Photo: Stephan Rebernik/flickr.com

Lebanon

The Syrian civil war has displaced more than one million Syrians as refugees to Lebanon. We study the country’s handling of the refugee crisis and the new security challenges caused by the Syrian civil war.

Robert Forster

Doctoral Researcher

Are John Knudsen

Research Professor

Threat of destabilisation

The many terrorist attacks in Beirut, popular protests and campaigns against the government (#youstink), underline the general situation of state failure and threat of destabilisation.

Our research on Lebanon focus on old and new refugee crises and how they intersect. New research also targets secondary migration from Lebanon towards Europe. The refugee crisis has deepened internal divisions present since 2005 and led to a general paralysis in government. We study the Lebanese Army’s role in containing the deteriorating security situation, as well as how post-civil war violence, political violence and urban conflict affect a deeply-divided society. Future gas and oil exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean can boost state revenues, but also fuel conflict and corruption.