CONTEMPORARY EURASIA IX ( 1 )
lucrative contracts , most famously for the bridge linking Saudi Arabia to Bahrain . He later sold the group and invested in a variety of oil , real-estate and media interests through a holding company called Wedge Group . In 1983 , Fares opened Wedge Bank in Lebanon , employing former President Elias Sarkis as its chairman . 24 Fares supported Bashir Gemayel ’ s bid for the presidency in 1982 , but thereafter built close ties to the Syrian regime via Ghazi Kanaan , the Syrian head of intelligence in Lebanon . This was partly because Fares ’ home region of Akkar was under close Syrian control . In 1987 , he started the Issam Fares Foundation , which established health centers in Akkar and pursued other projects in the cultural and social sphere . 25
The neoliberal politics of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Lebanon ( 1992-1998 and 2000-2004 )
Among the four businessmen analyzed in this paper , Rafik Hariri had the best position to take over a political role , since Saudi support had given him access to civil war diplomacy . Hariri became prime minister in 1992 . He remained in office until 1998 and then returned from 2000 to 2004 . Together with a network of technocrats , Hariri promoted a neoliberal reconstruction program . The strategy was to make Lebanon “ competitive ” in a “ new Middle East ”, in which there would be no conflicts and in which liberalizing Arab economies would integrate fully into the world market . The way to achieve competitiveness was to build “ world-class ” infrastructure and to avoid the currency crises that had wrecked the Lebanese economy in the 1980s . The central projects of the Hariri cabinets were the rehabilitation of infrastructure and especially the reconstruction of central Beirut , as well as the stabilization of the Lebanese pound through government over-borrowing . The primary function of the state was to make the economy “ competitive ” through the provision of infrastructure and a good business environment , but it was to play only a minimal role in income redistribution and welfare provision . 26 While often presented as a purely technical and “ common sense ” project , neoliberalism is also highly political . Firstly , neoliberalism involves the reassertion of the power of capitalist classes . 27 Secondly , the restructuring of
24
See Hannes Baumann , “ The ascent of Rafiq Hariri and Sunni philanthropy ” in Leaders et partisans au Liban , Karthala-IFPO , 2012 , 81-106 .
25
See the website of the Issam Fares Foundation , http :// www . fares . org . lb / main . asp ( Accessed May 30 , 2020 ).
26
See Samir Khalaf , Philip S . Khoury eds ., Recovering Beirut : Urban Design and Post- War Reconstruction , Leiden : E . J . Brill , 1993 , Saree Makdisi , “ Laying Claim to Beirut : Urban Narrative and Spatial Identity in the Age of Solidere ’, Critical Inquiry , 23 ( 3 ), ( 1997 ), 660-705 , Peter G . Rowe , Hashim Sarkis ( Eds .), Projecting Beirut : Episodes in the Construction and Reconstruction of a Modern City , ( Munich : Prestel Verlag , 1998 ), David Harvey , A Brief History of Neoliberalism , 64-65 .
27
Gerard Dumenil , Dominique Levy , “ The Neoliberal ( Counter- ) Revoilution ” in Saad- Filho Alfredo and Deborah Johnston ( Eds .), Neoliberalism : A Critical Reader , ( London : Pluto Press , 2005 ), 9-19 . 10