B2890 - International Relations of the Middle East

Learning outcomes

The course aims at providing students with an overview of the system of international relations in the Middle East. At the end of the course students will be knowledgeble about the main issues and problems of MENA International Relations : main factors in state and nation building processes in the area (identity, religion, natural resources); the main regional conflicts and their interaction with global conflicts such as the Cold War, or the global war on terror; roots of domestic political instability in the region, in both Middle Eastern secular republics and theocratic Gulf States, and their impact on regional confictuality and international relations.

Course contents

The course consists of 20 frontal lectures covering the following topics: International relations theory and the Middle East, beyond the "Discipline-Area Studies Epistemic Gap"; The Making of a state foreign policy: State and Society; the Middle East in the post WW1 State System; the 'Sykes-Picot Moment" in the History of the Modern Middle East and the debate on state artificiality; identity and politics in the Middle East; identity and sovereignty in the ME regional system; the Middle East in the Cold War and the Cold War in the Middle East; the End of Panarabism and the restructuring of regional politics1 and 2- War and Order in the Middle East 1: the Palestinian Question and the Arab- Israeli Conflict (1 and 2); War and Order in the Middle East: Revolution and War in the Gulf (1 and 2); the Political Economy of Oil and ME International Relations; the ME Critical Political Economy Project; the Post-Bipolar Middle East: the Second Gulf War and the Roots of the Arab Revolts.

Readings/Bibliography

Louise Fawcett, International Relations of the Middle East, Oxford University Press (6th edition), forthcoming

Raymond Hinnebusch, The International Politics of the Middle East. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2003 (available also in Italian: Raymond Hinnebusch, La politica internazionale del Medio Oriente. Bologna: Il Ponte, 2010), chaps. 1,2,7,8.

Fred Halliday, The Middle East in International Relations: Power, Politics, and Ideology. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005. (Available also in Italian as Fred Halliday, Il Medio Oriente, Potere, Politica e Ideologia. Milano: V&P, 2007), chapter 2.

For a historical overview (highly recommended to those who did not take a minor/major in History of the Modern Middle East before):

William Cleveland and Martin Bunton, A History of the Modern Middle East, Sixth Edition, Routledge, 2016 (also available in in Italian as Storia del Medio Oriente moderno, Mondadori Education, 2021)

Seminar readings, with related key questions and activities, will be available on VIRTUALE.

Non attending students must agree on a customized bibliography focusing on a preferred topic among those covered during the course. THEY ARE REQUESTED TO CONTACT THE LECTURER, EITHER BY EMAIL OR DURING OFFICE HOURS, NO LATER THAN WEEK 4 (hard deadline).

The following resources can be used productively to research on various topics in history, politics and international relations of the Modern Middle East.

http://jadaliyya.com [http://jadaliyya.com/] [ indipendent e-by ASI, Arab Studies Institute]

http://merip.org [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]

Academic journal specialized in Middle Eastern Studies:

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

Access to these journal is free for all UNIBO students via the University Library System (see how to connect by remote to the Uni server in order to access these resources when you're not on campus

http://www.sba.unibo.it/it/almare/servizi-e-strumenti-almare/connessione-da-remoto

Teaching methods

Lectures will be frontal, nonetheless interaction and active students' partecipation will be encorauged if allowed by the actual class size.

Assessment methods

Oral exam at the end of the course (100% final grade). 

The final exam will aim at assessing the knowledge of the disciplinary contents of the couse, in addition to the abiity to use critical and analitical skills to elaborate on them and articulate coherent and clear arguments in both written and oral form.

Mock exam papers will be made available on Virtuale.

Students with learning disorders and\or temporary or permanent disabilities: please, contact the office responsible (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students ) as soon as possible so that they can propose acceptable adjustments. The request for adaptation must be submitted in advance (15 days before the exam date) to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of the adjustments, taking into account the teaching objectives.

Teaching tools

PC, maps, videos, and slides. 

Office hours

See the website of Francesca Biancani