Contributors


Alberto M. Fernandez
A Peacemaker Visits a Land of Perpetual War

Pope Leo XIV’s expected visit to Lebanon later this month comes at a moment of peril for the country. Lebanon’s most recent war, launched by Hezbollah on October 8, 2023, has barely ended, with Israel threatening to renew the conflict at any moment should Hezbollah not disarm. The Lebanese government has pledged to assert state power and ...


Seth J. Frantzman
Sharaa in Washington: A Turning Point for Syria

Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa visited the White House on Monday for a historic meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump that capped a year in which Damascus has rapidly come in from the cold and reintegrated into the international community. Sharaa has helped steer Syria through this complex path, beginning with pushing the Assad regime out of ...


Amal Chmouny
Lebanon’s Last Chance: Disarm Hezbollah or Risk Collapse

Lebanon’s long‑simmering debate over Hezbollah’s disarmament has sharpened into a defining confrontation between state sovereignty and a foreign‑backed militia. In Washington, the issue is becoming the centerpiece of US regional policy. For President Trump’s administration, Hezbollah’s disarmament is not merely a security objective but ...


Johnny Kortbawi
Palestinian Weapons Test Lebanon’s Credibility on Disarmament and Security

The killing of Elio Abu Hanna by Palestinian gunmen in Beirut’s Shatila refugee camp this past weekend is not just another crime. His murder is a serious test for a Lebanese government dragging its feet on its commitment to disarm Hezbollah and other militias. There is no reason the Shatila refugee camp should remain off-limits to the ...


Charles Chartouni
Mamdani: Debunking the Fallacies of an Islamist Demagogue

The New York elections attest to the ubiquitousness of domestic political events in a globalized era and more specifically in New York City, which recapitulates the promises, illusions, and contradictions of the global era. The overlapping variables of the urban order and its economic, social, cultural, and religious factors coalesce to define the ...


David Sahyoun
Benching: Keeping the Other on Hold

In the new digital dictionary, we are learning to decode, “to bench” means keeping someone on the sidelines, like a player who is sent neither off the field nor fully into the game, but kept warmed up, available, and waiting. Benching is not the radical severing of connection seen in ghosting, nor the deliberate freezing of icing. It belongs ...


Bassam Abou Zeid
The World Tired of Lebanon’s Stalling: A Possible Return to Syrian Influence?

The Lebanese file no longer provides meaningful political leverage for the countries involved. Neither U.S. President Donald Trump nor French President Emmanuel Macron has been able to exert decisive influence. A Western diplomatic source described the situation as exhausting and frustrating, noting that Lebanese officials often tell foreign ...


Ali A. Hamadé
Prince Andrew: The Monarchy’s Lasting Burden

On Friday evening, Prince Andrew, long embroiled in scandal, announced he would relinquish all his royal titles and honors under pressure from his brother, King Charles III, and heir apparent Prince William. Accused of sexual abuse dating back to 2001, involving a 17-year-old and linked to his controversial friendship with billionaire Jeffrey ...


Badih Karhani
Syrian Prisoners and Islamist Detainees in Lebanon: A Ticking Time Bomb

The issue of Syrian prisoners in Lebanon has resurfaced, alongside that of Islamist detainees, many of whom have been held for years without trial or clear charges. This tragic reality highlights a blatant pattern of ongoing political and judicial injustice, where hundreds of individuals are denied their most basic legal and human rights under ...


Tara B. Moussallem
Joseph Aoun’s Courageous Stand: A Historic Turning Point for Lebanon’s Sovereignty

Yesterday, an exceptional Cabinet session was held at the Baabda Presidential Palace, lasting nearly six hours and marking a major political turning point in Lebanon’s modern history. Under the presidency of the Head of State, General Joseph Aoun, the government adopted a bold and unprecedented decision: to set a deadline for the disarmament ...


Khalil Sehnaoui
The Great IT Blackout: How a CrowdStrike Update Paralyzed the World

  Last Friday morning, the world was hit by one of the most significant IT blackouts in history. Thousands of Windows machines failed to boot up or reboot, disrupting banks, airlines, TV broadcasters, healthcare companies, major retailers, and numerous other businesses globally. While the cause of the outage is known and efforts to restore ...


Amine Jules Iskandar
Kill the Woman

At the root of society lies the family, and at the root of the family lies the woman. Society is built on this basic unit, the household, which provides security and solidarity, shapes values and transmits heritage. This nucleus of social cohesion, for all humanity, is precisely what liberal and globalist ideologies have been targeting. To turn ...


Roger Merheb
Hezbollah: Denial and Manipulation!

One might think that Hezbollah has a short memory. But no. It resorts to manipulation and counts on the very short memory of certain Lebanese who still see it as a protective shield because they do not want to – or dare not – face reality. They refuse to admit that if part of Lebanon is destroyed and if the Israeli army is present in certain ...