Sovereignty at what price? Existential displacement at the Lebanese/Syrian border

Abstract

AbstractIn 2014, Islamist jihadist groups overran a Lebanese border town and besieged it for four days, spreading terror across the town and the country as a whole. In response, the Lebanese army launched a violent counterattack on these groups with the aid of Hizbullah in what became known as the Battle of Arsal. Declaring the area a security zone, the army restricted mobility and placed Lebanese citizens and Syrian refugees under military confinement. While the battle ended with a government‐declared victory that celebrated the ‘reclamation of state sovereignty’, these events disrupted social life in unprecedented ways. This article focuses on the phenomenological experience of sovereignty and the price paid for the desire for this state. I explore the ruptures people experienced in their existence (their right to life, subsistence, and movement under indiscriminate shelling) and existentiality (their reflections on their human existence in time, place, and relationship to others in a social world that is no longer recognizable). I argue for a concept of existential displacement that focuses on the experience of citizens as well as refugees for a broader understanding of the ruptures and dispossessions taking place in conflict.