The Politics of Sectarianism in Postwar Lebanon

Abstract

THE POLITICS OF SECTARIANISM IN POSTWAR LEBANON Bassel F. Salloukh, Rabie Barakat, Jinan S. Al-Habbal, Lara W. Khattab, and Shoghig Mikaelian London: Pluto Press, 2015 (viii+240 pages, notes, index, and charts) $30.00 (paper)Reviewed by Maya MikdashiThe Politics of Sectarianism in Postwar Lebanon is a welcome and critical addition to the growing field of Lebanon studies. This edited volume offers us a detailed view into the ways that sectarianism operates in different arenas of Lebanese politics-contributing both new research and insight to the larger field. The authors-Bassel F. Salloukh, Rabie Barakat, Jinan S. Al-Habbal, Lara W. Khattab, and Shoghig Mikaelian-focus not only on state institutions and histories of political sectarianism, but also, in a Gramscian vein, on the manifestation of sectarian politics within Lebanon's civil society, political parties, political economy, and media industries.The book has a clear political purpose, stated in the preface: "The critical reflections we undertake here on the myriad operations of the sectarian system are meant to unmask its ensemble of practices in the hope of opening up possibilities to fight them and ultimately to transcend sectarianism altogether" (viii). While many academics view their work as inextricably bound to political conditions and commitments, this statement sets the authors apart from most in that they wear their politics on their sleeves. This is a book written to be in service of political action, and its tone is open to multiple readerships both in the academy and outside of it. The readership is assumed, however, to have a background knowledge of the contemporary history of Lebanon and a shared will to rethink and resist sectarian politics in Lebanon. In service of this larger goal, the authors offer a detailed and insightful analysis into how state and nonstate institutions function together to buttress and reproduce the politics of sectarianism. They also offer an assessment of recent activist campaigns to fight and amend that system, including campaigns for civil marriage, electoral transparency, and LGBTQ rights.The authors do not elaborate a definition of sectarian politics or submit an argument about its origins or legacies. They instead concentrate on the operations of sectarianism. Put in another way, they do not ask what sectarian politics are but rather focus on and illustrate what sectarian politics do. Crucially and refreshingly, the authors treat political sectarianism-the system of power sharing that defines the Lebanese state-as one manifestation of sectarian politics more broadly, not its defining characteristic. This approach departs from influential work on Lebanon by Fawwaz Traboulsi, Kamal Salibi, and Theodor Hanf, among others, that has often concentrated on political sectarianism as the main manifestation of sectarian politics. In The Politics of Sectarianism, essays on the state and its institutions exist alongside chapters on associational life and Lebanese mass media. The first three chapters largely explain the scope of the book and outline the structural and bureaucratic operations of sectarian politics within the Lebanese state, as well as offer a history of post-civil war sectarian politics and resistance to sectarian politics. The following chapters highlight different aspects of sectarian politics in Lebanon. Finally, the book concludes with a reading of the history of Hizballah that is refracted through fluctuations in sectarian politics in Lebanon and in the region.The ambitious scope of The Politics of Sectarianism is inspiring. The meatiest chapters in the book focus on the history of elections in Lebanon since 1990 (chapter six), the history of the armed forces since 1990 (chapter seven), and the intersections between neoliberal sectarianism and associational life and activist movements (chapter five). The sheer volume, organization, and presentation of legal, economic, bureaucratic, and electoral research will be of great benefit to the fields of political science and military and contem- porary history, as well as studies of the state, of civil war, of sectarianism, and of civil society. …