EN
The relative calm of the regime of Fu’ad Shihab (Fouad Chehab) began to wither away during the presidential term of his successor Sharil Eulw (Charles Eelou). In many respects the new regime was supposed to be a continuation of the former one. Political, social and economic reforms were carried out as specified under the regime of Fu’ad Shihab. More important, the role of the army and its Deuxieme Bureau in decision-making remained intact and a hard-liner Shihabist, Ilyas Sarkis, wielded great power as the head of the presidential bureau. The new regime provided a convincing argument that not even Shihabist policies were capable of ameliorating Lebanon’s inherent problems. These problems were structural and could not be solved by reforms. Furthermore, these reforms interfered with the confessional arrangements in the political system and were not easy to implement at a time of relative calm in the region. When major disturbances such as the June 1967 war, began to occur in the area, even these innocuous reforms became unacceptable to the traditional and sectarian forces in the country.