Publication

Forty years on from the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war, this paper lays out seven lessons that can be taken from this conflict and applied to the conflicts spreading through the Middle East in 2015. These are: 1) conflict causes evolve; 2) beware of conflict rhetoric; 3) conflicts beget conflicts; 4) external forces exacerbate conflict; 5) intervention has its limits; 6) wars have inner clocks; and 7) militia rule must end.