The Prospects for Peace in the Middle East
The 34-day Lebanese-Israeli conflict in the summer of 2006 claimed over 1,000 lives and caused the displacement of more than one million people on both sides of the border. What were the causes of the war? Was it connected to Iran's ambitions, the U.S. war in Iraq, Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, or another cause? What do we make of how it was fought? What have been its consequences? In Lebanon, how did the war and the subsequent U.N. peacekeeping operation impact Hezbollah and its political standing among average Lebanese? What is the fallout for the Israeli government? What are the prospects for regional stability? Was this war just one of many in the Middle East, or does it suggest a different and perhaps darker future for the region?
University of Minnesota professor Michael Barnett discussed these and other questions in the October 2006 presentation, archived here as an mp3.