Whither Lebanon: a nation on the brink

The last time a French president arrived in an Arab country in the midst of a crisis, he did so bearing the gift of democracy. That was back in 2011 when Nicolas Sarkozy descended on Benghazi along with his then British counterpart, David Cameron, to cheer on the ‘revolution’ that had erupted in the city, desperate as both leaders were to ride the wave of the so-called Arab Spring all the way to the rocks of Western…