Yet we have also witnessed the lifting of sanctions on Syria, signals of structural reform in our regional and national economy, and new investment blossoms. We have been reassured that our Lebanese democracy, flawed and vulnerable as all democracies are, isalive and kicking on national and municipal levels. The net effect of escalating defense spending and conflicts is a troubling retreat from the globalization of the past 35 years. Nations are becoming more selective, fragmented, and security conditioned, fundamentally altering the economic logic that drove global integration. The global consensus needed for climate finance, debt relief, and coordinated health responses could fragment, making global problems harder to solve.