Since 2011, civil wars and state failure have wracked the Arab world, underlying the misalignment between national identity and political borders. In Break all the Borders, Ariel I. Ahram examines the separatist movements that aimed to remake those borders and create new independent states. With detailed studies of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the federalists in eastern Libya, the southern resistance in Yemen, and Kurdish nationalist parties, Ahram explains how separatists captured territory and handled the tasks of rebel governance, including managing oil exports, electricity grids, and irrigation networks. Ahram emphasizes that the separatism arose not just as an opportunistic response to state collapse. Rather, separatists drew inspiration from the legacy of Woodrow Wilson and ideal of self-determination. They sought to reinstate political autonomy that had been lost during the early and mid-twentieth century. Speaking to the international community, separatist promised a more just and stable world order. In Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Libya, they served as key allies against radical Islamic groups. Yet their hopes for international recognition have gone unfulfilled. Separatism is symptomatic of the contradictions in sovereignty and statehood in the Arab world. Finding ways to integrate, instead of eliminate, separatist movements may be critical for rebuilding regional order.

Since 2011, civil wars and state failure have wracked the Arab world, underlying the misalignment between national identity and political borders. In Break all the Borders, Ariel I. Ahram examines the separatist movements that aimed to remake those borders and create new independent states. With detailed studies of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the federalists in eastern Libya, the southern resistance in Yemen, and Kurdish nationalist parties, Ahram explains how separatists captured territory and handled the tasks of rebel governance, including managing oil exports, electricity grids, and irrigation networks. Ahram emphasizes that the separatism arose not just as an opportunistic response to state collapse. Rather, separatists drew inspiration from the legacy of Woodrow Wilson and ideal of self-determination. They sought to reinstate political autonomy that had been lost during the early and mid-twentieth century. Speaking to the international community, separatist promised a more just and stable world order. In Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Libya, they served as key allies against radical Islamic groups. Yet their hopes for international recognition have gone unfulfilled. Separatism is symptomatic of the contradictions in sovereignty and statehood in the Arab world. Finding ways to integrate, instead of eliminate, separatist movements may be critical for rebuilding regional order.

In Break all the Borders, Ariel Ahram focuses on why these conflicts erupted and how separatist movements were able to gain control over territory and population centers in the years since 2011. After explaining how contemporary Arab states were established in the twentieth century, he emphasizes that the separatist movements that did gain traction were the descendants of movements and populations that lost independence in the twentieth century. That is important because Arab politics is often caricatured as a contest of ancient clans, tribes, and sects masquerading under the banner of modern states and political parties. Given the presumed ubiquity of sub-state identities and artificiality of state borders, the Arab world should be rife with rebellions bent on breaking the borders of existing states. Yet most of the rebels involved in the 2011 uprisings sought to overthrow individual rulers and regimes and did not contest the integrity of the state. There are only a handful of actors bent on separation, and they have been trying to reinstate political entities that were repressed within the last one hundred years. Their appeals are distinctly modern: they ask the international community to make good on the promises of popular sovereignty and point to recent histories of self-rule or failed bids for independence to justify their campaigns. Ahram ends by stressing that if we look at the actual sources of separatism in the region, we can see that they do not necessarily signal a breakdown of 'order'--an order that was always tenuous given that its foundations lay in repression of legitimate territorially-based political movements. We should not dismiss contemporary separatists them but rather engage with them.

Kate Isler’s incredible story demonstrates how women can stop self-selecting out of opportunities and take the leap of faith to accomplish their dreams. Kate Isler navigated the male-dominated culture of the technology industry, breaking new global markets for Microsoft in their fast-paced, hyper-growth startup years in some of the most challenging regions in the world – all without a college degree or resources that many believe are necessary for success. Kate’s story is a fascinating adventure from her years as a naïve young adult through her unexpected global career at a time when corporations weren’t hiring women to represent their companies overseas. In Breaking Borders, Kate candidly shares: Her moments of success, failure, and very public mistakes. The struggle she faced to pivot her career in a completely new direction. How she overcame the disappointment of a failed startup by channeling her passion for supporting women. Her mission to inspire other women by building Be Bold, a women’s advocacy non-profit, from the ground up. Kate’s story is a guide for women who want to stop self-selecting out of opportunities because they "assume" they don't have the right education, connections, or skills to take a chance.

The chronicle of a ten-year partnership between MIT and Singapore's Education Ministry that shows cross-border collaboration in higher education in action. In this book, Dara Fisher chronicles the decade-long collaboration between MIT and Singapore's Education Ministry to establish the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). Fisher shows how what began as an effort by MIT to export its vision and practices to Singapore became an exercise in adaptation by actors on the ground. As cross-border higher education partnerships become more widespread, Fisher's account of one such collaboration in theory and practice is especially timely.

The future of education centers empowered students in a global learning ecosystem. Despite decades of reform, the traditional borders of education—graduation, curriculum, classrooms, schools—have failed to deliver on the goals of excellence and equity. Despite massive societal changes, education remains controlled by an old mindset. It is time to change that limiting mindset and, more importantly, the ineffective practices in education. To truly serve all learners, future classrooms must remove the boundaries of learning and become student-centered, culturally responsive, and personalized—supportive and equitable environments where each student can direct their own learning and seek multiple pathways to skills and knowledge in a global learning ecosystem. This compelling call for transformative change offers all involved in education Evidence-based arguments that reveal the need to break the traditional borders that limit learning Strategies to personalize learning and remove the confinement of traditional pathways Examples from around the world to create equitable and student-centric learning environments Resources for creating a school learning environment that expands opportunities for personalized learning into the global learning ecosystem It is time to now imagine a different kind of learning, without borders, and to begin the shifts in practice that will result in personalized learning for all students.

NAMED A TOP 10 BOOK OF 2018 BY NPR and THE WASHINGTON POST WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE IN CURRENT INTEREST FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE NONFICTION AWARD The instant New York Times bestseller, "A must-read for anyone who thinks 'build a wall' is the answer to anything." --Esquire For Francisco Cantú, the border is in the blood: his mother, a park ranger and daughter of a Mexican immigrant, raised him in the scrublands of the Southwest. Driven to understand the hard realities of the landscape he loves, Cantú joins the Border Patrol. He and his partners learn to track other humans under blistering sun and through frigid nights. They haul in the dead and deliver to detention those they find alive. Plagued by a growing awareness of his complicity in a dehumanizing enterprise, he abandons the Patrol for civilian life. But when an immigrant friend travels to Mexico to visit his dying mother and does not return, Cantú discovers that the border has migrated with him, and now he must know the full extent of the violence it wreaks, on both sides of the line.