Why the Middle East’s Borders Guarantee Forever Wars

lesson: never let the British draw borders

I'm Syrian-Lebanese on my father's side, I remember first being told that we were Syrian, and then being told we were Lebanese, the answer kept changing depending on the family member I asked. I was very confused why there wasn't a consistent answer and would wonder "are we Lebanese or Syrian?". As I got older and learned more about the Sykes–Picot borders I realized why the inconsistency was there and the answer to which heritage we were was "yes".

People in the West aren't usually very familiar with the 1916 Sykes–Picot Agreement, but I remember being shocked at hearing it mentioned by some ISIS fighters during their period of territorial conquest (c. 2014). A bunch of them had just crossed from Iraq into Syria and one of them said something like "F– the Sykes–Picot Agreement, this is just a line they drew in the sand". The West might not remember, but for some in the region the resentment is so deep that even 100+ years later these arbitrary choices still have major consequences. edit: I found it! It's from Ben Anderson for VICE News, titled "Bulldozing the Border Between Iraq and Syria" and posted on August 13, 2014. Two mentions start at 2:50 in that video: "We don't believe in the Sykes-Picot agreement" and "We've broken Sykes-Picot" as they bulldoze the border (not exactly what I remembered, but same idea).

You have provided one of THE most concise and ethno-graphically accurate depictions of both the static and dynamic socio/geo-political drivers in this tangled region! The mention of the adaptation of Sykes-Picot geopolitical borders from that of the Ottomans and the fact that the Ottoman's version had already disregarded the ethnic diversities in their calculations makes it so much more comprehendible to today's observer! Everyone uses something that's already there rather than taking the adequate time to put something together from scratch! Kudos to your good work!

I think the most concise way to convey the difficulties in the area are to overlay maps of geography, ethnicity, culture, historical claims, and natural resources. Doing this reveals there is no combination that doesn't leave a very large number of people very angry about something.

You can tell this video isn’t gonna be controversial because it has 0 dislikes on it!

This is a great presentation dude 👍Thank you

It’s amazing how unbiased this video is!

It’s hard to believe they were all part of a single empire at one time or another. The Persian Empire, The Byzantine Empire, The Ottoman Empire.

If aliens land and tell humanity that Earth is their “protectorate” — the British have shown us what that means.

Very good presentation and history of the geo politics of the area. Thank you !

In general an excellent video. They should be used in all schools to educate people.

As a Syrian, it's nice to see this all explained objectively and with no bias. They did teach us some of this in school, but it had bias, and mainly focused on Syria. Keep it up RLL!

I love how RLL is such a good creator he makes even the sex comment bots break character and compliment his vids

Holy wow. So much clarity

Brilliant explanation Video

As a person who lives in the Middle-East, this is very reassuring! In all seriousness though, politics here are so confusing that even though I've been living here my entire life, I still didn't fully understand it so thanks for the video!

I think a video about the Balkans geography and how that influenced the history and politics of that region would be very interesting.

Well, you've convinced me to join Nebula. This video has been one of the clearest explanations about "how we all got into this mess" in the Middle East that I've read, and I've been trying to understand this my entire 72 year old life. I look forward to watching Part 2.

Incredible breakdown of the history and the meddling 👌