31709 - International Relations of the Middle East

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes:

At the end of the course the student will be able to

•  apply the main international relations theory to the Middle Eastern region
• critically discuss the historical entry dynamics of the Middle East into the international system and the developments of regional politics during and after the Cold War
• critically discuss a number of key themes in the international relations and international political economy of the Middle East ( oil and its impact on political development in the region, processes of political delegitimization both in regional secular regimes and Gulf theocracies, issues of liberalization, political reform and human rights, role of ideologies and social movements: Arabism, Panarabism, political Islam and global jihadism, regional cooperation and contemporary region's security dilemmas)
• critically discuss two key examples of security issues in the region and the ways they effected the areal balance of power: the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Iraq War

 

 

Course contents

Week 1 Theory of international relations and the Middle East (no seminar) Week 2 The entry of the Middle East in the system of modern states Seminar readings or extra readings:

Hourani, A. (2002) A History of the Arab Peoples (London: Faber and Faber); capitoli 4 e 5

Excerpts from  Rogan, E. and Shlaim, A. (eds.) (2007)The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948 (2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)

Owen, R. State, Power and Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East (Abingdon, Oxon and New York: Routledge, 19929, pp. 5-22

Anderson, L. "Absolutism and the Resilience of Monarchy in the Middle East" in Political Science Quarterly, 106, 1, 1991, pp.1-15

Week 3: The Middle East during and after the Cold War

Seminar readings or extra readings:

Halliday, F., "The Great Powers and the Middle East" in MERIP 151, 18, 1988, http://www.merip.org/mer/mer151/great-powers-middle-east

Excerpts from  Sayigh, Y. e  Shlaim, A. (a cura di ) The Cold War and the Middle East (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997)

Excerpts  from Ashton, N. (a cura di), Regional Conflict and the Superpowers, 1967-73 (Abingdon, Oxon and New York: Routledge, 2007), pp. 1-16

Excerpts from Korany, B. "The Arab World and the New Balance of Power in the New Middle East" in M.C. Hudson (a cura di.), Middle East Dilemma (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999)

Korany, B. "The Middle East since the Cold War: Still Insecure" in L. Fawcett (a cura di ), The International Relations of the Middle East (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 61-78

Settimana 4. Legitimization Crisis in the Arab secular states: the case of Egypt  

Seminar readings or extra readings

Saad Eddin, I. "Reform and Frustration in Egypt" in Journal of Democracy, vol.21, n.2, Oct. 1996, pp. 125-135

Kienle, E. "More than a Response to Islamism: the Political Deliberalization of Egypt in the 1990s" in Middle East Journal, vol. 52, n. 2, Spring 1998, pp. 219-235

Excerpts from Sower, J. and Toensing C. (eds.), The Journey to Tahrir: Revolution, Protest, and Social Change (London: Versus, 2012)

Week 5. International Politics and Crisis in the Gulf

Excerpts from Gause, F.G. III. The International Relations of the Persian Gulf (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007)

Excerpts from Vitalis, R. American's Kingdom: Mythmaking of the Saudi Oil Frontier (Stanford: Standford University Press, 2007)

Excerpts from Sifry, M. and Cerf, C. (eds) The Gulf War Reader (New York: Touchstone, 2003)

Week 6. Oil and Political Economy in Middle Eastern International Relations

Seminar Readings or extra readings:

Beblawi, H. "The Rentier State in the Arab World" in Luciani, G. ( a cura di) The Arab State (London: Routledge, 1990), pp. 85-98

Schwartz, R. "The Political Economy of State-Formation in the Arab Middle East: Rentier States, Economic Reforms, and Democratization" in Review of International Political Economy. vol. 15, n.4, 2008, pp. 599-621

Ross, M.L. "Does Oil Hinder Democracy?" in World Politics, vol. 53, n. 3, April 2001, pp. 325-36

Week 7. Authoritarianism and Democracy: Arab Exceptionalism?

Seminar readings or extra readings:

Excerpts from Brynen, R., Korany, B., and Noble, P. (eds.) Political Liberalization and Democratization in the Arab World: Theoretical Perspectives (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1997)

Brumberg, D. "The Trap of Liberalized Autocracy" in Journal of Democracy, vol. 13, n.4, 2002, pp. 56-68

Carothers, T. "The End of the Transition Paradigm" in Journal of Democracy, vol. 13, n.1, 2002, pp. 5-21

Hinnebusch, R. "Authoritarian Persistance, Democratization Theory and the Middle East: an Overview and Critique" in Democratization , vol. 13, n. 2. 2006. pp. 373-395

Zubaida, S. "Contrasting Conceptions of Society" in Middle East Report, n. 179, 1992, pp. 2-10

Sadowsky, Y. "The New Orientalism and Democracy Debate" in Middle East Report, n. 193, 1993, pp. 14-21+ 40-41

Week 8. Identity Politics in the International Relations of the Middle East and the challenge of Political Islam

Kepel, G. (2004) Jihad, Ascesa e Declino. Roma: Carocci, capitoli 1,2,3,5,6,9

Opendemocracy and Gilles Kepel (2004) The War for Muslim Minds: an Interview with Jilles Kepel http://www.opendemocracy.net/faith-europe_islam/article_2216.jsp

Roy, O. (2003) Global Muslim: le radici del nuovo Islam. Milano: Feltrinelli, capitoli 2,6,7

Settimana 9. International Relations of the Middle East and Conflict 1: the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Seminar readings or extra readings

Excerpts from Smith, C.D. Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (8th edition, Boston, MA: Bedford/St Martin's Pres, 2013)

Excerpts from Shlaim, A. Il muro di ferro: Israele e il mondo arabo (Bologna: il Ponte, 2003), pp. 1-28 e 597-611

Settimana 10. International Relations of the Middle East and Conflict : 2003 Iraq War

Hinnebusch, R. La politica internazionale del Medio Oriente (Bologna: il Ponte, 2010), pp. 217-272

Excerpts from Sifry, M. and Cerf, C. The Gulf War Reader (New York: Touchstone, 2003), chapters 8,11,14

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Readings/Bibliography

The course textbook is Louise Fawcett,  International Relations of the Middle East, Oxford University Press (3rd edition), 2013.

For those who don't have any background in Middle Eastern History, I suggest to refer to Emiliani, M. Medio Oriente: una storia dal 1918 al 1991 e Medio Oriente: una storia dal 1991 a oggi (Bari: Laterza, 2012)

Seminar readings (in case seminars will be organized, see Section Methods) are listed in the Section Programme and are COMPULSORY. The readings will either articles or excerpts from books you can find at the "Ruffilli" Library or made available to you by the lecturer. On-lines materials will be downloadable from AMS Campus (Teaching Materials)

Non attending students must study the text book and an individual bibliographical list which will be set after cosultation with the reader. Hence, they must contact the reader during office hours or by email WITHIN 4 WEEKS FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE COURSE. NO INDIVIDUAL BIBLIOGRAPHY WILL BE ASSIGNED AFTER THE 4-WEEK DEADLINE.

The following sites can be use to coolect further information about themes of Middle Eastern politics and history:

http://jadaliyya.com [ e-zine indipendente prodotta dall'ASI, Arab Studies Institute]

http://merip.org [Middle East Research  and Information Project]

http://w3fp.arizona.edu/mesassoc/ [MESA homepage]

http://www.albawaba.com/ [Albawaba Middle East gateway]

http://www.mideast.org/ [Middle East Institute]

http://menic.utexas.edu/menic.html [Centre for ME Studies, Univ of Texas at Austin]

http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/ [Al-Ahram Weekly]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/ [BBC World Service]

Scholarly journals specializing in Middle Eastern studies for further referece are:

British Journal of Middle East Studies

Bulletin (British Society of Middle Eastern Studies)

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

International Journal of Middle East Studies

Journal of Palestine Studies

Middle East Report

MERIP Middle East Report  

 MERIP Reports

All these journals can be consulted through the electronic archive: www.jstor.org . Bologna University students can access to JSTOR, and many other thematic data bases, from:

a- all the on-campus computers

b- their own computers by configuring a remote connection to the University of Bologna server. Follow the instruction at http://w3.cib.unibo.it/internet/proxy-almanet/

 

 

 

Teaching methods

If the number of attending students will be less than 30, the course will consist of a combination of lectures (2 hours per week) and seminars (2 hours per week). During seminars, the lecturer will facilitate presentations and debate about the assigned seminar materials among students. They will have to present, critically analize and discuss the seminar materials, whose background will be given during the lectures.The  reading seminar materials is absolutely compulsory for all students, as everyone must be able to engage within the discussion initiated by the week's presenters.

This is not a capped course: if the number of attending students will be too high to make the seminar format suitable, a more traditional format will be used instead, based on frontal lectures during which students will be encouraged to take part with comments and observations based on their extra readings.

Assessment methods

Assessment will be done through an oral interview in order to evaluate the extent to which notions and abilities have been acquired by the students (100% of the final mark). However, if the course will have a seminar part, two elements will be evaluated: presentations skills and active participation in the debates (50%) and the final oral exam (50% ). The  arithmetic mean will be then calculated.

VERY IMPORTANT: Those students who took the course of "International Relations of the Modern Middle East"with Dr. Massimiliano Trentini and Dr. Augusto Valeriani  in 2012-2013 and are still to be examined (next session: January 2014) will be evaluated as follows: oral exam on module 1, written 1 hour exam on module 2. Please, do get in touch with the lecturer before taking the exam.

 

 

Teaching tools

Pc, videos, slides

Office hours

See the website of Francesca Biancani