Three years after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, one of the country's foremost and dynamic politicians, Lebanon faces its deepest crisis since the end of the civil war. On the occasion of the anniversary of Hariri's assassination, CCAS has assembled a panel of specialists on Lebanon to discuss the nature of the dilemma and the future of the country.

Bassam Haddad is Director of the Middle East Studies Program at George Mason University and Visiting Professor at Georgetown University. He serves as Founding Editor of the Arab Studies Journal (www.ArabStudiesJournal.org), a peer-reviewed research publication and is co-Producer/Director of the award-winning documentary film, About Baghdad (www.AboutBaghdad.com), and director of a film series on Arabs and Terrorism (www.ArabsAndTerrorism.com). He is currently writing a book on Syria's political economy, provisionally titled 'The Political Economy of Regime Security: State-Business Networks in Syria.' Bassam recently directed a new film series on Arab/Muslim immigrants in Europe, titled The “Other” Threat (www.TheOtherThreat.com).

Michael Hudson is Saif Ghobash Professor of Arab Studies and Professor of International Relations. Dr. Hudson received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale University in 1964. He has edited and contributed to numerous books, including Middle East Dilemma: The Politics and Economics of Arab Integration (Columbia University Press/CCAS, 1999), The Palestinians: New Directions (CCAS, 1990), and Alternative Approaches to the Arab-Israeli Conflict (CCAS, 1984). His other works include The Precarious Republic: Political Modernization in Lebanon (Random House, 1968, 1985), World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators (co-author, Yale University Press, 1972), Arab Politics: The Search for Legitimacy (Yale University Press, 1977), Middle East Dilemma (ed., Columbia University Press, 1999), numerous chapters, and articles appearing in Middle East Journal, Middle East Policy, International Affairs, Comparative Politics, Al-Mustaqbil al-'Arabi, and other scholarly journals.

Dr. Augustus Richard Norton Norton is a faculty member of both International Relations and Anthropology. His research experience in the Middle East spans near three decades, including residences in Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait and Lebanon. His current research interests include inter-sectarian relations in the Middle East, reformist Muslim thought, and strategies of political reform and opposition in authoritarian states. In the 1990s he headed a widely-cited three-year project funded by the Ford Foundation that examined the state-society relations in the Middle East and the question of civil society in the region. It is indicative of his interests that many of his courses are often cross-listed with the departments of anthropology and political science. He has held academic appointments at New York University and the United States Military Academy. In 2006 he was an advisor to the Iraq Study Group (Baker-Hamilton Commission). His books include Hezbollah: A Short History , the two volume collection Civil Society in the Middle East , Amal and the Shi'a: Struggle for the Soul of Lebanon , The International Relations of the PLO (senior editor), Political Tides in the Arab World (co-author), UN Peacekeepers (co-author), and Security in the Middle East: New Perspectives (in Arabic).