Break all the Borders

Ariel I. Ahram is Associate Professor in the Virginia Tech School of Public and International Affairs in Alexandria, Virginia, and non-resident fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. He earned a Ph.D. in government and M.A. in Arab Studies from Georgetown and B.A., summa cum laude, from Brandeis. He writes widely on security issues in the Middle East and North Africa. He was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C. and has spoken and lectured at the World Bank, Marine Corps University, and the German Institute for Global Affairs. In 2015, he testified before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee on the Islamic State's abuses of women and children.

• Introduction1. The Rise and Decline of Arab Statehood, 1919 to 20112. 2011: Revolutions in Arab Sovereignty3. Cyrenaica4. Southern Yemen5. Kurdistan6. The Islamic StateConclusion: The Ends of Separatism in the Arab World

"The breakdown of state authority is the root of the current Middle East crisis, and what comes in its aftermath is the biggest question facing the region. Ariel Ahram helps us to understand at least one of the paths forward from the rubble of the old state system in this theoretically-informed and empirically-rich book. The separatist efforts he examines might not eventually succeed in achieving internationally recognized statehood, but they are already one ofthe most important drivers of regional politics." -F. Gregory Gause III, Texas A&M University"Ariel Ahram's Break All the Borders is a remarkable work of scholarship and a fascinating contribution to the story of the Middle East over the past decade. Ahram has mastered a breathtaking range of materials and presented them in an easily comprehensible fashion to demonstrate how the dynamics of secessionism help drive state making and state breaking. His meticulous, careful research leads to an important set of conclusions that should inform bothacademic study and policy making in the 21st Century."-Kenneth M. Pollack, author of Armies of Sand"This book offers a thoughtful and provocative perspective on the resilience of the contemporary states of the Arab world through the lens of some of the most resilient alternatives-the longstanding regional, ethnic, and religious allegiances laid bare in the aftermath of the uprisings of 2011. In outlining the fortunes of several separatist claims to statehood as well as the challenge to the prevailing order represented by the Islamic State, Ahram provides asalutary reminder of both the fragility and the hardiness of the region's borders." -Lisa Anderson, Columbia University