Break all the Borders

Since 2011, civil wars and state failure have beset the Arab world, underlying the misalignment between national borders and identity in the region. This book offers a unique and detailed account of the separatist movements that aim to remake those borders-the southern movement in Yemen, the federalists in eastern Libya, the Kurdish nationalists in Syria and Iraq, and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Instead of focusing on incumbent states, the book shows how separatists claim the mantle of self-determination and seek to replace a broken regional order with more legitimate and stabile polities.