Syria: Borders, Boundaries, and the State

Matthieu Cimino is a Fellow at the Paris Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) and a Teacher at Sciences Po and La Sorbonne, France. Formerly, he was a Marie-Skɫodowska Curie researcher at the University of Oxford (Oriental Studies, St Antony’s College, 2016-2018), UK, and an associate researcher at the Moshe Dayan Center, Israel.

• Chapter 1. Introduction.- Part 1: From the Mandate to Assad’s Dynasty: Constructing, Contesting, and Legitimizing Syrian Borders (1920-2011).- Chapter 2. Drawing a line in the sand? Another (hi)story of borders.- Chapter 3. The Turkish-Syrian border and politics of difference in Turkey and Syria (1921-1939).- Chapter 4. Syria’s internal boundaries during the French Mandate: Control and Contestation.- Chpter 5. « The Country should unite first »: Pan-Arabism, State and Territory in Syria under the Baath rules.- Part 2: Struggling for the Borderlands: the Syrian Revolution (2011) and its Aftermath.- Chapter 6. Hizbullah’s borderlands strategy: from identity shaping to the nation-State re-ordering.- Chapter 7. Spatialization of Ethno-Religious and Political Boundaries at the Turkish-Syrian Border.- Chapter 8. Dayr al-Zur From Revolution to Isis: Local Networks, Hybrid Identities, And Outside Authorities.- Part 3: Imagining and Manufacturing the Borders: Non-State Actors and their Representations of Syrian Territory (2011-2017).- Chapter 9. The Opposition’s Three Territories.- Chapter 10. Sunni Islamists: From Syria to the Umma, and back.- Chapter 11. The Complex and Dynamic Relationship of Syria’s Kurds with Syrian Borders: Continuities and Changes.- Chapter 12. The Map and Territory in Political Islam. Spatial Ideology and the Teaching of Geography by the Islamic State.

“This book is not only for specialist readers with a specific academic interest; it may also give general readers interested in Syria a valuable overview of some of the complexities of Syrian border issues. … It is perhaps the first book to provide a truly knowledgeable overview of the subject, both historically and at the present time. … this book provides a much-needed overview of Syrian border issues, and is recommended reading for anyone interested in the topic.” (Nerouz Satik, European Review of International Studies ERIS, Vol. 8 (2), 2021)