Conflict and compromise in the Middle East

by Tim Shenk

Hanna Ziadeh studies politics and history in Lebanon and Iraq. / Nicole Schilit

Hanna Ziadeh, a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Human Rights, discussed his research topic, “The Trail of Blood: The search for an intercommunal national system in Lebanon and Iraq,” in an Oct. 28 presentation at the School of International and Public Affairs.

Ziadeh’s work stems in part from the experience of sectarian violence in his native Lebanon. His 2006 political history, Sectarianism and Intercommunal Nation-Building in Lebanon, was one of the highest-selling books in Lebanon and predicted the reemergence of intercommunal conflicts.

Ziadeh argues that power-sharing among different ethnic and religious groups — a principle enshrined in Lebanon’s constitution — is the best political arrangement to achieve peace in countries such as Lebanon and Iraq.

“I believe that communal affiliations … are the building blocks of nation-states,” Ziadeh says.

Political affiliations on the basis of religion, ethnicity and language have become more important during modern Middle Eastern history, Ziadeh argues. Nationalist leaders who claim to represent their whole country, such as President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, in fact heavily favor their own ethnic or religious groups, Ziadeh says. Attempting to impose a nationalist ideology on Lebanon or Iraq would create more conflict, he argues.

Ziadeh believes that dialogue and compromise between ethnic and religious communities, such as Shi’a, Sunni and Christians, are crucial to achieving peace in Lebanon and Iraq. Such negotiations ended the Lebanese Civil War in 1989 and provide a template for resolving current tensions. For foreign states to impose solutions on these countries would only further the conflicts, Ziadeh says.

“I think the Lebanese model … is the best model for Lebanon,” he says. “In Lebanon, the best way to go forward is to decrease as much as possible the intervention from outside … and also with Iraq.”

Ziadeh is a Ph.D. candidate at the Danish Institute for Human Rights in Copenhagen. His presentation was sponsored by the Center for the Study of Human Rights and the Middle East Institute.

Published in RightsNews Volume 28, no. 1, February, 2010.
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