The Rise and Decline of Arab Statehood, 1919 to 2011

Chapter 1 details how Arab states came of age in the midst of a global transformation in notions of sovereignty, self-determination, and statehood following World War I. The coupling of Wilsonian liberal norms with changes in the global balance of power afforded some local actors pronounced advantages in attaining and building statehood. New states, including Lebanon, Israel, Syria, and Iraq, owe their independence to this change. For others, though, the new rules of the international system obstructed the pursuit of sovereignty. Kurds in Syria and Iraq, Christian communities, and others tried and failed to gain statehood. Struggles in the Arab world, accordingly, became more about vertical or centripetal tendencies and less about separatism.