The rise and desired fall of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have reopened the question of borders in the Middle East. Many commentators point to the long-term negative effects of joining disparate ethnic and religious groups within artificial borders, and view both the Syrian civil war and the dissolution of Iraqi federalism as indicators of the crumbling nation-state. Others insist that citizens always adapt to arbitrary boundaries, noting that the problem rests not in the states themselves but in their governments. Perhaps political structures are to blame, particularly authoritarian leaders who have pressed ethnic and sectarian alliances rather than fostering a unified populace. Still other critics fault transnational forces, first colonial and then Islamist, and hang onto national democracy as the redemptive paradigm. I enter the discussion as someone who researches the history of the oil industry in the Levant and writes about the various ways in which twentieth-century colonial borders have been domesticated and nationalized. From my perspective, the main issue is not borders but, rather, the historical configuration of sovereignty in the Middle East. The problem, furthermore, is not primarily one of territorial sovereignty but of sovereign claims to underground petroleum stores. The history of the modern Middle East is also a history of pipelines, infrastructure that can “transform who controls the flows of petroleum and who profits from them” (Jones 2014: 124). A pair of pipelines, in particular, reflects a hundred years of corporate resource extraction and extreme militarization on the ground. The first pipeline, completed in 1934 to carry oil from Kirkuk in Iraq to Tripoli in Lebanon, was the colonial French line built

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边界之下：关于管道和资源主权

伊斯兰国在伊拉克和叙利亚的崛起和预期的衰落重新开启了中东的边界问题。许多评论家指出在人为边界内加入不同种族和宗教团体的长期负面影响，并将叙利亚内战和伊拉克联邦制的解体视为民族国家崩溃的指标。其他人坚持认为公民总是适应任意边界，并指出问题不在于国家本身，而在于政府。或许政治结构是罪魁祸首，尤其是威权领导人施压种族和宗派联盟而不是培养统一的民众。还有一些批评者指责跨国力量，首先是殖民主义，然后是伊斯兰主义，并坚持将民族民主作为救赎范式。我作为研究黎凡特石油工业历史并撰写有关 20 世纪殖民边界被驯化和国有化的各种方式的人的身份参与讨论。在我看来，主要问题不是边界，而是中东主权的历史格局。此外，问题主要不是领土主权问题，而是对地下石油储备的主权要求。现代中东的历史也是管道的历史，基础设施可以“改变谁控制石油流动以及谁从中获利”（Jones 2014：124）。特别是一对管道，反映了一百年的企业资源开采和地面极端军事化。第一条管道，