THE MIDDLE EAST IN GLOBAL POLITICS (IR160) Course duration: 54 hours lecture and class time (Over three weeks) Summer School Programme Area: International Relations, Government and Society LSE Teaching Department: Department of International Relations Lead Faculty: Dr Amnon Aran and Dr Katerina Dalacoura (Dept. of International Relations) Pre-requisites: None.
Content: The course will examine the regional politics of the Middle East since 1918 and their interaction with problems of international security, global resources and great power / superpower / hyperpower policies. It will aim to give students a grounding in the development of international relations of the Middle East so as to enable them to relate the course of events to analytic issues in the study of International Relations. An additional aim of the course will be to analyse the phenomenon of political Islam by situating its emergence in the context of regional and global politics.
Required Reading: 1 Required Texts (most of the readings are from these two books but additional readings will be circulated electronically through Moodle): - Fred Halliday, The Middle East in International Relations: Power, Politics and Ideology, Cambridge: CUP, 2005 - Hinnebusch, Raymond and Ehteshami, Anoushiravan (eds), The Foreign Policies of Middle East States, Boulder: Lynne Rienner, new edition, 2014
Course Structure: - Lectures: 36 hours - Classes: 18 hours Formative assessment One 1,000 word essay due on Friday of week one, with feedback given before the summative essay is due. This will not count towards students’ overall grades, but is intended to help with preparation for the summative assessments. Summative assessments - Mid-session: one 2,000 word essay worth 50% of the overall grade. This should be submitted towards the end of week two, with results and feedback given at the start of week three.
Course content is subject to change. Last updated: January 2019
- Final: one unseen two-hour examination worth 50% of the overall grade on the final Friday of week three. The precise time and location of the exam will be circulated during the programme. Final overall grades will normally be available within a week of the final exam.
Course Outline:
Monday, 17 June Day 1 - Lecture 1: General characteristics of the region: geography, ethnic and religious make up, basic economic and political facts Dr Katerina Dalacoura - Required reading: Halliday, Introduction and Chapter 1. - Question for class: What are the salient social, political and economic characteristics of the Middle Eastern region?
Tuesday, 18 June Day 2 - Lecture 2: Historical introduction: from the nineteenth century to the formation of the state system in the interwar period Dr Amnon Aran 2 - Required reading: Halliday, Chapter 3. - Question for class: ‘The state system that emerged in the Middle East at the end of the inter-war period was inherently unstable.’ Do you agree and why?
Wednesday, 19 June Day 3 - Lecture 3: The US and the Middle East in Historical Perspective Dr Amnon Aran - Required reading: Halliday, Chapter 4; Fawcett, Louise, International Relations of the Middle East, Chapter 16. - Question for class: ‘The impact of the US on Middle Eastern domestic and regional politics during the Cold War period was limited.’ Discuss.
Thursday, 20 June Day 4 - Lecture 4: Arab Nationalism Dr Katerina Dalacoura
Course content is subject to change. Last updated: January 2019
- Required reading: Humphreys, Stephen, ‘The Strange Career of Pan-Arabism’, in Between Memory and Desire: The Middle East in a Troubled Age, (University of California Press, 2005) Chapter 3. - Question for class: ‘Arab nationalism has evolved from a political project to a ‘sentiment’ without political relevance.’ Do you agree?
Friday, 21 June Day 5 - Lecture 5: Political Islam: Ideology and Practice Dr Katerina Dalacoura - Required reading: Halliday, Chapters 7 and 8. - Question for class: In what ways has political Islam as an ideology changed since the 1990s? Answer with reference to at least two specific movements.
Monday, 24 June Day 6 - Lecture 6: Turkey Dr Katerina Dalacoura - Required reading: Hinnebusch and Ehteshami, Chapter 12. - Question for class: Does Turkish foreign policy reflect Turkey’s search for identity? 3 Tuesday, 25 June Day 7 - Lecture 7: Israel Dr Amnon Aran - Required reading: Hinnebusch and Ehteshami, Chapter 11; Freilich, Charles, D., ‘National Security Decision Making in Israel’ The Middle East Journal Vol. 60 No. 4, 2006, pp. 635-664. - Question for class: Critically evaluate the extent to which Israeli foreign policy is driven by security.
Wednesday, 26 June Day 8 — No lecture: free day for essay writing
Thursday, 27 June Day 9 – Lecture 8: Iran Dr Katerina Dalacoura - Required reading: Hinnebusch and Ehteshami, Chapter 10.
Course content is subject to change. Last updated: January 2019
- Question for class: Has the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran been driven by ideology or the national interest?
Friday, 28 June Day 10 - Lecture 9: Egypt Dr Amnon Aran - Required reading: Hinnebusch and Ehteshami, Chapter 3; Osman, Tarek, Egypt on the Brink: From Nasser to Mubarak (Yale: Yale University Press, 2010), Chapter 6. - Question for class: Is Egyptian foreign policy primarily driven by economic considerations?
Monday, 1 July Day 11 - Lecture 10: Non state actors: Hamas, Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda Dr Amnon Aran - Required reading: Gerges, Fawaz A., The Rise and Fall of Al-Qaeda (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), Introduction; Norton, Richard A., Hezbollah: A Short History, Princeton University Press, 2009, Chapters 1 and 2; Hroub, Khaled, Hamas: A Beginners Guide, London: Pluto Press, 2006, Introduction. - Question for class: Compare and contrast Hamas, Hezbollah, and Al-Qaeda as non-state actors. 4 Tuesday, 2 July Day 12 - Lecture 11: War and Conflict in the Middle East Dr Katerina Dalacoura - Required reading: Halliday, Chapter 6; F. Gregory Gause III, “Beyond Sectarianism: the New Middle East Cold War”, Brookings Doha Center Analysis Paper, 11, November 2014; David Phillips, The Kurdish Spring: A New map of the Middle East, New Brunswick: Transaction Publisher, 2015, Introduction, xvii- xxiv. - Question for class: Do you agree that external factors are the key drivers of regional conflicts in the Middle East?
Wednesday, 3 July Day 13 - Lecture 12: From 9/11 to the 2011 Uprisings Dr Amnon Aran - Required reading: Halliday, Chapter 5; Lynch, Marc, The Arab Uprisings Explained: New Contentious Politics in the Middle East, (Columbia University Press, 2014).
Course content is subject to change. Last updated: January 2019
- Question for class: Outline and evaluate the impact of the 2011 Arab Uprisings on the Middle East region.
Thursday, 4 July Day 14 – REVISION DAY
Friday, 5 July Day 15 – FINAL EXAM
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Credit Transfer: If you are hoping to earn credit by taking this course, please ensure that you confirm it is eligible for credit transfer well in advance of the start date. Please discuss this directly with your home institution or Study Abroad Advisor. As a guide, our LSE Summer School courses are typically eligible for three or four credits within the US system and 7.5 ECTS in Europe. Different institutions and countries can, and will, vary. You will receive a digital transcript and a printed certificate following your successful completion of the course in order to make arrangements for transfer of credit. If you have any queries, please direct them to [email protected]
Course content is subject to change. Last updated: January 2019