MESOP : On the point – By Thomas von der Osten Sacken (WADI)

“ What these recent events should be teaching us is that following the artificial state narrative to its logical conclusion leads to one place, and that place is not peace in the Middle East but rather the violence of ethnosectarian cleansing. This is part of what IS is doing, in its effort to dismantle the “artificial” borders. Yet rather than compelling the rest of the world to rethink the logic of the artificial state narrative—which is, I repeat, the logic of ethnosectarian cleansing—the violence of IS is being marshaled as yet more evidence of that narrative’s purported truth.

In short, Iraq’s borders were formed in much the same way that nation-state borders everywhere have been formed. A lot of work and a lot of violence went into their construction, and a lot of work and a lot of violence would go into their re-construction. “

‘Lines Drawn on an Empty Map’: Iraq’s Borders and the Legend of the Artificial State (Part 1)

It may be that no modern nation-state has been called “artificial” more times than Iraq. While most… – JADALIYYA.COM – 2 June 2015 Watch all: http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/21759/lines-drawn-on-an-empty-map_iraq%E2%80%99s-borders-and-the