Changes in Lebanon’s leadership and Hezbollah’s weakened position following the war with Israel appear to have created an opportunity to shift the country’s internal balance of power through extensive aid to revive its economy and strengthen its sovereignty. Beyond the challenges posed by Lebanon’s deep systemic economic crisis, the main concern is that aid could also benefit Hezbollah, which is firmly embedded in Lebanon’s deep state and its security and civil institutions. The main conclusion of this article is that Lebanon...
A year and a half after the fall of the Assad regime, Syria faces a profound paradox. On the external front, the government led by Ahmed al-Sharaa has recorded significant diplomatic achievements: growing regional and international recognition and a wave of investment pledges from the Gulf states, Turkey, the United States, and Europe. On the domestic front, however, the picture is far more troubling: Syria faces ethnic tensions, security threats, ideological divisions, and a severe economic crisis that is becoming a central source...
A significant part of Hezbollah’s resilience rests on a global money-transfer network embedded within the Lebanese diaspora and in informal remittance systems, as well as on a wide range of illicit revenue streams developed over decades. Therefore, military strikes alone—without an international financial strategy focused on the organization’s financial network—are unlikely to significantly undermine its long-term financing capabilities or its capacity for recovery derived from them. To impair Hezbollah’s financing system, a broader...
