Sykes Picot: An Imperial Curse?

Here is a great essay (editorial) about the Sykes-Picot Agreement signed 100 years ago in May 1916. The writer, Hisham Melhem, is a columnist and analyst for Al Arabiya News Channel in Washington, DC.

Melham argues that the arbitrary lines that the two diplomats drew allowed "Arab autocrats, despots and ruling elites to justify their disastrous failures at providing good governance, and to explain all the political and economic ills of the region for a full century."

He also points out that Sykes Picot was the only the first of several Western efforts to redraw boundaries in the Middle East with conferences whose names might confound Arab ears like Versailles, Sèvres, San Remo  and Lausanne.