In January 2004, a conference was held on the campus of Notre Dame University-Louaize in Lebanon with the theme "National Affairs in the Apostolic Exhortation 'A New Hope for Lebanon.'" Inspired by the title of the 1997 apostolic exhortation of Pope John Paul II ("Une espérance nouvelle pour le Liban"), the papers presented at this conference addressed various aspects of political, economic, and social life in modern-day Lebanon, focusing on specific challenges that citizens of Lebanon face. The present volume represents the conference proceedings from this meeting. The work is organized into five primary thematic sections, and each section has multiple presentations by experts on Lebanese government and civic life.