The collapse threatens to break a nation seen as a model of diversity and resilience in the Arab world and potentially open the door to chaos. Lebanese worry about a decline so steep it would forever alter the small Mediterranean country's cultural diversity and entrepreneurial spirit, unparalleled in the Middle East. In the past, Lebanon has been able to in part blame its turmoil on outsiders. Its 1975-90 civil war made the word “Beirut” synonymous with war's devastation and produced a generation of warlords-turned-politicians that Lebanon hasn’t been able to shake off to this day. For years, the country drifted along, miraculously avoiding collapse even as it accumulated one of the world’s heaviest public debt burdens.

Source: International New York Times August 03, 2020 06:45 UTC