On September 24-25 September 2010, the Heinrich Böll Stiftung and the Lebanese Association of Sociology held a conference at University Saint-Joseph in Beirut, Lebanon on the topic of "State Building in Divided Societies of the Post-Ottoman World".
The event examined the cases of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iraq and Lebanon, three countries that have experienced civil strife, war and state collapse as a result of politicized sub-national identities and have recently undergone a (re)building process with significant input by the international community.
The 5 panels with speakers from each of the countries addressed the aspects of governance, social movements, constitutional engineering and international involvement. By comparing the results of similar strategies in seemingly different environments but displaying structural similarities and sharing common histories, it produced original and valuable results on the conditions of success or failure of international peace building attempts of the last two decades. It also encouraged enriching exchanges among researchers working on similar issues related to different geographic areas.