Middle East Studies Association 2009 Annual Meeting Individual Paper Proposal My paper, entitled “House of Lebanon: Political Mobilization of the US-Based Lebanese Diaspora,” addresses how Lebanese-Americans organize in an effort to affect politics in their homeland, by emphasizing the relationship between the American Congress, the Executive, and the Lebanese diaspora in the United States. Unaccounted for, in the academic literature on both diasporas and ethnic lobbies, is the relationship between the host state and the diasporas, and the ethnic lobbies these diasporas generate. While the relationship has been examined from the side of the ethnic lobby’s ability to provide campaign contributions, votes and support, the aspect of diasporas being used by a host state as an instrument of foreign policy has not been theoretically addressed, either by scholars of diaspora nor by those researching ethnic lobbies. This central issue, of the Host state’s use of diasporas as a policy tool, is what I examine. My paper utilizes two cases: the UN Security Council Resolution 1559 of September 2004, as well as the Congressional passage of the Syria Accountability and Restoration of Lebanese Sovereignty Act, signed into law by George W. Bush on December 12, 2003, which sought Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon. Based on archival and field research in the US and Lebanon, I examine the dynamics between US policymakers and Lebanese-American activists, and the role of Lebanese-American organizations in promoting US foreign policy. I discuss the interaction between US policymakers and the American Lebanese Coalition (an umbrella organization of six Lebanese-American organizations), as well as the World Council for the Cedars Revolution, and the International Committee for UN Resolution 1559, two Lebanon-based NGO-s with activists with transnational connections, who actively supported the Bush administration. Utilizing the Syria Accountability and Restoration of Lebanese Sovereignty Act of 2003, I examine the interaction between the US administration and members of Congress, and Lebanese groups. I specifically focus on the Lebanese American Council for Democracy, the Council of Lebanese American Organizations, and the Lebanese Information Center. The material for this paper is based on fieldwork, including personal interviews in both the US and Lebanon with people involved in Lebanese political parties and in the above-mentioned diaspora organizations, with observers of the political and lobbying process, as well as on archival and periodical sources.