What is the relationship between these two clauses?

I came across this sentence:

Even as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan morph into shapeless struggles, they have given birth to an extraordinary outpouring of writing that tries to make sense of it all.

I looked "even as" in the dictionary and found out that it is used to express time, manner or that the clause is concessive. However, I am not sure which one (if any) it is, as none seems quite right in this case (the tenses confuse me the most).

Could anyone please explain it to me?

Solution 1:

The relationship between the two clauses is one of contrast between negative and positive.

It is saying that the clause following the 'even as' phrase:

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan morph into shapeless struggle

is a negative outcome, but that there is a positive outcome that is happening simultaneous with that negative outcome.

The positive outcome is the rest of that sentence:

they (the wars) have given birth to an extraordinary outpouring of writing that tries to make sense of it all.

Solution 2:

Even as is not a constituent in this sentence, except as one might consider it an idiomatic fixed phrase functioning as a subordinator. But even as isn't idiomatic; its meaning is completely compositional, given the meanings of even and as. Nor is it a fixed phrase, since the even is optional and can precede any temporal expression

• Even as/when/before/after/a decade after the wars ...

The original example

• Even as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan morph into shapeless struggles

is a subordinate tensed adverbial clause, introduced by as, short for (and meaning) at the same time as.

• (at the same time) as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan morph into shapeless struggles

Preceding this clause, which is fronted to the start of the sentence, is the concessive quantifier even. Even as isn't a unit, any more than big Victorian is a unit in big Victorian houses.