![]() “Although far removed from Sykes-Picot, one thing we have learned from the colonial carve-up in Africa is that ‘artificial states’ tend to persist on the map, even in cases of genocidal rampages within individual states. And Iraq continues to hold together, albeit shakily and with the Kurdish north practicing some autonomy from Baghdad. In Syria, both the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and the opposition continue to aspire to a unitary state rather than a much mooted break-up into mini states to better reflect the country’s sectarian demographics. Yet, despite ISIS’s bold promise and the collapse of governance in several states in the Arab world, including Yemen and Libya, the borders themselves remain surprisingly durable. ![]() “This is not the first border we will break, we will break other borders,” an ISIS gunman said in the video. Peace Besieged on all sides, Israeli Arabs preach message of coexistence ![]() A video of the operation was entitled “the end of Sykes-Picot.” In June 2014, the self-declared Islamic State (IS) bulldozed through an earth berm marking the border between Iraq and Syria. The conflicts roiling the region, particularly those in Syria and Iraq, have thrown into question whether the post-World War I nation-states can survive or whether new entities will emerge from the turmoil in the years ahead. The Middle East today is undergoing its greatest political and social upheaval since the agreement negotiated by Sykes and the French statesman Francois George Picot was signed 100 years ago this week. That blunt proposal to divide the Middle East into British and French spheres of influence was the seed that would lead a few years later to the birth of the modern Middle East and with it decades of political turmoil, wars, sectarian bloodletting, socioeconomic disparities, and the interminable Arab-Israel conflict. ”īritain, he said, would retain control of the territory to the south of the line, while the French would have Greater Syria north of the line. Standing before Britain’s top leaders, Sir Mark Sykes slashed his finger across his map of the region and, according to James Barr’s book “A Line in the Sand,” said, “I should like to draw a line from the ‘e’ in Acre to the ‘k’ in Kirkuk. You can reach me at December morning in 1915, with World War I not yet 18 months old, a young diplomat stalked into the offices of the British prime minister in London, carrying with him a map and a bold plan for the future of the Middle East once the allies had defeated Germany and the Ottoman Empire. If you have any questions or comments, I’d love to hear them. So we wanted to try them out for a while and see what you think. Just ask my Journalism 101 professor.These are ideas we’ve been thinking about internally for months. But the best journalism is concise and to the point. We’ll still do our big, signature stories and report on everything in depth. When you click through to the deep read, you also should notice stories that move at a faster clip. When we launched the Daily six years ago, the intro and the short editor’s notes above every quick read were meant to act as a friendly guide – conversationally and briskly walking you through the day’s offerings and putting them in the context of the day’s news.We’re going to get back to that this month, with short intros and summaries that really zero in on why that story matters, not just to the world, but to you. Now you’ll be hearing from me about what the Daily contains – and why.This reinforces our original aim. The big change you’ll notice is right here.You’ve been seeing essays from a range of writers and editors in this space. Welcome to today’s Monitor Daily, which will be looking a little different this month.
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