Defense and Security, Democracy and Human Rights, Governance, Reform, and State Capacity, Great Powers in the Middle East, Lebanon, Syria
Press inquiries: [email protected]
Fadi Nicholas Nassar is a Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute specializing in US foreign policy, state capacity in fragile states, and the geopolitics of the Levant. His work focuses on how international policy, local politics, and regional power dynamics shape the survival, reform, and recovery of states under crisis.
From 2019 to 2025, he worked on the ground in Lebanon through the country’s financial collapse, the 2020 Beirut Port explosion, and the conflict between Hizballah and Israel. During this period, he directed the Institute for Social Justice and Conflict Resolution and served as assistant professor of political science and international affairs at the Lebanese American University.
Following the Beirut Port explosion, he served on the core team for the World Bank’s Beirut Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA), the primary evidence-based study informing recovery efforts. He has also led research and policy initiatives supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the United Nations Development Programme, UNICEF, and the European Union on governance, institutional reform, and resilience across the Arab world.
He is the author of UN Mediators in Syria: The Challenges and Responsibilities of Conflict Resolution (Cambridge University Press, 2024). His work on US strategy and Middle Eastern politics has appeared in academic journals and international outlets in English, Arabic, French, and Spanish.
Dr. Nassar holds a PhD from King’s College London (War Studies), an MPA from Columbia University, and a Bachelor of Foreign Service from Georgetown University.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
Three years on from the Beirut port blast, Hezbollah, with the support of Lebanon’s political elite, has managed to obstruct and even quash the domestic judicial process for holding those responsible for the explosion accountable and delivering justice to both victims and a battered nation. The international community must uphold its responsibility toward the Lebanese people by enabling a U.N. fact-finding mission to investigate the blast, sanctioning those responsible for obstructing justice, and making ending impunity the centerpiece of international mediation on the Lebanese crisis.
Jean-Yves Le Drian, French President Emmanuel Macron’s envoy to Lebanon, made a preliminary diplomatic visit to Beirut last week. Le Drian’s appointment marks a potential though uncertain opening to consolidate international support for Lebanon to facilitate an end to the political gridlock and leadership vacuum. A short but timely boost in robust diplomacy on the part of Washington, strengthened by clear coordination with Paris and regional partners, can play a decisive role in preventing the unraveling of another failed authoritarian state that could further destabilize the region and force even more costly engagement in the future.
Lebanon is on the verge of complete collapse, and if Washington is serious about preventing not just another failed state but a growing normalization of unchecked authoritarianism in the Middle East, it must stop outsourcing leadership on Lebanon to France.
In response to Lebanon’s seemingly imminent transition into a failed state, this article introduces a new framework to explain the country’s protracted crisis. In turn, we unpack what the past four years of international responses to Lebanon got wrong and make the case for a new assertive approach for Washington to take — one that empowers local stakeholders working to recapture the state and reform the country’s political economy.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.
Expert regional analysis by MEI scholars and contributors.
On Oct. 29, Prime Minister Saad Hariri submitted his resignation and that of the government, a move that has been hailed as an important victory for the protestors who have taken to the streets across the country for nearly three weeks now. Heralded as al-thawra, or revolution in Arabic, Lebanon is witnessing the rise of an inclusive, decentralized, and grassroots movement that transcends geography, sect, and traditional loyalties to political dynasties and parties.
