Abstract:

In response to the spread of Islamic extremism and the Christian exodus in most of the Middle East, many Christians of Lebanon are opting for an isolationist, religious-nationalist policy, aiming at internal self-determination and national domination. By doing so, they not only accept a further national disintegration of Lebanon’s society but also prevent essential democratic reforms. Following Georg Jellinek’s three elements theory of the state, the paper analyses Lebanese Christian Nationalism in terms of its territorial, population, and state power dimensions.

Short biography:

Maximilian Felsch is Associate Professor and head of the Political Science Department at Haigazian University in Beirut. He graduated in Political Science at the Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, followed by a PhD program at the Graduate School of Politics in Münster. Awarded two doctoral fellowships by the Orient-Institut Beirut (OIB) and the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation (FES), he received his PhD in 2011. Felsch is an author of various book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles on the Middle East and is a member of the International Studies Association (ISA) and the German Middle East Studies Association for Contemporary Research and Documentation (DAVO).

His research is focused on the international relations of the Middle East and the role of religion in Middle Eastern politics.
The presentation is based on his latest publication Lebanon and the Arab Uprisings: In the Eye of the Hurricane (Routledge, 2016) and is co-edited with Martin Wählisch. The volume analyses the various impacts of the Arab Uprisings on Lebanon’s stability, economy, and foreign relations.

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