Monday, July 8 2024, 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM EDT - Online
ATFL-MEI Policy Brief Launch Event: Securing Lebanon to Prevent a Larger Hezbollah-Israel War and Wider Escalation
note: this event is included on the calendar for educational purposes and will likely not be centering justice for Palestine
As tensions between Israel and Hezbollah escalate, the specter of full-scale war with the potential to draw in the United States and Iran demands Washington’s immediate attention. Yet while the US actively tries to prevent Lebanon from becoming a theater of regional war, a durable solution to the crisis will additionally need to address not only Iran’s entrenched influence and destabilizing role inside Lebanon and across the region but also the Levantine country’s governance vacuum.
The latest policy brief written by a group of experts from the Middle East Institute (MEI) and the American Task Force on Lebanon (ATFL) proposes a framework for robust diplomacy designed, first and foremost, to steer Lebanon away from the precipice of war, and then help establish a direct and sustainable path to stability and recovery.
To launch this important policy document, MEI and ATFL are co-hosting a panel of experts who will discuss the key elements of the brief’s framework, including the pressing need to secure Lebanon by stabilizing the Lebanese-Israeli land border, addressing Lebanon’s leadership vacuum, as well as reviving its economy. Additionally, the assembled panelists will outline what an optimal multi-faceted US strategy and policy toward Lebanon and the region should look like.
To read the full report, please click here
Speakers:
Paul Salem
Vice President for International Engagement, Middle East Institute
Amb. Ed Gabriel
President and CEO, American Task Force on Lebanon
Former US Ambassador to Morocco
Patricia Karam
Senior Advisor, American Task Force on Lebanon
Fadi Nicholas Nassar
US-Lebanon Fellow, Middle East Institute
Amb. David Hale
Global Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Center
Former US Ambassador to Lebanon