In international politics, what do you do when you don’t know what to do but wish to appear to be doing something?
The answer is: you convene an international conference.
The gimmick started with the notorious Versailles Conference after the First World War that morphed into a series of photo-ops while real decisions were taken elsewhere and behind the scenes. More recently we had the grand Madrid Conference that was supposed to produce an unlikely peace in the Middle East but became an introduction to a new era of conflict in the war-torn region. Last week we have had a virtual version of the international conference on Lebanon, the second in 12 months and designed to mark the anniversary of the deadly explosion that tore Beirut apart.
I think Lebanon is safely slotted into the pantheon of permanent failed states. Should the west even bother?
