How Border Peripheries are Changing the Nature of Arab States

This book addresses the multiple dimensions of the limited reach, or breakdown, of central authority in border regions of Arab states, and their implications for state sovereignty and modes of governance. These include the emergence of illicit networks of exchange, the rise of new nonstate actors in border regions, including paramilitary or jihadi groups, and the transformation of border areas into areas of regional conflict. Collectively, the essays in this volume address such processes, which have been observable in conflict-stricken countries such as Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, and in fragile political or economic contexts, like the ones in Lebanon, Tunisia, and Algeria, as well as in relatively stable Emirates such as Kuwait. The contributions also shed light on how border peripheries in the Arab world have impacted the center of political and economic power in their states.

Offers a unique analysis of how border peripheries impact centers of power across the MENA region Argues that reconfigurations in borderlands reflect or cause state systems to change permanently and substantively Based on primary research including interviews with stakeholders in peripheral areas of the Middle East and North Africa

Auteur

Maha Yahya is Director of the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center, Beirut, Lebanon, where her work focuses broadly on political violence and identity politics, pluralism, development and social justice, the challenges of citizenship, and the political and socio-economic implications of the migration/refugee crisis.

Texte du rabat

This book addresses the multiple dimensions of the limited reach, or breakdown, of central authority in border regions of Arab states, and their implications for state sovereignty and modes of governance. These include the emergence of illicit networks of exchange, the rise of new nonstate actors in border regions, including paramilitary or jihadi groups, and the transformation of border areas into areas of regional conflict. Collectively, the essays in this volume address such processes, which have been observable in conflict-stricken countries such as Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, and in fragile political or economic contexts, like the ones in Lebanon, Tunisia, and Algeria, as well as in relatively stable Emirates such as Kuwait. The contributions also shed light on how border peripheries in the Arab world have impacted the center of political and economic power in their states.

Contenu

1. Introduction, Maha Yahya.- 2. Smuggling and State Formation: A Match Made in Algeria, Dalia Ghanem.- 3.Cronies and Contraband: Why Integrating Tunisia's Informal Economic Elite Has Become Necessary, Hamza Meddeb.- 4. North Pacific: Why Lebanon's Akkar Region Weathered the Syrian Conflict, Maha Yahya and Mohanad Hage Ali.- 5. Transnationalization of a Borderland: Center, Periphery, and Identity in Western Iraq, Harith Hasan.- 6. Hadramawt's Emergence as a Center: A Confluence of Yemeni Circumstances and Hadrami Resourcefulness, Ahmed Nagi.- 7. How Syria's War Extended Border Policies to Much of the Country, Kheder Khaddour and Kevin Mazur.- 8. The Center Gives: Southern Syria and the Rise of New Peripheral Powerbrokers, Armenak Tokmajyan.- 9. On the Edge: How Risks from Iraq Have Helped Form Kuwaiti Identity, Bader Al-Saif.