Description
Book SynopsisThis 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.
Table of Contents1. Introduction, Maha Yahya2. Smuggling and State Formation: A Match Made in Algeria, Dalia Ghanem3.Cronies and Contraband: Why Integrating Tunisia’s Informal Economic Elite Has Become Necessary, Hamza Meddeb4. North Pacific: Why Lebanon’s Akkar Region Weathered the Syrian Conflict, Maha Yahya and Mohanad Hage Ali5. Transnationalization of a Borderland: Center, Periphery, and Identity in Western Iraq, Harith Hasan6. Hadramawt’s Emergence as a Center: A Confluence of Yemeni Circumstances and Hadrami Resourcefulness, Ahmed Nagi7. How Syria’s War Extended Border Policies to Much of the Country, Kheder Khaddour and Kevin Mazur8. The Center Gives: Southern Syria and the Rise of New Peripheral Powerbrokers, Armenak Tokmajyan9. On the Edge: How Risks from Iraq Have Helped Form Kuwaiti Identity, Bader Al-Saif
