7th May 2013
Beirut, Lebanon
I was asked to speak at the Issam Fares Centre tonight on how Lebanon can best manage contagion from the growing crisis next door in Syria. Thanks as ever for the input via Twitter. Lebanon faces no more pressing question. We won’t have the luxury of addressing other issues – the potential gas bonanza, Leb2020, the […]
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23rd April 2013
Beirut, Lebanon
I spoke this week at a conference on Lebanon’s gas sector. Interest in the subject is rightly high. This could be one of the largest gas finds anywhere in the world in the last decade. It could pave the way to a Lebanese renaissance – to Beirutopia. It could be the basis for a gas peace dividend in […]
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13th April 2013
Beirut, Lebanon
As a Brit in the Levant, you can never go far without being reminded of history, and our role in it. At this week’s Lebanese Army conference, the moderator spoke of ‘the British habit of interventions in the Middle East’. I countered that this was a relatively recent phenomenon – others had been at it […]
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18th March 2013
Beirut, Lebanon
Last Friday, I was lucky to attend the launch of the National Charter for Education on Living Together in Lebanon, which provides pupils with the knowledge and attitudes needed to live together in a diverse society. It was the first public milestone in the work that the Education Ministry, the Council for Educational Research and […]
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15th March 2013
Beirut, Lebanon
Guest blog from British Ambassador to Turkey, David Reddaway, marking the second anniversary of the Syrian Uprising: The two years of crisis and human tragedy in Syria since the uprising, shaped by the Assad regime’s decision to respond to the Syrian people’s demand for democratic rights by repression rather than reform, have had a huge […]
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15th March 2013
Beirut, Lebanon
Today marks the second anniversary of the Syrian uprising. Lebanon now hosts almost 400,000 registered Syrian refugees, but the real number of Syrians here is over 1m. Imagine the impact of 15m refugees in the UK. Lebanon, lashed to Syria by history and geography, has responded with extraordinary generosity. With camps avoided for political reasons, […]
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1st March 2013
Beirut, Lebanon
Yesterday was our ‘Education, Education, Education’ Day. I met the prizewinners of our competition for English teachers, including an inspirational administrator from Nahr el Bared Palestinian refugee camp, whose winning lesson plan was based on fish and chips. She is helping even those living in extreme desperation to enjoy and unlock English. But the day […]
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25th February 2013
Beirut, Lebanon
Earlier this month I posted some futuristic thoughts on what Lebanon could be in 2020. Much more interesting than the speculation in the post was the response. The almost 300 comments so far give a good sense of current debate in Lebanon: idealism, cynicism, fatalism, frustration. Some seek to apportion blame, many to identify practical […]
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8th February 2013
Beirut, Lebanon
Diplomats hate making predictions. Churchill once said that you could ignore every other page of Foreign Office advice, because it tended to be in the form of ‘on the one hand’ and ‘on the other hand’. The files are full of pre-election telegrams that hedge their bets. There are good reasons for this. We don’t […]
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10th January 2013
Beirut, Lebanon
This week I was asked to speak at USEK, on ‘How Does Lebanon Succeed in the 21st Century?”. Tough audience, tough subject. Especially on the first day back, and after a night of epic storms (during which my sons had taken it in turns to wake me to tell me how frightened they were). In […]
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