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Lebanon: A Journey to the End of the State
While warning signs of Lebanon’s economic meltdown have been apparent for some time, as Crisis Group expert Heiko Wimmen writes, it is still shocking just how close things are to falling apart.
Like many residents who can afford it, in the summer of every year I flee Lebanon’s sweltering heat for Europe.
This year, though, I return in early August, when the temperatures are highest, to get my scheduled second shot of the COVID-19 vaccine.
I am unaware, when I arrive, just how close the country is to coming apart.
I know, of course, that the situation has deteriorated since June, when I left, with the daily electricity supply dwindling to less than three hours and…