Sovereignty, State Legitimacy and the Nation State

This study addresses the problem of the legitimacy of sovereignty within the international institutional legal system. A problem associated with the conceptual structure of sovereignty in the system. Working with Foucault, I conduct a micro analysis of relations of force around institutional transformations as effects of power. I scrutinize the function of discourse as a mechanism of popular recruitment and mobilization into conflict. The aim of this historical comparative analysis is to pin at points of tension by identifying antagonism employed in discourses of resistance. At its core it takes the case of the problem of the legitimacy of sovereignty in Lebanon. I ask the question how the power of resistance consequently leads to a radical change in the normative institutional rules of recognition of the legitimacy sovereignty. This study was the primary research for a documentary on the Lebanese civil conflict. ¿Her Journey in the Cave: My Memory of the Past Part I" was previewed at the Lebanese American University, January 2014 as part of the event ¿Imagining Tomorrow.¿