This book deals with a very topical issue in an innovative
multidisciplinary approach. It deals with borders that are always a
hotly debated and controversial issue. Do borders still define the
limits of states? How do communities change when a border is put
between them? Is the physical border more important than the
conceptual boundary? In recent times, the question of borders in
the Middle East has assumed an importance unknown since the
collapse of the Ottoman empire. In this fresh examination of the
issue, Inga Brandell draws together a variety of disciplinary
approaches, and takes the classic debates forward into the 21st
century. Casting its net wide from the Anatolian plateau to the
mountains of Cyprus, "State Frontiers" brings a number of key
issues to light. Brandell brings to our attention the idea of
'straddling' populations, looking at the Syrian-Lebanese business
community which has historically shuttled across the border between
the two countries as a result of civil war in one and successive
economic diktats in the other. Another case study examines the
lived experience of borders in Cyprus, detailing not only the
physical but also the mental and cultural effects of separation.
The usefulness of the discourse of borders is highlighted by
looking at the disjunction between Turkish politicians' rhetoric of
border inviolability and the Turkish army's regular violation of
the South Eastern border with Iraq. Brandell provides rich
empirical illumination of the psychological function of borders in
creating (and keeping out) an imagined 'other'. She also explores
practical dimensions of borders in the context of boundary
transgressing resources such as water. Brandell offers important
new theoretical insights, discussing the validity of the
assumptions which underlie border studies. In the Middle East,
borders are widely believed to be arbitrary and ultimately external
to the organic development of societies. In its multifaceted
portrayal of border life, "State Frontiers" restores the balance
and contributes towards a more sophisticated understanding of these
issues.
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