We warmly recommend the upcoming VIDC event “Lebanon – on the brink of War”.

 

Time and location
Monday, 12 March 2018, 19:00 – 21:00
Central Library Vienna – Am Gürtel, Urban-Loritz-Platz 2a, 1070 Vienna

 

Program

Ghida Anani
founder of the feminist NGO Abaad, Beirut

 

Nikolas Kosmatopoulos 
American University Beirut

 

Chair
Helmut Krieger
Department of Development Studies at the University of Vienna/VIDC

Welcome: Magda Seewald, VIDC

Languages: English and German with simultaneous interpretation

 

Registration: seewald@vidc.org

 

Background
While the war in Syria has disappeared from the headlines in Western media, its effects in Lebanon are omnipresent. With more than 1.5 million refugees from Syria and a major social, political and economic crisis, Lebanon has long been part of the conflict and war zones in the Arab world. In the face of this flight, social and social struggles in the country are exacerbated. They form part of what a comprehensive crisis in Lebanon means.At the political level, Saudi Arabia’s pressure on Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri at the end of last year was so great that he had to resign. Although Hariri is now back in office, this episode illustrates how unstable the political system in the country still is. Linked to this is the direct military involvement of the Lebanese Hezbollah in the war in Syria as an ally of the regime and its political weight in Lebanon. This has led to increased speculation in Israeli media over the recent months of an upcoming war Israel’s against Lebanon.At the same time, in the course of recent years, a diverse social movement in Lebanon has impressively demonstrated that political, social and economic crisis developments are not simply accepted. In view of these developments, what can mean social and political engagement in Lebanon under today’s conditions? How can the different lines of conflict be interpreted from a feminist perspective? In what ways are future military escalations inevitable?

 

For more info visit here.