciated.