AGAPS Graduate Paper Prize 2018: Winner

Abstract

In examining British imperial control of the port of Basra in wartime and Mandate Iraq, Gabriel Young’s paper begins with a fascinating puzzle, asking: “How can an infrastructure both unify and fragment territory?” (p. 1). He directs his careful historical analysis to some tremendously rich empirical data, skillfully weaving together findings from his own archival research and the existing literature. Young’s paper is an exceptional example of how historians have successfully deployed the lens of space and infrastructure, the focus of research in the field of geography, to pose new and exciting questions about power and colonial governmentalities in the Middle East and around the world. In turning these insights to the Gulf region, Young demonstrates how a spatial strategies were key to enabling British control of Basra, and allowing colonial administrators to extend their “jurisdiction far beyond the physical limits of the actual infrastructure, into the overlapping territory of sovereign nation-states, semi-autonomous municipalities, and transnational corporations... , strategically reinterpreting and remaking the political, legal, and even physical space of Basra and its environs” (p. 2). The paper is well written and skillfully embedded in wider historical literature and its findings are of relevance far beyond Middle Eastern area studies. It analyses the subtleties of multi-layered imperial rule with great finesse. Key themes like the intrusion of military-supported capitalism and the emergence of new social and economic hierarchies in the British empire, but also the legalistic creativity of colonial authorities, are woven together into a compelling narrative. The diverging interests of APOC and of colonial authorities are investigated with particular subtlety.