Middle East Border Geopolitics: Established and Emerging Themes

Speaker: Richard Schofield, King's College London Chair: Madawi Al-Rasheed, LSE Middle East Centre In trying to make sense of the spontaneous appearance of new borderland spatialities in Syria and Iraq, as well as recent instances of formal state boundary-making such as the Abyei arbitration, Richard Schofield asks what constitutes a borderland in the Middle East. Addressing both historical and contemporary concerns, with notable attention being paid to Iran-Iraq and Saudi-Yemen, he argues that developing a more overtly multidisciplinary basis for the study of contested borders will best aid their appreciation and understanding. Recorded on 24 February 2015.