ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book has demonstrated unique and novel ways in which the markers of sovereignty are exercised and acquired in Lebanon. It demonstrates that innovative ways of legitimizing violence can, and do, exist in the contemporary global era. The book shows that they often undermine the teleological accounts of the modern state and its function in the global system that permeates the study of International Relations (IR). It distinguishes groups such as Hizballah from other non-state actors who exercise violence, whether Somali pirates or Blackwater/XE mercenaries in Iraq and Afghanistan. The book provides a more refined analysis of Hizballah, its domestic and increasingly transnational or global engagement. It tries to advance a case for questioning the state as the core unit of IR, particularly in the Arab region.
