International Alert, in partnership with the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies (LCPS), carried out a European Union-funded project on perceptions of security in Lebanon. The research aimed to produce statistically valid data on people’s perceptions, across geographic and sectarian lines, and to inform expert-level dialogue on the role that security agencies were expected to play in Lebanese society. This paper provides a summary of the findings.
A nationwide survey was carried out from May to June 2013. The resulting report – entitled Security threat perceptions in Lebanon – was published in November 2014. As a result of the survey findings, four further in-depth case studies were commissioned on the following topics: • perceptions of security institutions in Lebanon; • security threat perceptions stemming from the presence of Syrian refugees; • gender, security and security sector reform (SSR) in Lebanon; and • the role of civil society organisations in SSR in Lebanon. The purpose of this present report is to provide a synthesis and summary of all five reports, highlighting their most significant insights. It begins by describing the security situation in Lebanon as it has developed, and as it is today, and how the Lebanese security sector is organised. It then briefly summarises the most salient points of each report.
