In recent times, the question of borders in the Middle East has assumed an importance unknown since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. In this fresh examination of the issue, Inga Brandell draws together a variety of disciplinary approaches, and takes the classic debates forward into the 21st century. From the Syrian-Lebanese border, which is "straddled" by a shifting business community, to the Greek-Turkish border in Cyprus, which has dramatically altered not only the geographical but also the social experience of living there.