93630 - CONFLITTI E DEMOCRAZIA NELL'AREA MEDITERRANEA

Learning outcomes

The class aims at exploring the intertwining between the establishment of democratic systems across the Northern Mediterranean area and the complex transitions from colonialism to independence within the region. The analysis of conflicts both within national contexts and between state actors will also be carried out. The class’ time-frame embraces the so-called long Twentieth century (i.e. from 1970s to the 2010s). At the end of the course, students will be able to interpret and outline the features of the main conflicts that affected and still affect the Mediterranean area to this day, with particular emphasis on the medium-long term factors behind the transition from post-colonial forms of conflicts to current regional turmoil following the two Gulf wars, the Arab springs, and the destabilization of the Syrian area.

Course contents

The class explores the main political and economic dynamics of the contemporary Mediterranean area through the lenses of international history. Contents will primarily focus on the interdependence among different state policies, protest movements and economic actors from the second stage of the Cold War (i.e. from the early 1970s to the early 1990s) to the lopsided emergence of the post-bipolar world (i.e. between the 1990s to the 2010s). Contents might change according to both teaching needs and students’ suggestions.

 

First phase (10 hours)

The 1970s

* Introduction. Excursus on the concept of democracy in the contemporary age.

* Prelude: 1956-1967

* Between détente and the ‘shock of the global’: economics, politics, and international relations

* The Yom Kippur war, the first oil crisis and their impact on the international system: the emergence of stagflation

* The North-South dialogue and its historical evolutions: the role of Europe

 

Second phase (10 hours)

The 1980s and the early 1990s

* The second oil crisis and its impact on international relations

* The neoliberal paradigm and its Mediterranean form: development, inequality, and crisis

* Regional conflicts and the second Cold War: Palestine, Lebanon, and Israel

* The debt crisis and the counter-shock: new economic scenarios in the 1980s

* The end of the Cold War, the dissolution of the soviet system, and the Mediterranean interplay in the crisis of international communism

 

Third phase (10 hours)

From the end of the Cold War to the Syrian crisis

* The Mediterranean area in the post-bipolar world: United States, the Gulf war, and the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

* War and globalization: 9/11, the second Gulf war, and the turmoil in the Mediterranean region

* The 2007-2008 global financial crisis and its impact on Southern Europe

* The “Arab Springs” and the Syrian war: Mediterranean conflicts in the XXI century

* The history of the present and new international scenarios across the Mediterranean area

Readings/Bibliography

Handbook

1) Antonio Varsori, Storia internazionale. Dal 1919 a oggi, Bologna, il Mulino, 2015 [new edition 2020*]. Chapter 7 and Chapter 8

2) Antonio Varsori, Le relazioni internazionali dopo la guerra fredda, 1989-2017, Bologna, il Mulino, 2018 [new edition 2022*]. Chapter I (§3 and §4); Chapter II (§ 1 and §4); Chapter IV; Chapter V; Chapter VII (§1); Chapter VIII; Chapter X; Conclusions

* Should the students adopt the 2020 and/or 2022 edition(s), please check the chapter numbering’s correspondence between the first and the second edition(s)

One monograph/edited book among the following:

- Niall Ferguson et al (eds.), The Shock of the Global: The 1970s in Perspective, Cambridge (MA), Harvard University Press, 2010

- Luca Riccardi, L’internazionalismo difficile. La «diplomazia» del Pci e il Medio Oriente dalla crisi petrolifera alla caduta del Muro di Berlino (1973-1989), Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino, 2013 [Introduction + Chapters I, II, and III or Introduction + Chapters IV, and V, VI]

- Sara Lorenzini, Una strana guerra fredda. Lo sviluppo e le relazioni Nord-Sud, Bologna, il Mulino, 2017

- Duccio Basosi, Finanza e petrolio. Gli Stati Uniti, l’oro nero e l’economia politica internazionale, Firenze, Studio LT2 edizioni, 2012

- Duccio Basosi, Giuliano Garavini, Massimiliano Trentin (eds.), Counter-Shock: The Oil Counter-Revolution of the 1980s, London, I.B. Tauris, 2018

- Joseph Stiglitz, La globalizzazione e i suoi oppositori, Torino, Einaudi, 2002

- Leonardo Morlino, Cecilia Emma Sottilotta (a cura di), La crisi dell’Eurozona e l’Europa del Sud. Un’analisi comparata, Bologna, il Muluno, 2020

- Gustavo Gozzi, Umano, non umano. Intervento umanitario, colonialismo, primavere arabe, Bologna, il Mulino, 2015

Teaching methods

Lectures; debate with students during the classes

Assessment methods

Attending students

At the end of the course, attending students will take a written exam based on both the handbooks and the classes. Once the written exam has been passed, they will take an oral exam based on one of the monographs/edited books listed above

Non attending-students

At the end of the course, non-attending students will take a written exam based on both handbooks. Once the written exam has been passed, they will take an oral exam based on one of the monographs/edited books listed above and on the following readings:

a) Massimiliano Trentin. Power and Integration. An Historical Overview on Euro-Mediterranean Relations, «Marmara University Journal of Political Science», 6, 2018 [doi: 10.14782/ipsus.421020];

b) Andrea Teti, Democracy Without Social Justice: Marginalization of Social and Economic Rights in EU Democracy Assistance Policy after the Arab Uprisings, «Middle East Critique», 24,1, 2015, pp. 9-25;

c) Daniela Huber, Asma Nouira, Maria Cristina Paciello, The Mediterranean: A Space of Division, Disparity and Separation, «MedReset Policy Papers», 2018.

Teaching tools

Ppt(s) and audio-visual materials

Office hours

See the website of Roberto Ventresca