The book charts the interplay between this complex and diverse country and the broader struggles of the region. In 2011, David Hirst published a notable book Beware of Small States: Lebanon, Battleground of the Middle East. Lebanon, the country where I come from, with a population of almost four million has, since 2011, accepted around two million Syrian refugees and hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees who escaped the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.īetween 19 Lebanon experienced 15 years of communal civil war and the country turned into a proxy battleground of regional and international actors. Wars, whether communal or intrastate have devastated our economies, and refugees are still flooding our streets. Before coming to Uppsala, conflict resolution and peacebuilding were phrases that seemed abstract to our reality in the Middle East. As I tried to fill the gaps and connect the dots I realised that the conflicts and the wars that we face are deeply rooted in economic, political, and social issues that our countries are facing. Previously, I had heard little about the peace agreement in Colombia, the details of the negotiation process in Yemen, the polarisation in Ethiopian society, the acts of genocide in Myanmar, and other conflicts outside my geographical scope. Quickly we realised that day by day there was a strong bond being built between us during interactions and in small group discussions (Of course, the ‘fikas’ – Swedish coffee breaks – had their influence too.) We were diverse people from different religious, ethnic, and professional backgrounds but one thing united us our dedication to conflict resolution and the spread of sustainable peace. The legacy of Dag Hammarskjöld, as the UN Secretary-General during decolonisation, had a strong impact on us.
Twenty-three participants from different parts of the world gathered at the International Training on Dialogue and Mediation organised by Uppsala University’s Department of Peace and Conflict Research and the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation. Ten days were enough for me to create a big international family in Uppsala.
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