Textual Settlements: The Sykes–Picot Agreement and Secret Treaty-Making

Abstract

The Sykes–Picot agreement embodies a certain style of diplomacy: an assumption of European predominance, given expression through cartographic line-drawing, terms of art (“protection,” “independence,” “interests”), and a structural secrecy which kept agreements from rival European powers, on the one hand, and from the peoples most affected, on the other. It is this element of secrecy that constitutes the focus of the present contribution. I situate the Sykes–Picot agreement in a prewar pattern of secrecy as diplomatic technique, explore its role in spurring a new regime of publicity for treaties, and take it as a touchstone for exploring whether this new regime could achieve a fundamental transformation of prevailing modes of diplomacy.

Untitled

“…In that meeting, the wick of an Arab revolt was lit that would transform the entire region. That young officer would later be known internationally as 'Lawrence of Arabia'.The Arabs of the region launched an armed insurrection against the Ottoman Empire, driven by the British promises of an independent pan-Arab state in what has come to be known as the McMahon Commitment [1].These promises were never intended to be kept as Great Britain and France secretly negotiated the Sykes-Picot Agreement that would define the territorial ambitions of both powers in the Middle East after the Ottomans were defeated [2], turning the agreement signed with the Arabs into a dead letter. tribes towards Syria's trading centres.…”