Middle East Politics

Level
Semester
Summer 2013
Units
4
Number
142A
CCN
76023
Course Description

Political Science 142A

This course begins with a brief historical review of the demise of the Ottoman Empire, followed by the British and French mandate over the Middle East region, the anti-colonialist revolt, the emergence of Israel, Arab-Israeli conflicts, the rise of secular nationalism, and the resurgence of Islamism in all its populist, revolutionary, conservative, and revivalist forms. We will then shift our focus to new modes of thinking about the region—grounded in political economy, economic insecurity, youth bulge, and the burgeoning revolts against authoritarianism and the status quo. While examining a myriad of reasons behind social protests and movements in the region, this course will adopt both a case study approach—focusing primarily on Iran, the new Arab revolts since 2011, especially in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, and Syria—and a comparative study of revolts in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. We also take a thematic approach to the causes of social unrest and identity formation in the region.

Requirements

 

Texts
-William L. Cleveland and Martin Bunton, 5th Ed., A History of Modern Middle East (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2013)
--Ellen Lust, ed., The Middle East, 13th Ed., (Thousand Oaks, CA: CQ Press, 2014)
--Karl Yambert, ed., The Contemporary Middle East: A Westview Reader, 3rd Ed. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2013)
--James L. Gelvin, The Arab Uprisings: What Everyone Needs to Know (NY: Oxford University Press, 2012)
--And possibly: Mahmood Monshipouri, Democratic Uprisings in the New Middle East: Youth, Technology, Human Rights, and US Foreign Policy (Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, date of publication: June 2013).