The debate over state monopoly on arms in Lebanon has ceased to be a simple question of sovereignty or legality; it has become a genuine test of the state's capacity to fulfil its fundamental functions. The problem has moved beyond the principle itself, which enjoys a near-unanimous theoretical consensus: what is lacking are the internal leverage and the national strategic vision capable of making it applicable, against a backdrop of deep regional entanglements and unprecedented economic and institutional fragility. The absence of a clear trajectory, the persistence of a policy of procrastination, and the erosion of the time factor could well constitute, in and of themselves, the gravest threat to Lebanon's stability and the future of its state.