War and Memory in Lebanon

War and state formation in Lebanon: can Tilly be applied to the developing world?

“…24 The internal dynamics at the beginning of the Civil War led many of the militias to consolidate and professionalise within the first year. 25 Similar to the environment described by Tilly, consolidation and professionalization of the militias provided the structure necessary to concentrate the use of force over a given territory and population. unprecedented level of disorder, and they lacked the political finesse of the pre-civil war feudal system, including its established social network.…”

The living archive of war in Rabih Mroué's Make Me Stop Smoking

“…Indeed, claims Sune Haugbolle (2010), not only has the Lebanese state discouraged memorialization after the war ended, but it 'promoted a culture of letting bygones be bygones ' (p. 4). Even in contemporary Lebanese literature, as Jalal Toufic (2002) points out, there are no ghost stories.…”

“…In other words, the reasons for the war became externalized. 'The war of the others' is a common expression in Lebanon, a term that stems, explains Haugbolle (2010), from Ghassan Tueni's popular 1985 book, Une Guerre Pour Les Autres. There, Tueni explores the influence of foreign interference and intervention by Palestine, Israel, Syria, and the US, but he also analyses Lebanese complicity with their interests.…”

“…Arguably, when the civil war broke out the differences among the sects surfaced over the plight of Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon; generally, Muslims and the communist party were empathetic and the Christians were not. Memories pertaining to these tensions, argues Haugbolle (2010), are not only painful, they are also potentially politically disruptive. This is true especially in a context where the undercurrents of sectarianism continued to surface quietly and then eventually wreaked havoc in 2005 with Hariri's assassination.…”

Collective memory and management of the past: the entrepreneurs of civil war memory in post‐war Lebanon

“…The way the war was classified was important for memory and was approached from the perspective of political and moral responsibility. The narrative that had portrayed the war as driven by “others” had put the accent on its regional and international dynamics and relieved Lebanese society and its elites of the burden of responsibility (Haugbolle ). This narrative was set aside in favour of an approach focusing on the internal dynamics of the war, driven by the political, religious, and social factors in the conflict.…”