Antoine Douaihy

On that bitterly cold day in the winter of 2022, Vladimir Putin launched his swift, sweeping offensive against Ukraine, hoping for its surrender within days. My almost certain impression at the time was that if the assault had targeted one of the major Western European nations instead of Ukraine,…

To understand the intellectual and emotional turmoil sweeping the Middle East during this highly volatile period, one need look no further than Lebanon. This state of affairs is driven by two primary factors: first, the country's diverse landscape of distinct groups with deeply contrasting views…

It takes insight, a cool head, and a clear vision to penetrate Lebanon's obscurity. The Iranian axis in Lebanon increasingly borrows from the narrative Lebanese national project to describe itself despite the sharp contradiction between their positions, invoking slogans such as "sovereignty…

It must be acknowledged, and regrettably so, that the Land of Cedars is far from well. There is no benefit in obscuring this truth; it is better to view it calmly and realistically. It must also be acknowledged that the near-miraculous retreat of Syrian-Assadist hegemony from Lebanon in 2005,…

Anyone familiar with the Lebanese question understood that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the “party of the axis” in Lebanon would both reject the latest Lebanese-Israeli-American joint statement and describe it in the ugliest terms. Behind the thick dust that has enveloped Lebanon…

Western democracy is not an ideal political system. As the famous phrase of the French thinker Raymond Aron put it, it is “the least bad” bad. Still, another question must be asked as the American administration and the Iranian leadership talk past each other in their negotiations to end the war:…

The current state of affairs in Lebanon is sad and deeply alarming. A dense cloud obscures the reality of profound and sharp divisions amid a chasm that seems impossible to bridge. Two fundamental and irreconcilable views are pulling against one another with great intensity. As for the advocates of…

Like much of the Arab region, Lebanon is currently facing grave dangers. For many years, it has been living with the consequences of a conflict waged from its own territory between the “party of the Iranian axis” based within it and its opponents, entirely separate from the state of “Greater…