Is all the News Bad News for Peace?
| Author | Marie-Joëlle Zahar |
| Published date | 01 March 2001 |
| Date | 01 March 2001 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070200105600107 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
MARIE-JOELLE
ZAHAR
Is
all
the
news
bad
news
for
peace?
Economic
agendas
in
the
Lebanese
civil
war
ACADEMIC
AND
POLICY
CIRCLES
have
recently
devoted
much
atten-
tion
to
economic
agendas
in
civil
wars.
Their
findings:
the economic
functions
of
violence
contribute
significantly
to
the
duration
of
civil
wars;
they
also
pose
serious obstacles
to
conflict
resolution.
This
article
takes
another
look
at
the
impact
of
economic
agendas
on
the
attitudes
of
belligerents
to
conflict
resolution.
I
argue
that
the
economic
activi-
ties
of
insurgents
can
become
a
source
of
political
and
military
vulner-
ability
and
thus
contribute to
decisions
to
negotiate
a
peace
settlement.
After
a
brief
methodological
note
on
research
into
economic
agen-
das
in
civil
wars
and
a
review
of
the
main
findings
of
the
literature
on
the subject,
I
challenge
the
prevailing
understanding
of
the
impact
of
economic
agendas
on
the
course
of
civil
wars
and
use
the
example
of
the
Lebanese
Forces,
the
main Christian
militia in the
Lebanese
civil
war
(1975-90),
to
illustrate the
connection
between
economic
agen-
das,
strength,
and
vulnerability.,
Post-Doctoral
Fellow,
Munk
Centre
for
International
Studies,
University
of
Toronto.
The
author
wishes
to
thank
Lynn
Eden
and
Stephen
Brown
for
comments
on
an
earlier
draft
of
this paper
and to
acknowledge the
financial
assistance
of
the
Social
Sciences
and
Humanities
Research
Council
of
Canada.
a
Studies
of
the
Lebanese
Forces
focus
on
ideology,
as,
for
example,
Marie-Christine
Aulas,
'The
socio-ideological
development
of
the
Maronite community:
the
emer-
gence
of
the
Phalanges
and
the
Lebanese
Forces,'
Arab
Studies Quarterly
7(autumn
1985),
1-27;
or
on
organizational
structure
as in Lewis
Snider,
'The
Lebanese
Forces:
wartime
origins
and
political
significance,'
in
Edward
Azar,
et
at,
The
Emergence
of
a
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Winter 2000-2001
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