Contributor(s): Dr Richard Schofield | In trying to make sense of the spontaneous appearance of new borderland spatialities in Syria and Iraq, as well as recent instances of formal state boundary-making such as the Abyei arbitration, Richard Schofield asks what constitutes a borderland in the Middle East. Addressing both historical and contemporary concerns, with notable attention being paid to Iran-Iraq and Saudi-Yemen, he argues that developing a more overtly multidisciplinary basis for the study of contested borders will best aid their appreciation and understanding. Richard Schofield is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography at King's College London and founder of the highly-rated Geopolitics (and International Boundaries) journal. Richard’s major study Arabian Boundaries: New Documents, 1966-1975 was released in 2009-10 by Cambridge University Press in 18 volumes. Current research projects include The Unique Geopolitics of Island Sovereignty Disputes and Border Geographies: Historiography, Ethnography and Law.