Dr. Nassif Hitti
Former Foreign Minister of Lebanon · four decades a diplomat of the League of Arab States
For ten years he has written, every fortnight, about three questions: how Lebanon can become a sovereign state, how the Middle East's wars begin and how they end, and what diplomacy can and cannot do.
A Policy of Active Positive Neutrality: A Necessity for Lebanon
Written three months after he left the foreign ministry: why Lebanon cannot be Switzerland, why it must stop being 'Hanoi', and what the alternative is.
Reading paths
Four questions, each answered by three or four columns in a suggested order
- Why is governing Lebanon so difficult?Understanding Lebanon · 4 articles · 15 min read
- Can Lebanon escape other countries' conflicts?Sovereignty and neutrality · 4 articles · 15 min read
- What can negotiation accomplish when interests clash?Diplomacy in practice · 4 articles · 15 min read
- Who shapes the Middle East, and how has that changed?A changing regional order · 4 articles · 13 min read
The ideas
Eight concepts that recur across his writing, in his own words
Latest columns
The New International Cooperation and Variable Geometry
التعاون الدولي الجديد والهندسة المتغيرةLebanon: Israel's War and the Challenges Facing the Negotiating Track
لبنان... حرب إسرائيل وتحديات المسار التفاوضيMultilateral Cooperation in a New World Order
التعاون المتعدد الأطراف فى نظام عالمى جديدIsrael and Its War in the West Bank
إسرائيل وحربها في الضفة الغربية
The archive
A Lebanese diplomat and scholar: four decades with the League of Arab States, as its ambassador in Paris, Rome and to the Holy See, and Lebanon's Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2020. Since 2016 he has written a fortnightly column for Al-Shorouk and regular pieces for Asharq Al-Awsat and An-Nahar. This site gathers his columns from Al-Shorouk and Asharq Al-Awsat, in full, arranged by theme and by year.
- Volume IThe Lebanese Dilemma & StatehoodLebanon between state and sects: vacancy, government formation, collapse, the South and Resolution 1701, sovereignty. The volume that holds his doctrine of Lebanese foreign policy and his ministerial experience.58 articles
- Volume IITransformations of the Global OrderFrom American unipolarity to a world whose rules have not yet set: the rise of middle powers, the Global South, Ukraine, NATO, and the theory of international relations.50 articles
- Volume IIIRegional Security & Middle Eastern CrisesThe Middle East in the eye of the storm: Palestine and the Gaza wars, the Iranian file and the equations of deterrence, Syria and Iraq, Gulf security and conflict management. The largest volume.125 articles
- Volume IVThe Euro-Mediterranean SpaceThe Euro-Mediterranean space: the Barcelona process, the European Union and France, energy and migration, and the dialogue with the Holy See and the European capitals.23 articles
- Volume VJoint Arab Action & Regional GovernanceJoint Arab action: the League of Arab States and its reform, the crisis of the nation-state, the Arab summits. The smallest volume, and the closest to his own career.5 articles