The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations

by Daniel Yergin

The map of the modern Middle East was laid down during and after the First World War, in the vacuum resulting from the collapse of the Ottomans and yet based on the provincial lines left behind by the Ottomans. The maps have been challenged ever since—by pan-Arab nationalism and political Islam, by opposition to the state of Israel, and then by jihadists such as ISIS, who want to replace the very idea of a “nation-state” with a caliphate. One of the biggest challenges in the region today comes from the rivalry between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran for preeminence, now made more complex by Turkey’s new bid for that role, reclaiming a lineage going back to the Ottomans. But also defining for the region are the four-decade confrontation between the United States and Iran and the prevalence of weak governance in many countries.