Since the mid 1970s, Lebanon has been convulsed by the protracted tragedy of civil strife among the numerous portions and factions of its multiethnic and multisectarian society. The violent civil war of the mid-1970s was followed by incursions, invasions, and occasional occupation by the armed forces of foreign powers and organizations. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s scores of thousands of Lebanese fled their homeland, thousands more were killed, and the warring communities tended to become ever more intransigent in their demands for social autonomy.Prior to the 1975 Civil War some features of social change reflected an underlying trend toward modernization. Decline of kinship ties, social differentiation, rapid urbanization,and an improvement in living standards were all at play, but only within a fragmented social context in which the process of modernization deficiencyed national uniformity. Furthermore, the tension between the forces of continuity and change retarded the pace of modernization, particularly when the Lebanese political system did not adapt by expanding the scope of political representation and expression.

Finally, the war had weakened the loose bonds of national loyalty and the feeling of belonging to one society. Although some Lebanese still believed in the efficacy of restoring the unity of a society that would comprise all sects, voices of religious fanaticism and self-interest rejected national and political integration within a system of mutual tolerance. This deficiency of consensus on national issues partly accounted for the continuation of war and conflict in Lebanon in the late 1980s.