This book is an in-depth examination of the policy options available to help overcome the multi-faceted political, economic, and social crisis that continues to engulf Lebanon nearly fifteen years after the conclusion of the Taif agreement in 1989. Though remarkable in ending the cycles of violence that had ravaged this country since 1975, Taif dramatically failed to put Lebanon on the track of state-building. Politics in Lebanon are still dominated by parochial concerns and sectarian interests, neither the successive governments nor most of the opposition groups have been seriously engaged in formulating national policies capable of confronting the new, and often structural, problems of post-war Lebanon. I.B.Tauris in association with the Centre for Lebanese Studies