F. Allgemeines Diskriminierungsverbot

Examining Lebanon's Resilience Through a Water-Energy-Food Nexus Lens

“…In addition to collecting literature relating to Lebanon's water, energy, and food, the authors mapped the underlying political and economic factors that were either identified in the literature or identified by the authors as longstanding challenges to WEF Nexus management in Lebanon. Lebanon's unique confessional system of government has been highlighted in much of the academic literature on political factors in Lebanon (Bieber, 2000;Bordenkircher, 2020;Ramadan, 2020). By reviewing literature on the political system and the literature gathered from the WEF Nexus review of Lebanon, the authors identified additional themes, including reliance on external actors, corruption, and mismanagement.…”

“…Lebanon's political structure is one such underlying factor: the confessional system requires the president, prime minister, and speaker of the parliament to be a Maronite Christian, Sunni, and Shi'a, respectively. An early attempt to strengthen national identity after the 1958 civil war failed because it was not backed by political reforms to address changing demographics and the balance of power between the confessions (Bieber, 2000). Although there were national dialogues during the 1975 Civil War, these did not establish permanent inter-confessional discussion platforms (Wählisch, 2017).…”

“…Although there were national dialogues during the 1975 Civil War, these did not establish permanent inter-confessional discussion platforms (Wählisch, 2017). While national dialogues resumed in 2006, and have occurred more frequently since then, demographic and confessional identities are far stronger than the national identity, hindering political cohesion at all levels of government (Bieber, 2000;Wählisch, 2017).…”

“…Although this arrangement sometimes fosters cooperation, it often weakens the legitimacy of politicians in the eyes of their constituencies. Because of this, the coalitions that form between parties are often the result of individual agreements between leading politicians rather than representative of broader political cooperation (Bieber, 2000).…”

“…Even during times when Lebanon has experienced economic growth, misrepresentative political elites, religious fragmentation, and classism have ensured that the economic benefits are not evenly distributed (Bieber, 2000). The central bank of Lebanon (BdL) has also played a significant role in bringing about Lebanon's economic situation.…”