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.
Author(s): Maha Yahya
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 224
City: Cham
Acknowledgments
Contents
Notes on Contributors
Abbreviations
List of Maps
Chapter 1: Introduction
Consolidating the Center
Governance Failures and Alternate Centers of Authority
What Can the State Achieve?
Redefining Sovereignty from the Periphery
Back to the Future?
Chapter 2: Smuggling and State Formation: A Match Made in Algeria
Introduction
Why Smuggling Is Economically Attractive
The Smugglers’ Rationale
Sharing Sovereignty
Conclusion
Chapter 3: Cronies and Contraband: Why Integrating Tunisia’s Informal Economic Elite Has Become Necessary
Introduction
The Emergence of Two Economic Elites
The Post-2011 Economy and the Failure to Integrate Peripheral Elites
The Costs of Failing to Integrate the Elites of the Informal Economy
Conclusion
Chapter 4: North Pacific: Why Lebanon’s Akkar Region Weathered the Syrian Conflict
Introduction
A Tale of Two Countries
Akkar’s Impact on Beirut
Conclusion
Chapter 5: Transnationalization of a Borderland: Center, Periphery, and Identity in Western Iraq
Introduction
The Transformation of Center-Border Relations
State Atrophy and the Rise of Transnational Jihadism
The PKK and the Transnationalization of Iraq’s Northwestern Border
Iran-Backed Paramilitaries: The Periphery’s Encroachment on the Center
Conclusion: What Next?
Chapter 6: How Syria’s War Extended Border Policies to Much of the Country
Introduction
Center-Periphery Relations Before 2011
The Borderlands Post-conflict: Accentuating the Security-Based Approach to Governance
Employing Borderland Tactics in Non-borderland Peripheries
How the Regime Manages Loyal and Ambivalent Peripheral Areas
How the Regime Treats Rebellious Peripheral Areas
Conclusion
Chapter 7: Hadramawt’s Emergence as a Center: A Confluence of Yemeni Circumstances and Hadrami Resourcefulness
Introduction
A Historical Tendency Toward Autonomy
Turning Hadramawt from a Periphery into a Center
Hadramawt at the Mercy of Saudi-Emirati Rivalry
Conclusion
Chapter 8: The Center Gives: Southern Syria and the Rise of New Peripheral Powerbrokers
Introduction
Local Intermediaries as Instruments of State Domination Before 2011
How the Syrian Conflict Transformed Center-Periphery Relations
The Rise of New Peripheral Powerbrokers in Daraa
The Internationalization of Center-Periphery Relations
Conclusion
Chapter 9: On the Edge: How Risks from Iraq Have Helped Form Kuwaiti Identity
Introduction
A Contentious Border and Kuwaiti Insecurities
Iraq and the Transformation of Kuwaiti National Identity
Conclusion: Toward a Joint Identity and a Networked Border
Index
