From Professional to Political: The Redecline of the Lebanese Army

Abstract

For all its weaknesses and travails, the Lebanese Army did not fall victim to the disease of politicization in support of a specific personality until after the failed American intervention of 1982-1984. When for the first time the army developed a limited combat capability and orientation, instead it entered into the political arena. The result replicates the experience of politicization in other regional armies: decline of combat capabilities, new forms of fragmentation, and widespread demoralization.