Jan Busse - Bordering, Ordering and the Making of the Middle East

Wed., 08.12.2021 16.15-17.45
 

Speaker: Dr. Jan Busse (Bundeswehr University Munich)

Moderator: Dr. Klaus Weber (European University Viadrina)

Bordering, Ordering and the Making of the Middle East: Constructing the Post-Ottoman Space in a Global Context

Situated at the intersection of Historic and International Political Sociologies of IR, Critical Geopolitics and Middle East Studies, this presentation offers a de-essentialized engagement with borders of and within the Middle East. For this purpose, I use the label “post-Ottoman space” as being derived from socially constructed processes of bordering and ordering. 
Such a perspective, first, helps properly taking into account the Ottoman legacy of the region. Second, this perspective contributes to overcoming an exceptionalist and essentialized status which is often ascribed to the Middle East. Finally, by using the label “post-Ottoman space” it is possible to emancipate the region from being the object of Western colonial enterprises and instead acknowledging agency from within the region itself. 
As will be shown, in order to properly make sense of underlying regional dynamics, it is necessary to situate the post-Ottoman space in an overarching global context.