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In April, Syria ended its 29-year military presence in Lebanon, and all attention has now turned to the country's very imminent parliamentary elections. Hezbollah has been an ascendant force in Lebanon’s electoral system since 1992 and is expected to fare well in the upcoming elections. What effects might the party have on the future course of democracy in Lebanon and the broader Middle East, and how should the US react to it?

MEI is pleased to host Helena Cobban, who will discuss some of the issues raised in her recent Boston Review article "Hizbullah's New Face" (available through her weblog www.justworldnews.org). Ms. Cobban has covered Lebanese politics as a journalist and writer since 1975. She is currently a global-affairs columnist for The Christian Science Monitor and Al-Hayat and a contributing editor of the Boston Review. She is the author of several books on Middle Eastern diplomacy, politics, and society; most recently, she completed a book entitled Violence and its Legacies.