Neutrality coupled with decentralization as a strategy to counter instability and intervention : the case of Switzerland and its applicability to Lebanon -

Abstract

This paper addresses neutrality coupled with decentralization as a strategy to counter instability and intervention for the case of Switzerland and its applicability to Lebanon. Switzerland is ethnically, religiously and linguistically diverse and it has in the past experienced internal strife, civil and regional war and foreign occupation. In the context of it being a confederation earlier on in its history and then finally a “loose” federation in recent centuries, Switzerland strove to implement neutrality as a strategy against instability and intervention. This coupling of neutrality with a decentralized structure enabled it to stay unified, stable and indeed prosper despite the surrounding conflicts including two world wars in the last century. In many respects Lebanon resembles historical Switzerland in terms of its internal diversity, its geographic size and location within a tense and turbulent geo-political system. Lebanon, a highly penetrated and religiously and politically fragmented country, has been, apart from intermittent periods of relative calm, in a state of ongoing instability and insecurity since its establishment in 1920. Over the course of almost 100 years Pacts, Agreements and their modifications, within the context of a centralized consociational, or more specifically confessional, political system have failed to achieve the desired result of enduring stability and security. Given these ongoing failures, a proposed solution for Lebanon to achieve internal stability and security and to minimize regional and international intervention is neutrality coupled with decentralization with the case of Switzerland providing a supporting argument. Though neutrality and decentralization have been previously addressed and recommended as solutions independent of each other, what is new here is the argument that for Lebanon as an internally divided country within the context of a turbulent and polarized geo-political environment, success in achieving stability and security is best achieved