Beyond Syria's Borders: A History of Territorial Disputes in the Middle East

The on-going crisis in Syria has not only affected those caught within the country's borders, but with the deluge of refugees fleeing the violence, it has also had an impact on the surrounding countries. Lebanon, together with the province of Hatay in Turkey (containing Antakya) and the Golan Heights were all originally part of French Mandate Syria, but are now all outside the boundaries of the modern Syrian state. The policies and reactions of Syria both to the loss of these territories and to the states that have either emerged from, absorbed or annexed them (Lebanon, Turkey and Israel) are the focus of Emma Lundgren Jorum's book. Beyond Syria's Borders highlights the differences between actual policy on the one hand and rhetoric and discourse on the other when it comes to each of these three cases. It does so in order to understand the nature of not only territorial dispute in the region, but also the processes of state-building and nationalism more generally. Covering the formation of the Syrian Arab Republic from the fall of the Ottoman Empire through to the twenty-y rst century, Lundgren Jorum examines the ways in which Syrian views of these lost territories have changed over time. Through the examination of Syria's foreign policies towards these lost territories, Lundgren Jorum sets out and analyses Syrian-Turkish, Syrian-Lebanese and Syrian-Israeli relations. In doing so, she advances particular conceptions of nationalism to explain why Syria views certain lost territories as more valuable than others and why some losses have been pushed to one side and others remain at the forefront in Syria's international relations and diplomacy efforts, despite, and sometimes because of, the current con ict. Lundgren Jorum's examination of Syria's responses to the loss of territory is thus vital for any reader attempting to understand the workings of Syrian foreign policy, impacting everything from Syria's role in the Middle East to the wider Arab-Israeli con ict. This makes it vital for those researching both the history of border conflicts in the region as well as the current crisis.