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Professor Marius Deeb School of Advanced International Studies John Hopkins University Institute of World Politics Washington DC Thursday, January 5, 2012

The final panelist, Dr. Marius Deeb the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, made the panel's closing remarks. He commented that the current "Arab Spring" started in Lebanon, and that resolution 1559 empowered the Lebanese to start it. However, he lamented that the Cedar Revolution was incomplete because the disarmament of militias hasn't happened. He discussed three previous revolutions that had impacted Lebanon. The first was the nationalist wave of Baathist revolutions, the second was the Palestinian revolution, and the third was the Iranian revolution. He contrasted the Iranian revolution with the Cedar revolution and the Arab Spring, describing the first as authoritarian and anti-democratic. Iran fears what has happened in Lebanon and Iran's actions in the region seem like a kind of counter-revolution for the Arab Spring, he said. Deeb finished by emphasizing the importance of Lebanon for the region as a "trendsetter," and discussed its role as a model for divided countries.