The Arabian Boundaries set is one of the foundation stones of Cambridge Archive Editions' Middle East collection. The original set, Arabian Boundaries 1853-1960, set out clearly to trace the creation and subsequent changes to the boundaries of the Gulf and peninsula states using primary documents researched from the British Government archives. Regular release of the Government material means that updates to the status of the boundaries examined become available and we have already produced Arabian Boundaries 1961-1965. A further 10-year period of files has become available. The new material is of particular interest covering, as it does, the intense period of diplomatic activity engendered by the announcement of the British Government, in 1968, of their intention to withdraw from the Gulf States by 1971. The material will be arranged boundary by boundary, in the same order as the previous collection and will consist of approximately 11000 pages.

The boundaries of the Arabian peninsula are notable for the sensitivities and disagreements which have accompanied their relatively short history. As the twentieth century progressed, the partition of resources, initially pastures and water wells, subsequently oil and gas, was particularly crucial, but the boundary makers, chiefly the diplomats of the imperial powers, were inconsistent in paying attention to the human and physical characteristics of the terrain when negotiating or imposing many limits. Consequently boundary studies in this area have been and remain a fruitful topic for geographers and anthropologists as well as a necessary preoccupation for strategists and politicians. The records of the various British government departments represented here provide by far the most extensive and complete survey of the evolution of territorial affairs in Arabia and the Gulf. They will certainly form the core of any future legal debate focusing upon the historical aspects of any one of the region's boundaries on land or sea.

The boundaries of the Arabian peninsula are notable for the sensitivities and disagreements which have accompanied their relatively short history. As the twentieth century progressed, the partition of resources, initially pastures and water wells, subsequently oil and gas, was particularly crucial, but the boundary makers, chiefly the diplomats of the imperial powers, were inconsistent in paying attention to the human and physical characteristics of the terrain when negotiating or imposing many limits. Consequently boundary studies in this area have been and remain a fruitful topic for geographers and anthropologists as well as a necessary preoccupation for strategists and politicians. The records of the various British government departments represented here provide by far the most extensive and complete survey of the evolution of territorial affairs in Arabia and the Gulf. They will certainly form the core of any future legal debate focusing upon the historical aspects of any one of the region's boundaries on land or sea.