Bassel F. Salloukh is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Lebanese American University (LAU) in Beirut. His latest book is the co-authored 'The Politics of Sectarianism in Postwar Lebanon' (Pluto Press, 2015).
Comment: Chronically neglected, Lebanon's rural areas could hold the key to the country's economic development, but dreary prospects mean young people are making their lives elsewhere, writes Bassel Salloukh.
Comment: Critical historical analysis is the best response to the poisonous conspiracy theories manufactured by the likes of both Bannon and IS, writes Bassel Salloukh.
Comment: For Bannon, 'radical Islam' emerges as a kind of 'default demon', and a Muslim way of life is presented as fundamentally irreconcilable with a Judeo-Christian one, writes Bassel Salloukh.
Comment: The outgoing president encouraged us to take responsibility for our own societal change, instead of looking to the US as if it were a global NGO, writes Bassel Salloukh.
Comment: The dehumanising forces of indifference and sectarianism must force us to start thinking of alternative ways of living together democratically and amicably, writes Bassel Salloukh.
Comment: Set in a psychiatric hospital in Beirut, Rabhani's play is a reminder of how purportedly 'ancient' identities are in fact products of modern political influences, writes Bassel Salloukh.
Comment: Stagnant living standards, evaporating purchasing power and the intensification of the economy's rentier structures - Lebanon's failed economic policies are having a disastrous effect, writes Dr. Bassel F. Salloukh.
Comment: With carbon emissions, property construction and the polarisation of wealth all on the rise, Lebanon showcases some of the worst of the global crisis in capitalism, writes Bassel Salloukh.
Comment: Bassel F. Salloukh asks who speaks for the silent majority of Syrians, and what role have they been scripted in the game of high politics that is destroying Syria.
Comment: For the global South to make progress, it will require an institutionally strong state, with visionary leadership and economic intervention, writes Bassel F. Salloukh.
