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The Journal for Interdisciplinary Middle Eastern Studies
Volume 10, No. 1, 2024, pp. 101-103
DOI: https://doi.org/10.26351/JIMES/10-1/4
ISSN: 2522-347X (print); 2522-6959 (online)
Book Review: Turkish Foreign Policy in Lebanon: The Same Old?
Robert G. Rabil
Lebanon and Turkey: Historical Contexts and Contemporary Realities
London: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 2024, 226 pp.
(hardcover). ISBN 978-1-5381-7750-1
Throughout ancient and modern Lebanese history, regional and international powers
have used their leverage to sway Lebanese politics in order to benet their broader
geopolitical interests. Of these powers, none have had more inuence over the Lebanese
socioeconomic and political structure than the Ottoman Empire. Among the many pivotal
events that took place under Ottoman inuence was the 1860 massacre in Mount Lebanon
and the surrounding cities of Dayr al-Qammar, Zahleh, and others, aided and abetted by
the Ottoman Empire. With the strategic help of the Ottomans, a civil conict took place
in which approximately 11,000 Christians (mostly Maronites) were killed by the local
Druze, and some 4,000 more subsequently died from hunger and disease.
In the twentieth century, following the conclusion of World War I, the Ottoman Empire
collapsed. Turkey, its successor, departed from the independent-minded foreign policy
that the Ottomans had pursued for over 600 years. With Kemal Ataturk at the helm, the
modern Turkish republic embarked on a secular domestic policy and Western-oriented
foreign policy. However, in 2002, Turkey underwent a paradigm shift with the election of
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leader of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma
Partisi). As foreign minister of the new government, Ahmet Davutoglu authored a
foreign policy vision that he termed the “strategic depth doctrine.” This doctrine pushed
Turkey to develop and diversify its relations with the Middle East, Asia, and Africa while
strengthening its already-entrenched relations with Europe and the United States. In other
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words, Turkey was to resume its traditional role as the Ottoman power both in the region
and in the wider international community.
Ever since, despite geopolitical struggles with its regional and international partners,
Turkey has used soft power to make inroads in Lebanon in general and the Lebanese Sunni
community in particular. This development is signicant because, while Lebanon has
historically been plagued by countries interfering in its domestic affairs, Turkey has made
a point not to interfere in Lebanese domestic affairs beyond assistance in humanitarian aid
and other vital relief when necessary. This has not gone unnoticed by the Lebanese people,
who hold Turkey in high regard throughout the country – especially in northern Lebanon,
home to most of Lebanon’s Sunni community.
Robert G. Rabil’s groundbreaking book, Lebanon and Turkey: Historical Contexts
and Contemporary Realities, discusses these and other important points. Rabil provides
an accurate description of the history of the Lebanese–Turkish relationship from as
far back as the Phoenician era to present-day Lebanon. The book’s thorough research
includes exceptional archival work and many years of eld work, primarily interviews
with Lebanese ofcials. Given the lack of previous scholarship to investigate Turkey’s
role in Lebanese political affairs, this book has set an important precedent in the eld of
Lebanese studies.
This is not the rst time that Rabil has engaged in pioneering research. His 2014
Salasm in Lebanon: From Apoliticism to Transnational Jihadism was the rst book
to delve deeply into the Salast movement in Lebanon, as prior literature had mostly
examined radical Islamism from a Lebanese Shi‘i perspective. With his 2014 book, Rabil
introduced a new dynamic into the scholarship on Lebanon; his new book on Lebanese–
Turkish relations does the same.
In the rst few chapters, Rabil looks at the early history of Lebanon and introduces
the Emirate system in Mount Lebanon. There, he illustrates the roots of the confessional
system, which remains the organizing structure of present-day Lebanon. The following
chapters deal with the Great Famine (1915–1918), the inheritance of the confessional
system upon France’s occupation of Le Grand Liban (Greater Lebanon) after the collapse
of the Ottoman Empire, and the early years of independence in the context of the Cold War
(1947–1987) and the rise of Nasserism. In the nal chapters of the book, Rabil discusses
102 Zach Battat
Turkey’s role in Lebanon’s Second Civil War (1975–1990) and the post-Civil War
relationship between the two countries. Most importantly, he provides a thorough account
of the shift in Turkey’s foreign policy toward Lebanon and particularly the Lebanese
Sunni community.
Rabil’s book highlights the fallacies and the lessons learned in the long-term relationship
between Turkey and Lebanon. With the aid of extensive research, Rabil presents the
cultural, political, demographic, economic, and confessional challenges and changes in
the centuries-old relationship between the two countries. The book is a comprehensive
analysis of the developments and dynamics that have helped to form modern Lebanon,
its confessional system, and its politics. Like Rabil’s previous books on Lebanon and
Syria, Lebanon and Turkey: Historical Contexts and Contemporary Realities should also
be required reading for those who wish to understand the intricacies of Lebanon and the
Turkish–Lebanese relationship.
Mr. Zach Battat – PhD Candidate
Department of Middle Eastern Studies, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel;
zachbattat@gmail.com
Book Review 103