The lack of accountability can explain a lot of the worst behavior of state actors around the world. This is especially true in the Middle East, where elite impunity has been an ongoing driver of the cycles of conflict and destruction that have eviscerated the region in recent decades. And rarely is the connection between impunity and harm done by the state as clear as it is in Lebanon’s ongoing, epic economic meltdown.
Since February, the symbol of that meltdown has been the head of Lebanon’s central bank, Riad Salameh, who is currently on the lam, fleeing the criminal charges he finally faces for the decades of mob-style shakedowns to which he has subjected an entire nation. But the 71-year-old Salameh is anything but a rogue actor. He is the paragon of a governing system that enabled and relied on him. He has enjoyed enthusiastic support over the years, not just from Lebanon’s entire political class, but also from the international financial institutions and supposedly pro-reform Western governments that continue to backstop Lebanon’s corrupt governance system and, until recently, directly endorsed Salameh. …
