The Mideast needs a whole new map
Written by Malek

The Mideast needs a whole new map — one focused on connectivity rather than division.

by: Parag Khanna, "Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization"

The Middle East continues to crumble, and the next American administration may inherit an even wider swatch of crises. Jordan, Lebanon and even Saudi Arabia could fail through a combination of ISIS attacks and the oil price collapse.

Exactly a century after the Sykes­-Picot agreement that created the Mideast’s artificial borders, the region needs a whole new map, one focused on connectivity rather than division. Indeed, almost all the 400 million people of the Arab world live in cities, thus the Arab map should be much more one of connected oases than divided tribes.

This map shows the many current, half-­built and potential pipelines, water canals and electricity grids that can correct Arab societies’ vast mismatches between those that are water­rich and water­poor, energy­rich and energy­poor. Instead of letting the Arab Spring become a Thirty Years War, now is the time to get Europeans and China, Iranians and Turks, and even Israel involved in building the infrastructures Arab societies need to create jobs, diversify their economies, stabilize the region and contribute to trade and energy security worldwide.