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IAFF 6378 US Foreign Policy in the Middle East

Ambassador Gordon Gray

Tue 5:10 – 7:00 PM

This course examines U.S. engagement in the Middle East since World War I by studying the evolution of U.S. policy, reviewing key decisions, and assessing 21 st century challenges. Students will build on this foundation to determine what U.S. national security interests are – and what U.S. priorities should be – in this region, and how the current inflection point in the global world order affects them. The course also seeks to provide an analytical framework for better understanding differing perspectives on U.S. policy. Student presentations, writing assignments, and active class discussion will help students improve the analytical, written, and oral communications skills essential for a successful career in international affairs. The instructor is a former career diplomat who served as a U.S. Ambassador and as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs.

Tue 5:10 – 7:00 PM

IAFF 6378.16 Political Economy of the Middle East

Shana Marshall

Thu 7:10 – 9:00 PM

This course will introduce students to the political foundations of the region’s economy. We will examine how the economy of the MENA has been shaped by encounters with external actors (foreign traders, colonizing governments, transnational firms, international financial institutions, development agencies, etc.) but also how the region has impacted the global economy, with a special focus on the Gulf states and their role in shaping global financial markets. We will examine the legacy and ongoing impact of Western development and reconstruction agencies and their discourses, with special attention to the region's agrarian zones as well as zones transformed by imperial wars. Other important regional actors such as militaries, oil companies, sovereign wealth funds and labor movements will also be examined. This course will introduce students to mainstream political economy approaches concurrently with their critiques, in order to provide an understanding of the evolution of theories and practices of economic development and their political origins.

Thu 7:10 – 9:00 PM

PSC 6478 International Relations of the Middle East

Marc Lynch

Wed 5:10 – 7:00 PM

Why has the Middle East been the site of so much armed conflict, protracted political stalemate, and transnational violence? Why have its problems consumed so much of the energy and attention of global powers? How has U.S. foreign policy shaped the region since World War II? What explains the new lines of alliance and conflict since 2011? How should we understand the rise of sectarianism and jihadist movements? What best explains the causes and effects of major wars in Middle East? What are the major drivers of alliances and rivalries among the region’s powers? Why has the region been afflicted by so many proxy wars and insurgencies? This course examines the major theoretical frameworks for understanding the international politics of the contemporary Middle East. Among the major issues covered are the formation of the Middle East state system, alliance politics, the causes and effects of wars, peace negotiations, America’s role in the region, Israel’s relations with its neighbors, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, international political economy, Iran’s role in the region, transnational jihadist movements, transnational mobilization and identity politics. The course considers historical cases such as well as contemporary issues. The goal throughout is to think through the value and significance of the major theoretical approaches to the international relations of the Middle East, and their application to policy debates.

Wed 5:10 – 7:00 PM

IAFF 6378.80 Gender in the Middle East

Attiya Ahmad

Thu 5:10 – 7:00 PM

Why is there such an emphasis on gendered power relations in the Middle East? How do we go about examining the significance of gender to the contemporary Middle East? To address these questions, this course provides students with the historical and analytical foundations to examine the role gender—understood as forms of interrelations through which difference and power are produced—plays in the contemporary Middle East. Two major objectives animate this course. The first is to learn about the diversity of gender relations and gendered experiences in the contemporary Middle East. The second is to develop a robust analytical vocabulary that will enable us to critically interrogate gendered power relations and how these intersect with colonial modernity, geopolitics, religion, kinship, sexuality, dis/ability, political economy, and affect.

Thu 5:10 – 7:00 PM

IAFF 6378 Readings in Arab Politics and Society

Dina El-Hefnawy

Thu 5:10 – 7:00 PM

This course offers individual advanced level Arabic instruction on themes related to the student's academic course of study and intellectual interests. Topics, readings, and assignments will be discussed with the instructor at the beginning of the semester, with instruction and expectations targeted at the student's current level of proficiency. Please note that this course may be taken more than once, with a new individualized syllabus each term, and can be used to satisfy Middle East Electives or Professional Field courses on the MESP course of study.

Thu 5:10 – 7:00 PM

PSC 6377 Government and Politics in the Middle East

Daniel Neep

Mon 7:10 – 9:00 PM

This course will help students understand the tumultuous changes that have swept the Middle East over the last decade. We will focus our attention on topics such as revolutions and protests, authoritarianism and repression, political economy, and the politics of ethnicity, religion, and nation. Although the course is primarily concerned with domestic factors, we will compare different cases across the region to better understand the causes - and consequences - of political change in the contemporary Middle East as a whole.

Mon 7:10 – 9:00 PM

IAFF 6378 Iran in the Middle East

Sina Azodi

Mon 5:10 – 7:00 PM

Iran has long played a critical role in the international relations of the Middle East –historically one of the most tumultuous regions in the world. In this graduate course, we will critically discuss Iran's foreign and security policies, against the backdrop of its controversial nuclear and missile programs, support for proxy groups, and its contentious relations with other regional players, especially Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Israel. The aim of this course is to familiarize students with goals, characteristics, and evolution of Iran’s regional policies and the daunting challenges it faces. Some of the questions that this course aims to address: How do Iranians look at the region? What are Iran’s strategic goals in the Middle East? How does the rest of the region look at Iran? What are the driving forces behind Iran’s foreign and security policies?

Mon 5:10 – 7:00 PM

HIST 6801 History of the Modern Middle East

Shira Robinson

Thu 5:10 – 7:00 PM

Until recently, much of the historical writing about the modern Middle East was burdened by methodological nationalism—the search for the cultural, political, and economic origins of each of the individual successor states that emerged after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I. This state-by-state approach defies the lived experience of Ottoman subjects/citizens in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Our course begins by surveying the central forces that swept the empire from the late-eighteenth century until its wartime demise in 1918. It then explores the legacies of Ottoman rule and European intervention up through the 1948 war in Palestine/Israel. Geographically, we will focus on the provinces of Anatolia (which became Turkey) and the Arab East. Thematically, we will focus on the ways that people from a variety of backgrounds in the region led, championed, criticized, and made the most of the central changes that we associate with the modern era: the emergence of an integrated world economy and the rise of the nation-state. Our readings will touch on the uneven incorporation of the Ottoman Empire in the global capitalist market; the expansion of the state alongside the emergence of mass politics; the novel mobilities and subjectivities enabled by the invention of new communications and transportation technologies, and the messy transition from empire to colonized nation-states. Throughout the semester we will question conventional binaries that often plague analyses of the region: East/West, modernity/tradition, Arab (or Muslim)/Jew, constitutionalism/Islam. We will also trace the ways that European intervention and local grievances led to the violent “unmixing” of peoples in Ottoman lands. Above all, we will work to de-exceptionalize the region—that is, to situate Middle East history in a global context.

Thu 5:10 – 7:00 PM

IAFF 6378 Democracy Promotion in the Middle East

Amy Hawthorne

Tue 7:10 – 9:00 PM

This course explores the factors behind the persistence of autocracy in the modern Middle East, the struggles of the region’s people for democracy and universal human rights, and the role of the U.S. government in preserving or changing the status quo. We will examine the scholarly and policy debates over U.S. democracy promotion, and the reasons for its limited effects, before, during, and after the 2011 Arab Spring. The course looks closely at key cases for U.S. democracy promotion programming, such as Egypt and Tunisia, while also looking more broadly at the policy process and how the U.S. government and non-governmental actors have balanced competing interests across the region. The course will feature guest speakers from the State Department, advocacy NGOs, and Congress who have extensive experience working on these issues. The course is intended for students interested in the politics of the modern Arab world; comparative authoritarianism and democratization; and U.S. foreign policy and democracy and human rights promotion abroad. Students should leave the course with an understanding of key factors contributing to and pushing against Arab autocracy and the challenges (and opportunities) that U.S. policy makers face in developing appropriate policies toward the promotion of democracy and human rights in the Arab region. Assignments will include intensive exercises in writing policy memos applicable to the U.S. foreign policy community and governmental policy making.

Tue 7:10 – 9:00 PM

IAFF 6378.11 Politics in the Gulf

Kristin Diwan

Tue 5:10 – 7:00 PM

Today the Gulf region faces numerous challenges: generational change, information wars, the global energy transition, competition from regional powers Iran and Turkey, and a US partner less attuned to their security dilemmas. But they also sense new opportunities in partnerships with alternative powers like Russia, India, China, and even old foes like Israel. They are also finding new powers in nationalist appeals. This course will study the transformative global economic forces, and domestic and international political pressures, in order to assess the current trajectory of the Gulf states and its implications for the United States. By taking advantage of new scholarship on the Gulf states, and accessing new media and artistic production from the region, students will gain a deep understanding of the challenges as well as the forces for change, both from the international context and the Gulf peoples themselves.

Tue 5:10 – 7:00 PM