Political Assasinations and the Revolutionary Impasse in Lebanon and Iraq

Mass protest movements for political change erupted in Iraq and Lebanon in October 2019. Today both countries stare into an abyss of bankruptcy, crumbling social services, poverty and the threat of renewed violence without any sign that political elites will take steps toward reforms. In this context, political violence has (again) taken center stage. Within a notion of ‘revolutionary impasse’, this article analyses the debate about recent assassinations of two prominent intellectuals in Iraq and Lebanon.