State Failure in the Middle East: Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen

The collapse of the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria begs the question as to why that country so lacked institutional and organized capacity that the Syrian state melted away. In neighbouring Lebanon, the state has been absent in any meaningful sense for much of the country’s independent history, while powerful sectarian interest groups dominate governance and maintain their own armed options. In Iraq, the state has collapsed twice since the US-led invasion of 2003 and is currently existi...