Paranoic mapping at the Lebanese–Israeli border

Abstract

This article examines the Lebanese–Israeli underground border geography as a site of conflict that is enmeshed in knowledge gaps and paranoia, and across territories and subjects. The author interrogates a series of controversial scientific claims regarding cross-border subterranean water resources in the Upper Jordan River basin and navigates the complexity of researching in such a context with a long history of violence that leaks into the present. In his analysis, the author highlights how knowledge gaps produce a fertile ground where paranoia thrives. Paranoia is here defined as a mode of being in the world that builds connections between seemingly unrelated events and objects. Consequently, the article examines how knowledge gaps and paranoia are materialized across territorial and individual scales, drawing parallels between the affective dimension of border geographies and the research methodology the author develops. This methodology emerges from the specific context of the Lebanese–Israeli border geography where knowledge production is set within a framework of resistive subjectivities.