A conference organised by the Centre for Lebanese Studies in co-operation with the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. The aim of the conference was to bring scholars working on the period of the 1950s, together with diplomats who served at that time, in order to exchange information and take advantage of recently declassified archival material. The conference addressed topics such as the performance of Lebanon’s service-oriented open economy; Britain and Lebanon in the 1950s; the UN and the 1958 crisis; Cyprus, Lebanon and the Eastern Mediterranean; US foreign policy in the decade of the 1950s; President Chamoun and the crisis of 1958; reflections of a diplomat; recollections of the 1940s and 1950s; and discussions of the various domestic and international protagonists at that time. Participants included Mr Abbas Abusalih, Ms Caroline Attie, Ambassador Nadim Dimechkie, Sir Sam Falle, Dr Michael Fry, Dr Carolyn Gates, Prof Irene Gendzier, Mr Fawaz Gerges, Dr Rob Holland, Dr Robert Holz, Mr Albert Hourani, Prof Michael Hudson, Dr George Irani, Dr David Lesch, Dr William Livingston, Prof Roger Louis, Prof Richard Norton, Ambassador Richard Parker, Prof Kamal Salibi, Mr Nadim Shehadi, and Mr Lawrence Tal.