Despite a NATO military strike against Syria remaining, for now, an uncertainty — as to whether it will occur, when it might take place, and the scope of its reach — what is clear is that Lebanon is living to the beat of its own war drum. Everything in Beirut lies frozen in time, as everyone awaits a strike. Traffic is at a standstill, as is the economy, the security situation, and especially the political atmosphere, in a country having to deal with these chronic problems while at the same time bracing for a strike’s potential repercussions on a number of level.
First are the economic and social levels. These have historically been closely tied between Lebanon and Syria, because the two countries’ economies have always been conjoined to the point of almost being one and the same in the transport, trade, tourism, agriculture, construction, industry and other sectors. This has been the case since they were a single entity under France’s mandate to the time when they maintained “common customs interests” after their independence and even after they did away with their apparently inherited economic union in the mid-1950s.
