Unexpectedly homegrown dissent

Lebanese domestic politics, including mass mobilization, is usually depicted as exceptionally permeable and susceptible to regional geopolitics and foreign interventionism. This is partly the result of the fractured nature of Lebanese politics, which enable ruling elites to draw competing external powers into local politics, while external powers can use the fragmented order as a battleground for their own rivalries. Since 2005, following the departure of Syria’s military troops, Lebanese politics has been largely polarized into two blocks usually framed as the pro-Syrian March 8 versus the Anti-Syrian March 14 Alliances. These alliances have been reinforced, and partly reproduced, by wider regional cleavages especially the Saudi-Iranian rivalry.Lately, though, Saudi financial support and overt interventionism seem to have taken a back seat, since the infamous pressure on former premier Saad el Hariri to resign in Riyadh in 2017.

Given Lebanon’s proneness to foreign interventionism and the permeability of the state, it is remarkable that the Lebanese protest movement (called theThawraor the Revolution by Lebanese protesters) has managed to remain anchored in domestic politics. By domestic anchoring we refer to a three-fold dynamic 1) Protests erupted as a result of domestic grievances 2) Protesters have voiced domestic or “home-grown” demands, as opposed to foreign policy demands, 3) There are no indications of direct or material external backing of protesters.

We outline three ways through which the protest movement has sought to anchor itself in a widely domestic context; exploring how protest tactics, framings and narratives have centered on cross-sectarian mobilization and nation-wide issues. Yet, we also show how such modes of domestic anchoring have been challenged by what we callgeopolitizationand sectarian meddling, thwarting protesters’ attempts at forging national and collective appeal. Bygeopolitization, we posit that geopolitics, rather than being a ‘natural’ or inevitable part of international politics, is a discursive process, or even a speech act, whereby political elite actors seek to lift an issue from the realm of national politics into the international realm of brute force and particularistic interest.