Mission to Beirut

How is security organized in cities characterized by split sovereignty, hybrid governance and fragile political order? How do public, private and civil institutions coordinate and compete in their attempts to control and safeguard neighborhoods in such contexts? And how do residents and citizens in such areas experience safety?

MSM research Fellow Nora Stel recently joined scholars affiliated with Clingendael Institute, Utrecht University’s Centre for Conflict Studies, the Centre for Urban Studies of the University of Amsterdam and the Graduate Institute Geneva to conduct exploratory interviews, expert meetings, observations and focus groups in four neighborhoods of Beirut, Lebanon’s capital city. The purpose was to develop an analytical framework suited to address some of the issues mentioned above.

The mission represents the first joint effort of the research consortium and will inform future research in other cities around the globe with the aim to contribute to a growing stock of empirical evidence on local governments’ engagement with non-state security provision in urban contexts.

The mission was supported by seed funding from the Knowledge Platform Security & Rule of Law, Partnering with Beirut based peace organizations the team engaged formal and non-state security actors on how they negotiate and assert their various roles in maintaining community level security.

Picture taken by Nora Stel and Chris van der Borgh.