From the Sinai to Kuwait: The Significance of Britain's Desert Empire

Between the two world wars, small groups of British officers were sent to ‘bring under administration’ the desert frontiers and nomadic societies between the Mediterranean Sea and the Arabian Peninsula. In this talk, Robert Fletcher argues that the British Empire’s desert corridor, which ran from Egypt to Iraq, was a critically important zone of British imperial power. He asks how far the desert frontiers have persisted as an arena of political activity despite the formal partition of the Middle East at the hands of colonial powers.
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* This event is organised by the Kuwait Programme, LSE Middle East Centre.

Speaker: Robert Fletcher, University of WarwickChair: Courtney Freer, LSE Middle East Centre

Robert Fletcher (@rsgfletcher) is Associate Professor of Britain and Empire at the University of Warwick. His research focuses on the histories of imperialism, nomadic societies and desert environments in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. He has appeared in Past and Present, The English Historical Review and the Journal of Historical Geography. His first book, 'British Imperialism and ‘The Tribal Question’: desert administration and nomadic societies in the Middle East, 1919-1936' was published by Oxford University Press in 2015. He currently holds a Leadership Fellowship award from the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons.