Lebanon’s border areas in light of the Syrian war : new actors, old marginalisation

Abstract

This paper unpacks how governance operates in Lebanon’s border areas. It argues that, historically, a deliberate policy of marginalisation and insecurity towards these areas has been adopted by the Lebanese state. In light of the Syrian war, the paper shows that the advent of new international and national actors in these areas (to protect the borders or to support the refugees), has further contributed to the reproduction or even the exacerbation of their precarity and marginalisation.