ABSTRACT
The conclusion wraps up how the concept of liminality – that betwixt and between moment of transition from one state to the other – serves to help us understand and visualize the process of waiting for the resolution of the issue of the disappeared – or its non–resolution. The principal finding of the research is that this issue mirrors the complexity of the post-conflict process in Lebanon and the transitory characteristic of state-society relationships. Through this idea, the book has essentially highlighted how the project of human rights, peacebuilding, and transitional justice has been failing in Lebanon. In the hope of having carved out a new line of research in Lebanon and the Middle East, the book has shown how the issue of the disappeared, and any other issue in the post-conflict treated this way, is stuck in a state of liminality that has reached a state of permanence. It has taken a stance to argue that the frame set for the resolution of the issue will not be the one that resolves it. In this regard, liminality has incredible potential in furthering our understanding of how processes can stall. In the same vein, while the time is ripe and before they find themselves trapped, the few Arab countries going through post-violence transitions could benefit from such reflections and look into new categories for achieving transition.
