Geographic Realities in the Middle East and North Africa
Celebrating the work of Keith McLachlan, a well-known and much-admired geographer of the Middle East and North Africa, this book combines three interrelated topics that define the region. The Middle East has been integral to the growth of the global oil industry, an aspect of its evolution since 1908 which has had profound geopolitical implications as well.
The territory was also the arena for the last European experiment in colonialism, a development that has left its legacy even today. And, historically, it has been the location of the great hydraulic civilisations of Egypt and Mesopotamia yet is still dependent on the flow of its two major river systems the Nile and the Tigris-Euphrates in an era of impending climate crisis. These themes form the essence of themes that are discussed in the chapters that follow. Keith McLachlan played a significant role in our understanding of these themes and of their effects in the contemporary world, as the comments of those who worked with him and have contributed towards this book reveal.
Examining agriculture, oil and state construction, this volume offers an insight into how the contemporary Middle East was constructed after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. It is a key resource for scholars and students interested in geopolitics and the geography of the Middle East.
George Joff is former Deputy Director at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA) and former Lecturer in the international relations of the Middle East and North Africa at POLIS, University of Cambridge. In addition to publishing co-authored and edited books, he has published articles in the Journal of North African Studies and book chapters in Islamist radicalisation in North Africa (2011) and Civil Resistance in the Arab Spring (ed. Roberts et al. 2016) amongst others.
Richard Schofield, Reader in geography at Kings College, University of London, is a specialist in archival sources for the study of boundary and territorial disputes, particularly of the Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf. His publications include Territorial Foundations of the Gulf States (1994) and articles in various journals like Mediterranean Politics and Geopolitics.
History and Society in the Islamic World
Series editors: Anoushiravan Ehteshami
University of Durham
George Joff
Cambridge University
Contemporary events in the Islamic world dominate the headlines and emphasise the crises of the Middle East and North Africa, yet the Islamic World is far larger and more varied than we realise. Current affairs there too mask the underlying trends and values that have, over time, created a fascinating and complex world. This new series is intended to reveal that other Islamic reality by looking at its history and society over the ages, as well as at the contemporary scene. It will also reach far further afield, bringing in Central Asia and the Far East as part of a cultural space sharing common values and beliefs but manifesting a vast diversity of experience and social order.
War and Peace in Qajar Persia
Implications Past and Present
Edited by Roxane Farmanfarmaian
The Creation of Saudi Arabia
Ibn Saud and British Imperial Policy, 19141927
Askar H. Al-Enazy
Islamist Radicalisation in North Africa
Politics and Process
Edited by George Joff
Revisiting the Colonial Past in Morocco
Edited by Driss Maghraoui
Media and Politics in the Southern Mediterranean
Communicating Power in Transition after 2011
Edited by Roxane Farmanfarmaian
Geographic Realities in the Middle East and North Africa
State, Oil and Agriculture
Edited by George Joff and Richard Schofield
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/middleeaststudies/series/SE0791
First published 2021
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2021 selection and editorial matter, George Joff and Richard Schofield; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of George Joff and Richard Schofield to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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ISBN: 978-1-138-38787-4 (hbk)
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Contents
GEORGE JOFF AND RICHARD SCHOFIELD
PART I
Boundaries and the state
RICHARD SCHOFIELD
NOEL BREHONY
KIERAN J. RANKIN
ROBERT W. BRADNOCK
GEORGE JOFF
PART II
Oil and Iran
GEORGE JOFF
ALI ANSARI
PAUL STEVENS
PART III
Agriculture and water
TONY ALLAN
GREG SHAPLAND
RICHARD TAPPER
Guide
Tony Allan, former Professor of geography at SOAS University of London, now Professorial Research Associate at SOAS and Kings College, University of London.
Ali Ansari, Professor of Modern History with reference to the Middle East at St. Andrews University in Scotland.
Robert W. Bradnock, former Reader at Kings College, University of London, now a research associate.
Noel Brehony, former Member of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, now Chairman of the British-Yemeni Society and of the Anglo-Jordanian Society.
George Joff, former Deputy Director at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA), former Lecturer in the international relations of the Middle East and North Africa at POLIS, University of Cambridge.
Kieran J. Rankin is a library research fellow at Trinity College, Dublin.
Richard Schofield, Reader in geography at Kings College, University of London.
Greg Shapland, formerly Head of Research Analysts at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Paul Stevens, Distinguished Fellow (energy, environment, resources) at RIIA, formerly professor of petroleum policy and economics, Centre for Energy, Petroleum, Law and Policy, University of Dundee.
Richard Tapper, formerly Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at SOAS.
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Geographic realities in the Middle East and North Africa
