Samir Atallah

Fouad Boutros was among the most brilliant foreign ministers Lebanon ever knew. Yet President Suleiman Frangieh would constantly mock his gloomy demeanor and perennial pessimism, calling him an owl that never stopped hooting bad omens. The difference between the two men was that the first was…

Some wars are known by a number, not a name, because people hoped for their swift end. Such as the Thirty Years' War and the Hundred Years' War. The war we are in has now exceeded a hundred days, and it is no longer appropriate to call it by the common number. Donald Trump had announced some time…

The simplified mind tends to attribute more power to the United States than it actually possesses. What is striking about this global phenomenon is that it sees only the negative side of American power. In this view, the United States fails to find solutions, yet somehow always succeeds in plotting…

The war and the ceasefire in South Lebanon are different. The former is less violent: less combat, less occupation of villages, less destruction of cities, fewer massacres, less displacement of children and women. The war is less deceitful and less vile than the ceasefire; it leaves fewer victims…

Nations usually commemorate moments of triumph and honor. That is why every country celebrates its Independence Day or National Day. Russians commemorate the heroism of Leningrad and Stalingrad and victory over Nazi Germany. Italians celebrate unification. Americans celebrate independence from…

For a long time, Lebanon was accused of being the pampered country in the midst of an Arab world defined by struggle and sacrifice. At best, it was treated as a nation of questionable belonging and suspect intentions. It therefore had to be stripped of its Arab identity, its rights, and its…

Each time a new Secretary-General of the Arab League is due to be appointed, the issue is framed as one of a person rather than an institution. The incoming or outgoing Secretary-General is typically a figure of broad competence and experience, drawn from a distinguished diplomatic background and…

With Kuwait’s emergence as an independent state in 1966, three pioneering forces emerged whose ambitions exceeded the resources at hand. The first was an emerging, highly ambitious press, working with rudimentary presses yet driven by diverse professional voices and experience. At the same time…

In 1958, as he proclaimed the union of Egypt and Syria, Gamal Abdel Nasser declared that Syria was the beating heart of Arabism. At that moment, Syria, the union, and Arabism itself were closer than ever to that truth. What followed has been told and retold, and explained in countless ways. …

Across the world, an unprecedented, and almost inexplicable, phenomenon is spreading: a language of violence and recklessness, especially in countries that pride themselves on “refinement” and the “rule of law.” This loss of restraint has reached astonishing levels, in both conservative and liberal…