The Chilcot report has revived the debate about western intervention in the Middle East. This week’s Fathom highlight offers two expert insights. Professor Asher Susser argues that the assumption of the Sykes-Picot intervention after World War One – that Western-style secular nationalism would override sectarian identities – was the biggest mistake in Western thinking about the Middle East in the 20th century, and this assumption continues to shape Western thinking. Jonathan Spyer builds upon Susser’s critique in a detailed mapping of the complex and bloody state of the sectarian conflict in a collapsing-Syria.

Our voice of the week is Oded Eran, senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, joined by Merav Michaeli, member of the Israeli Knesset for the Zionist Union and Michael Oren, Kulanu Party representative in the Israeli Knesset, to discuss the growing efforts to internationalise the peace process and what the Israeli government can and should do to respond.

Our image of the week is filmmaker Quentin Tarantino receiving an award from Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat at the opening night of the Jerusalem Film Festival, 7 July 2016.

Sykes and Picot ignored the sectarianism of the Middle East, and we are still paying the price

by Asher Susser