Syria and Lebanon: International Relations and Diplomacy in the Middle East

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The so-called 'Cedar Revolution' in Lebanon, triggered by the assassination of the former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in February 2005, brought to an end three decades of Syrian military presence in the country. Here, Taku Osoegawa challenges the commonly-held claim that Lebanon and its leaders were simple puppets of the Syrian regime during the thirty years characterised as Lebanon under Syrian hegemony. Furthermore, by examining Lebanon's relations with Syria from the establishment of the Asad regime to the current violence in Syria, Osoegawa concludes that the Lebanese government has had its own reasons for aligning with Syria. As the Lebanese-Syrian relationship has had an enormous impact on the international relations of the Middle East, this book is essential reading for those interested in the contemporary regional dynamics.

Reviews

'This book is a model of the effective use of IR theory to understand the great complexity of international politics in the Middle East. Taku Osoegawa provides a meticulous and rich narrative of the development of Lebanon-Syria relations over time, exposing their multi-dimensional complexity. Important also is his focus on actors in Lebanon, a state which, never having approximated the unitary rational actor model, exemplifies the increasing permeability and fragmentation of states in the region. While Lebanon might once have been the exception, in the post-Uprising Middle East, it may become increasingly the norm, making the theoretical tools developed in this book transferable to analyses of Lebanon's neighbours, not least to Syria and Iraq.' - Raymond Hinnebusch, Professor of International Relations, University of St Andrews 'Take Osoegawa has produced a most interesting study of a subject which forms the very heart of politics in the Middle East, and yet is so often overlooked by the policy community. Theoretically rich, the book usefully catalogues the growth of Syrian influence in Lebanon since the 1970s, and if read carefully can also provide a framework for trying to understand the implications for Lebanon of the unravelling of the Syrian state since the 2011 uprising. This book provides a commendable study of a subject that analysts instinctively know about but do not necessarily follow in detail.' - Anoush Ehteshami, Professor of International Relations, School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University

Author Bio

Taku Osoegawa is Research Associate at the Japan Center for Middle Eastern Studies (Beirut), which is part of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of St Andrews.