The document proposes remapping the boundaries of countries in the Middle East based on several key factors, including ethnicity, language, natural geography, natural resources, and existing political boundaries from World War 1. Specifically, the author argues that the Middle East should be divided into 20 countries total. Ethnicity and language concentrations were important criteria for separating regions, and natural geography such as mountains and rivers formed clear borders. Additionally, each new country was designed to have equitable access to natural resources and similar sizes as the current political boundaries, to promote stability and self-sufficiency.

1. Remapping the Middle East
Jee Yeon
Middle East has been controlled by the European governments, resulting in serious issues in the formation
of their boundaries. In order to make the map of the Middle East to create politically stable and
economically self-sufficient nations, some of the boundaries should be changed for equity, justice and
responsibility. Taking some major factors into account, such as language, ethnicity, natural resources,
natural geography and political boundaries after World War 1, the Middle East has to be disseminated into
20 countries.
To begin with, the high concentration of ethnicity was one of the crucial factors for dividing the regions in
the Middle East. Ethnicity is one of the grounds of wars between countries. People with different ethnicity
behave differently, leading to a huge conflict. Therefore, large ethnic group (Arabs) is divided into smaller
countries and there won’t be any countries having two ethnic groups. By looking at the ethnicity map, I
was able to recognize that the concentration of ethnicity was divided by the geography, where there were
some rivers and mountains. Rivers and mountains were barriers to those concentrations of ethnicity,
making some of the groups not to be spread out. Since Turkey and Iran were Kurds, I had to make another
country (Tabriz) between Turkey and Iran. According to other factors, such as natural resources and
language, I thought that Syria couldn’t be the country taking the region between Turkey and Iran because
Syria will have more natural resources or become a country of speaking the Kurdish. If Syria had two
ethnic groups (Kurds and Arabs), the country would have had a great conflict.
Secondly, the concentrations for language also play an important role in dividing the boundaries in
Middle East. There were several overlaps with the language and ethnicity, which helped me to divide the
boundaries easily. I have made Turkey, Iran and Tabriz to use common language (Kurdish) in their own
country. Arabic was the most presiding language in the Middle East, so it didn’t really referred into the
map a lot.
Moreover, natural geography was the distinctive factor that could specify the separation. Separating the
countries would reduce the fights between the countries because the borders would be very clear for them
to know. I tried to give each countries equal amount of land. However, for some countries that lack
natural resources, I gave them more lands to live on. If a country has a great number of mountains
bordering the country, it can benefit them as a protection against other countries. For instance, I was able
to divide the area of Iran by considering the Zagros Mountains region and use it as a border of the Iran.
In addition, I thought that every country should have equity of natural resources. I tried to give countries
equal amount of resources since I thought natural resource is the most significant to think about while
dividing the borders. Natural resources such as oil and natural gas are really vital for country’s economy.
Not only that, rivers and deserts will also be beneficial to the country, becoming a residential country as it
has a lot of land for the people to live and job opportunities for them in the oil field. Thus, by exporting
and selling it to other countries, their economy will definitely boost. For example, when looked at the map
(I have drawn), Saudi Arabia has quite large amount of areas since the country lack natural resources,
while those of Iran’s got even smaller since the land had too much access to natural resources.
Last of all, applying political boundaries that were formed after World War 1 was very important. I believe
that political boundaries after World War 1 would help me remapping since the political boundaries have
been accustomed to people for decades. If the boundaries changes extremely, there would have great
fights between countries because of unfairness. I tried to give each country the same borders as possible
because when the country gets more or little amount of land, they would lose their capital city. Therefore,
I just reduced and added some lands according to the five important factors, not combining the countries
together.