This program has an updated location.

An understanding of today’s Arab-Israeli world needs to be rooted in an historical knowledge of the efforts to divide or partition the land—and how each brought new problems to the region. Using maps and documents, Ralph Nurnberger, a professor of international relations at Georgetown University, highlights how the countries in this area have shifted boundaries over hundreds of years—and how those changes have affected  their inhabitants’ views of their own histories.

Maps reveal the conflicting proposals made by the British concerning the post-World War I future of the Ottoman Empire’s holdings in the Middle East; decisions by France that had far reaching consequences for Lebanon and Syria; and how the League of Nations helped in establishing the British Mandate of Palestine, which gave rise to the current nations of Jordan and Israel.

Nurnberger discusses efforts by the British to partition the region; the 1947 UN plan to divide the land west of the Jordan River; and the Armistice Lines established in 1949. He also looks at how the territories Israel gained after 1967 further altered the region, and concludes with a review of maps currently under discussion to determine how these might impact potential future boundaries.