State Atrophy and the Reconfiguration of Borderlands in Syria and Iraq: Post-2011 Dynamics

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    "Harith Hasan",
    "Harout Akdedian"
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    "Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center"
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Other

Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center

State Atrophy and the Reconfiguration of Borderlands in Syria and Iraq: Post-2011 Dynamics

Since 2011, borderlands in the MENA region transformed into considerable sites of contested power by a plethora of actors.

By Harith Hasan and Harout Akdedian

Published on Mar 31, 2020

Source: Elsevier's Political Geography journal

Circumstances in the MENA region invite us to redirect our attention to geographic areas that emerged as primary sites of power-contest. This paper looks into emerging trends in the unraveling of bounded sovereign territoriality in borderlands by examining the contest over military, economic, and socio-political spaces in the wake of the devolution of the monopoly of violence and the rise of a multitude of new and old actors to local prominence. Since 2011, borderlands in the MENA region transformed into considerable sites of contested power by a plethora of actors. The paper points out emergent patterns of deterritorialization and reterritorialization of power in its various forms and manifestations in borderlands. The dynamics of ‘place and performance’ in the borderlands of Syria and Iraq showcase the variety of ways borders were instrumentalized under circumstances of state atrophy and their destructive tendencies for borderlands.

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This paper was originally published in Elsevier's Political Geography journal.

About the Authors

Harith Hasan

Associate researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies.

Harith Hasan is an associate researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies.

Harout Akdedian

Political Reform Levant Syria Iraq Middle East

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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