“Al-Nahar”, Beirut,
February 11, 1979

The University of Nancy:
“the Army and the State in Lebanon (1945-1980)”
State thesis of Adel A. FREIHA,
political and economical interpretations.

            The army and the State in Lebanon is the topic of Adel Freiha thesis. He obtained a State PhD in political science, from the University of Nancy 2 in France,. He discussed it for two hours and a half in face of an examining board formed by the former university president and the professor supervising on the thesis François Borella and the professor Philippe Merle from the same university as well as the professor from the University of Strasbourg (France) Vlad Constantinesco.

            Adel A. Frayha discussed his thesis through two main topics:
1. The factors that prevent the army from taking power in Lebanon
2. The army intervention in politics.

            In the first topic, the writer divided the factors into primary and secondary ones that can be summarized as follows:

            Primary factors: the Lebanese constitution is a stable constitution by comparison with the French constitution that has been modified several times, whereas the Lebanese constitution hasn’t change. The Lebanese constitution did not refer to the military institution that played in turn a role in preserving this constitution and its spirit in the same time.
The National Pact called as the unwritten constitution undertaked by the writer from both political and confessional ways.

            Secondary factors: are in the opinion of Adel A. Freiha:
First, the belonging of Fuad Chehab to the constitutional school (Bechara Khoury and Ryad Sold) and Michel Chiha’s one.

            Second, the historical, economical, and geo-economical interpretations for the army and the state topic due to the political experiences in Tyr, capital of Phoenicia, that adopted democracy. This is a historical interpretation.

            The economical interpretation, for the writer, is due to the rate of the high individual income in Lebanon which is 1.100 dollars (6000 dollars in 2006), comparing with the underdeveloped countries, where the annual individual income is less than 300 dollars. The revolutions often happen in the underdeveloped countries.

            At (long) last, the geo-economical interpretation is due to the rough mountainous nature that limited the agriculture in Lebanon economy, while the neighboring countries often rely in their economy on the agriculture as a framework, for they are plain and agricultural countries. Military revolutions happened in it on an agrarian reform and a distribution of wealth on farmers.

            At the end of the first part, Frayha presented the coups attempts in Lebanon, from the coup of Antoun Saadé in 1949 to the coup of the nationalist syrian party in 1961, and the TV. Coup of brigadier Aziz Ahdab in 1976. The writer named all these coups attempts: “coups of head”.

            In the second topic of the thesis – the writer divided the Lebanese army interventions in politics into two sections: intervention as a neutral power, and the direct interventions.

            The intervention, as a neutral power in the civil revolution of 1958: Frayha treats the theory of Benjamin Constant and applies it on the Lebanese army behavior that appeared as a neutral power after the three powers disturbance due to the revolution. He qualified it as a political deviation of the National Pact by entering Lebanon in the axes politic (of Bagdad Pact) . As he explains the incidents of 1958.

            The direct interventions was made through three ways: the army is a reformist power since 1960 till 1964, especially in the economical, social and administrative sides without treating the political reform in general.

            A security power through the “second bureau” (intelligence service) since 1964 till 1970, on the official government of Charles Helou.
Finally a power without power,  after the dislocation of the Lebanese Army from March 1976 through the television coup attempt of Brigadier Aziz Ahdab.
Here, in the writer’s opinion, a deviation occurred different however from the political deviation of 1958.

            Frayha clarified the point that Lebanon didn’t enter practically in the network of the military Arab unanimity and, consequently, didn’t participate in the Israeli-Arab wars (1967 and 1973), yet the war entered to the Lebanon in 1975 and  until now.

            It’s interesting to compare between president Chehab and president De Gaulle. The Lebanese president as well as the French president took power in the summer of 1958. Both presidents a rescue job, both of them tried to have the unanimity of their citizens achieved and both tried to reform their country.

            We can’t expose Frayha’s thesis without bringing up its completion and precision, in addition to his audacity in treating all topics about the Army through its relation with the State in a period where the clear view of all what happens is confused.

            Here are some remarks on the thesis:

            - Adel Frayha went from the theory that the Lebanese constitution is stable by itself while we can not ignore the circumstances that surrounded each attempt to modify it.
- The high Lebanese individual income which is 1100 dollars per year according to the “Arab bank” statistics for the year 1978 (6000 dollars by inhabitant in 2006) doesn’t mean that a poor or miserable class who has an interest in the change does not exist.

            Adel Frayha gave many possibilities for the discussion of a topic under research.

            At last, I think that many people agree with the writer’s argument on the deviations of the revolution of 1958 and the two-year war in 1975 and 1976. This might explain the attitude of Freiha.