middle45Habib C. Malik (PhD)
(Associate Professor of History at the Lebanese American University (Byblos campus).

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 24 April 2016

As the Middle East continues to unravel along ethno-sectarian and tribal lines creative federal solutions for the resulting mess have come increasingly under consideration. The primordial communal aggregates of the heterogeneous region have resurfaced with a vengeance necessitating new formulations for future peaceful coexistence among them after the dust has settled. As a consequence, this might signify that the heyday of the unitary state structure as it has prevailed over decades in places like Syria and Iraq under the Baath is now behind us. Logically, federal arrangements applied to composite societies offer optimal chances for accommodating diversity within a unified state entity, while simultaneously safeguarding the distinctiveness and autonomy of the various communal components constituting the existing pluralism. Some of the most successful countries around the world happen to be federally structured: Switzerland, Canada, the United States, Germany, others...Read more

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