Bachelor
2024/2025
Area Studies: Middle East
Type:
Elective course (International Program 'International Relations and Global Studies')
Area of studies:
International Relations
Delivered by:
Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs
When:
2 year, 1, 2 module
Mode of studies:
offline
Open to:
students of one campus
Language:
English
ECTS credits:
4
Course Syllabus
Abstract
The course is designed to explore historical roots, ethno-religious foundations and contemporary evolutions in the Greater Middle East (GME). The main attention is focused on the regional and international relations of the countries of the GME in the Modern Times, the power play persued by the external actors and the currents from within shaping the future of one of the most important regions in the world.
Learning Objectives
- • familiarize students with the major historical developments and in either region
- • analyse the major challenges the region is currently facing in different spheres
- • focus on both internal and external dimensions of the region
Expected Learning Outcomes
- Analyses the founding ideas of traditional Islamic historiography, both classical and contemporary
- Awareness of the impact of the so-called Eastern and Persian questions on the contemporary Middle East.
- Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the region, its institutional, politics, economic policies
- Assess the past and present processes in the region and how they affect countries inside the region
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of the key policies and their impact on the outside world.
- Understands specifics of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its impact on the Region and Beyond
- Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the region, its institutional, politics, economic policies.
- Assess the past and present processes in the region and how they affect countries inside the region.
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of the main policies and their impact on the outside world.
- Focuses on both internal and external dimensions of the region.
- Analyses the major challenges the region is currently facing in different spheres.
- Familiarises with the major historical developments and in either region.
Course Contents
- Birth of Islam and Creation of Caliphate. Umayyad and Abbasside Dynasties and spreading of Faith
- The Rise of the Pious and the Struggle in the Path of God
- Modern Frames Ancient Puzzles
- Militarising and Pacifying the Middle East as problem making and problem solving strategies
- The New “Great Game” and the “Arab Spring”
- Historical Foes on the Road to Reconsciliation
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- A companion to the history of the Middle East, , 2008
- A history of social justice and political power in the Middle East : the Circle of justice from Mesopotamia to globalization, Darling, L. T., 2013
- Altorki, S. (2015). A Companion to the Anthropology of the Middle East. Wiley-Blackwell.
- America's challenges in the greater Middle East : the Obama Adminisrtation's policies, , 2011
- American democracy promotion in the changing Middle East : from Bush to Obama, , 2013
- An introduction to middle east politics, MacQueen, B., 2013
- Aproaches to the history of the Middle East : interviews with leading Middle East historians, Gallagher, N. E., 1996
- Arab nationalism : the politics of history and culture in the modern Middle East, Wien, P., 2017
- Beyond Sunni and Shia : the roots of sectarianism in a changing Middle East, , 2017
- Beyond terror and martyrdom : the future of the Middle East, Kepel, G., 2008
- Cammett, M. C., Waterbury, J., Richards, A., & Diwan, I. (2015). A Political Economy of the Middle East: Vol. Fourth edition. Routledge.
- Clark, J. A., & Cavatorta, F. (2018). Political Science Research in the Middle East and North Africa : Methodological and Ethical Challenges. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1843250
- Cleveland, W. L., & Bunton, M. P. (2017). A History of the Modern Middle East (Vol. Sixth edition). Boulder, CO: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1286707
- DEL SARTO, R. A. (2017). Contentious borders in the Middle East and North Africa: context and concepts. International Affairs, 93(4), 767–787. https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iix070
- Democratic transition in the Middle East : unmaking power, , 2013
- Engelhardt, H., Schulz, F., & Büyükkeçeci, Z. (2018). Demographic and Human Development in the Middle East and North Africa. DEU. https://doi.org/10.20378/irbo-50993
- H. Lieshout, R. (2016). Britain and the Arab Middle East : World War I and Its Aftermath. London: I.B. Tauris. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1372785
- Hafez, S., & Slyomovics, S. (2013). Anthropology of the Middle East and North Africa : Into the New Millennium. Indiana University Press.
- Halliday, F. (2004). 9/11 and Middle Eastern Studies past and future: revisitingIvory towers on sand. International Affairs, 80(5), 953–962. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2346.2004.00427.x
- Kurzman, C. (DE-576)178891576. (2007). Cross-regional approaches to Middle East studies : constructing and deconstructing a region / Charles Kurzman. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edswao&AN=edswao.389885290
- Mansfield, P., & Pelham, N. (2013). A History of the Middle East : Fourth Edition (Vol. Fourth edition revised and updated by Nicolas Pelham). New York: Penguin Books. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1113506
- Margaret Nydell. (2012). Understanding Arabs: Vol. 5th ed. Nicholas Brealey.
- Masters, B. A. (2013). The Arabs of the Ottoman Empire, 1516–1918 : A Social and Cultural History. Cambridge University Press.
- Millar, F. (1987). Empire, community and culture in the Roman Near East : Greeks, Syrians, Jews and Arabs. Journal of Jewish Studies, 38(2), 143–164. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsram&AN=edsram.000008116
- Peter Hinchcliffe, & Beverley Milton-Edwards. (2008). Conflicts in the Middle East Since 1945: Vol. 3rd ed. Routledge.
- Rouis, M., Tabor, S. R., & World Bank. (2012). Regional Economic Integration in the Middle East and North Africa : Beyond Trade Reform. Washington, DC: World Bank Publications. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=524953
- Silverstein, A. J. (2010). Islamic History: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: OUP Oxford. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=303939
- Smith, L. V. (2016). Drawing Borders in the Middle East after the Great War: Political Geography and ‘Subject Peoples.’ First World War Studies, 7(1), 5–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/19475020.2016.1159594
- The Middle East and North Africa, 2009, , 2009
- Wolfgang Mühlberger, & Toni Alaranta. (2020). Political Narratives in the Middle East and North Africa : Conceptions of Order and Perceptions of Instability. Springer.
- Yüceşahin M. Murat, Tulga A. Yiğitalp, & Population Horizons. (2017). Demographic and Social Change in the Middle East and North Africa: Processes, Spatial Patterns, and Outcomes. Population Horizons. https://doi.org/10.1515/pophzn-2017-0003
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- The state and global change : the political economy of transition in the Middle East and North Africa, , 2001