CONTEMPORARY EURASIA IX ( 1 )
counter Hariri ’ s influence in Lebanon . Like Hariri and Mikati , Fares built up a philanthropic association but it fell far short of the size and scope of the Hariri Foundation . It runs health centers and supports schools in Fares ’ home region of Akkar and supports a number of social and cultural projects in the north of Lebanon . 44 Fares first entered parliament in 1996 within a joint list alongside Omar Karami and Suleiman Frangieh . However , the peripheral location of Fares ’ home region and the spread of Greek Orthodox Christians throughout Lebanon made the kind of confessional rallying that Hariri achieved among Sunni Muslims impossible .
The limitations Fares faced in terms of his position in the confessional system and popular mobilization led him to adopt alternative strategies along two lines . 45 First , he spent a lot of time and money in cultivating ties with American politicians . Fares was already involved in “ brokering ” closer relations between Syria and the USA in the 1980s , a rapprochement which eventually facilitated the Taif Agreement of 1989 and the ousting of Michel Aoun . Fares became a master at playing the game of informal financial contributions and cultivating “ friendship ” with leading American politicians from both major parties . The most visible initiative was a lecture series at Tufts University , for which speakers received generous remuneration and has featured former President George H . W . Bush , former Secretary of State James Baker , former President Bill Clinton , and former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and Colin Powell shortly before he was called upon to serve as secretary of state for George W . Bush . Fares used his influence on US politics in the 1990s to maintain American tolerance for Syria ’ s role in Lebanon . 46 The second pillar of Fares ’ influence is public opinion . His media empire is of a different nature and smaller than Hariri ’ s . After the arrest of Samir Geagea ( the leader of Lebanese Forces ) in 1994 , Fares took a 10 percent stake in the ownership of the Forces ’ TV station LBC . 47 Damascus regarded Fares as a “ safe pair of hands ” to curtail the station ’ s habitual criticism of Syria . Fares also created public policy thinktanks . He funded the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut ( AUB ) and a domestic public policy institute where intellectuals and former government officials sympathetic to Fares worked . As mentioned , elites are conventionally defined as “ decision-makers ”, while Pierre Bourdieu regards them as those rich in cultural , financial or social capital . Fares managed to gather a network of elites endowed with great “ cultural ” capital who wield symbolic power to confirm or transform the social order . This was partly done to make up for the failure to gain control of the institutional centers of decision-making .
44
For more information on the association , http :// www . fares . org . lb / main . asp ( Accessed May 30 , 2020 ).
45
Middle East Intelligence Bulletin , November , 2003 , 12-17 .
46
Ibid .
47
Middle East International , March 23 , 2001 , 13 . 16