Ginsburg Ingerman Overseas Students Program Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

The Great Powers in the Middle East, 1914 – Present Spring Semester 2017

Dr. Ziv Rubinovitz Email: [email protected] Office location: Building #: 72, Floor 5 ½ Room #: 567 (Program offices) Office hours: Sunday 16:00-17:00 or by appointment

Course Description: The course will discuss the relations between the great powers and the Middle East since the outbreak of World War I until current events. We will see how the great powers formed the modern Middle East and how the region played a significant part in the global arena. Developments in Palestine and the creation of Israel and its evolution and relations with the region and the great powers will be a major topic discussed throughout the course. The transformation of the region started with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire during World War I, continued with the mandate system dominated by Britain and France, and then went on to independent states. The European dominance demised and was replaced by the American and Soviet competition and patronage, until the U.S. gained hegemony. The Middle East remained a major region in the global affairs even after the Cold War ended, with deep involvement of the great powers. The recent turmoil in the region and the relative decline in American influence opened the way to a new great power competition over influence in the region.

Course Objectives: The modern Middle East is complex and has been affected by global powers but also affected global affairs as well. Students taking the course will learn the evolution of this process and will better understand and analyze historical and current affairs, particularly the international, extra-regional ones.

Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of this course, students should be able to: 1. Describe relations between the great powers of the recent century and the Middle East. 2. Explain how the great powers shaped the region in its modern form and what input regional forces and developments had on the great powers and the international system in general. 3. Assess the interplay between the regional and international occurrences, past and present. 4. Analyze similarities and diversities of the Israeli experience compared with other countries in the region.

Field of Education and Discipline(s): International Relations, Israel Studies

Course Structure:

Lecture: 26 Total # of Credits: 4 ECTS (European Credit Transfer System—): 6

Teaching Method: The course will be conducted through a combination of formal lectures, class discussion, and student presentations. The lectures will be based on weekly reading assignments.

Course Requirements

Compulsory attendance YES

Pre-requisites: None

Structure of Final Course Grad 1. Participation 10% 2. Midterm Exam 20% 3. Final Paper 50% 4. Student presentation 20% 100%

Note: - Work handed in late, will not be graded! - Penalties and course policies should be clearly articulated (i.e. students will have their final grade lowered an entire grade level if they miss more than 2 class meetings unexcused) - Language of instruction is English.

Time required for individual work: in addition to attendance in class, the students are expected to do their assignment and individual work: 1-2 hours of reading each week 2 hours of work on the presentations 6 hours of work on midterm exam 12 hours of work on the final paper Those expectations are approximate and correlate with the module's ECTS.

Course Schedule Layout: First week 13.3 Introduction: Setting the scene – characterizing the Middle East; the Middle East under the Ottoman Empire Readings: David Fromkin. A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East, 1914-1922. London: A Deutsch, 1989, chapter 3. William Cleveland. A History of the Modern Middle East, 3rd ed. Boulder, Co.: Westview Press, 2004, chapter 9. Jonathan Schneer. The : The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. London: Bloomsbury, 2010, chapter 1.

Second week 19-20.3 World War I: Regional dominance alters Readings: Matthew F. Jacobs. "World War I: A War (and Peace?) for the Middle East". Diplomatic History 38 (4), 2014, pp. 776-785. David Fromkin. A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East, 1914-1922. London: A Deutsch, 1989, chapters 13-28.

Third week 26-27.3 The Mandate system and World War II: Jewish and Arab aspirations and links to the great powers Readings: William Cleveland. A History of the Modern Middle East, 3rd ed. Boulder, Co.: Westview Press, 2004, chapters 11-13. Jonathan Schneer. The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. London: Bloomsbury, 2010, chapters 24-25. Isaiah Friedman. "How Trans-Jordan Was Severed from the Territory of the Jewish National Home,” Journal of Israeli History 27 (1), 2008, pp. 65-85.

Fourth week 2-3.4 Post-war changing dominance: from British and French to American and Soviet Readings: Piers Brendon. The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997. London: Vintage Books, 2008, pp. 460-480. Joel S. Migdal. Shifting Sands: The United States in the Middle East. : Press, 2014, chapters 1-2.

Fifth week 23-24.4 The Middle East in the American and Soviet grand strategies Readings: Joel S. Migdal. Shifting Sands: The United States in the Middle East. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014, chapters 2-3. Galia Golan. Soviet Policies in the Middle East: From World War II to Gorbachev. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990, chapters 1-2.

27.4 – Tour in Jerusalem

Sixth week 30.4 (1.5 Memorial Day, no class) The great powers and the creation of Israel Readings: Allis Radosh and Ronald Radosh. A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel. New York: Harper Collins, 2009, chapters 11-12. Gabriel Gorodetsky. “The Soviet Union’s Role in the Creation of the State of Israel,” The Journal of Israeli History 22 (1), 2003, pp. 4-20. John Sakkas. “Anglo-American relations and the Palestine question, 1945-1956”, in Daniel Mockli and Victor Mauer (eds.), European-American Relations and the Middle East: From Suez to Iraq. London and New York: Routledge, 2011, pp. 47- 61.

Seventh week 7-8.5 The Arab-Israeli conflict: global and regional dynamics 1 Readings: Uri Bialer. Between East and West: Israel's Foreign Policy Orientation, 1948- 1956. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990, pp. 206-234. Avi Shlaim. "Israel between East and West, 1948-56," International Journal of Middle East Studies 36 (4), 2004, pp. 657-673. Tore T. Petersen. “Suez 1956: European colonial interests and US Cold War prerogatives”, in Daniel Mockli and Victor Mauer (eds.), European-American Relations and the Middle East: From Suez to Iraq. London and New York: Routledge, 2011, pp. 11-25. William B. Quandt. Peace Process: American Diplomacy and the Arab-Israeli Conflict since 1967. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005, chapter 5 (pp. 130-173) and optional chapters 6-7 (pp. 177-242).

Mid-term exam 14.5 (50 minutes)

Eighth week 14-15.5 The Arab-Israeli conflict: global and regional dynamics 2 Same readings from the previous week.

Ninth week 21-22.5 US-Israel relations in the regional context Readings: Yaacov Bar-Siman-Tov. "The United States and Israel since 1948: A 'Special Relationship'?" Diplomatic History 22 (2), 1998, pp. 231-262. Douglas Little. “The Making of a Special Relationship: The United States and Israel, 1957-68,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 25 (4), 1993, pp. 563-585.

Tenth week 28-29.5 The Great Powers and the Arab World Readings: Galia Golan. Soviet Policies in the Middle East: From World War II to Gorbachev. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990, chapters 3, 10-12. Joel S. Migdal. Shifting Sands: The United States in the Middle East. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014, chapters 7-9.

Eleventh week 4-5.6 The Post-Cold War Middle East and the great powers 1 Readings: Fawaz A. Gerges. "The Obama Approach to the Middle East: The End of America's Moment?" International Affairs 89 (2), 2013, pp. 299-323. Yiyi Chen. "China's Relationship with Israel, Opportunities and Challenges: Perspectives from China," Israel Studies 17 (3), 2012, pp. 1-21. Joel S. Migdal. Shifting Sands: The United States in the Middle East. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014, chapters 10-11.

Twelfth week 11-12.6 The Post-Cold War Middle East and the great powers 2 Same readings from the previous week.

Thirteenth week 18-19.6 Conclusion: The great powers and the new regional realities Readings: Mohammed Ayoob. "The Arab Spring: Its Geostrategic Significance". Middle East Policy 19 (3), 2012, pp. 84-97. Yoram Evron. "China's Diplomatic Initiatives in the Middle East: The Quest for a Great-Power Role in the Region". International Relations 2016.

FINAL PAPER SUBMISSION BY JULY 13

Additional recommended Bibliography General: James Barr. A Line in the Sand: Britain, France and the Struggle that Shaped the Middle East. London: Simon & Schuster, 2011. Betty S. Anderson. A History of the Modern Middle East: Rulers, Rebels, and Rogues. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2016.

Second week: D. K. Fieldhouse. Western Imperialism in the Middle East 1914-1958. Oxford: , 2006, chapters 1-2. Jonathan Schneer. The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. London: Bloomsbury, 2010, chapters 2-7. Justin Fantauzzo. "Ending Ottoman Misrule: British Soldiers, Liberal Imperialism, and the First World War in Palestine". The Journal of the Middle East and Africa 6 (1), 2015, pp. 17-32. Third week: D. K. Fieldhouse. Western Imperialism in the Middle East 1914-1958. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006, chapters 3-8. Meir Zamir. The Secret Anglo-French War in the Middle East: Intelligence and Decolonization, 1940-1948. London and New York: Routledge, 2015. Fourth week: Chikara Hashimoto. "Fighting the Cold War or Post-Colonialism? Britain in the Middle East from 1945 to 1958: Looking Through the Records of the British Security Service". International History Review 36 (1), 2014, pp. 19-44. Fifth week: Elie Podeh. “The Desire to Belong Syndrome: Israel and Middle-Eastern Defense, 1948- 1954,” Israel Studies 4 (2), 1999, pp. 121-149. Sixth week: Yaacov Ro'i. "The Deterioration of Relations: From Support to Severance,” The Journal of Israeli History 22 (1), 2003, pp. 21-36. Seventh-Eighth weeks: John Turner. "Great Powers as Client States in a Middle East Cold War". Middle East Policy 19 (3), 2012, pp. 124-134. Joel S. Migdal. Shifting Sands: The United States in the Middle East. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014, chapters 4-5. Galia Golan. Soviet Policies in the Middle East: From World War II to Gorbachev. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990, chapters 3-7. Gadi Heimann. "In Search of a Route to World Power: General de Gaulle, the Soviet Union, and Israel in the Middle Eastern Crisis of 1967". International History Review 32 (1), 2010, pp. 69-88. Ziv Rubinovitz. “Blue and White ‘Black September’: Israel’s Role in the Jordan Crisis of 1970,” International History Review 32 (4), 2010, pp. 687-706. Kenneth W. Stein. Heroic Diplomacy: Sadat, Kissinger, Carter, Begin, and the Quest for Arab-Israeli Peace, New York: Routledge, 1999, pp. 187-268. Yehuda Blanga. "‘The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming’: American Management of the Crisis Associated with Ending the October 1973 War". Middle Eastern Studies 49 (4), 2013, pp. 563-589. Azriel Bermant. "The impact of the cold war on the Thatcher government's Middle East policy". Israel Affairs 19 (4), 2013, pp. 623-639. Ninth week: Ariel Ilan Roth. "Reassurance: A Strategic Basis of U.S. Support for Israel," International Studies Perspectives 10 (4), 2009, pp. 378-393. Ben Fishman. "The 'Israel Lobby': A Realistic Assessment," Orbis 52 (1), 2008, pp. 159-180. Peter L. Hahn. "Special Relationships,” Diplomatic History 22 (2), 1998, pp. 263- 272. Michael J. Koplow. "Value Judgment: Why Do Americans Support Israel?" Security Studies 20 (2), 2011, pp. 266-302. Tenth week: Douglas Little. American Orientalism: The United States and the Middle East since 1945. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008, chapters 2, 5- 6. Eleventh-Twelfth weeks: Kenneth M. Pollack. A Path Out of the Desert: A Grand Strategy for America in the Middle East. New York: Random House, 2008. Dennis Ross. The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004. Daniel Byman. "Regime Change in the Middle East: Problems and Prospects". Political Science Quarterly 127 (1), 2012, pp. 25-47. James Dobbins et al. "U.S. Withdrawal from Iraq: What Are the Regional Implications?" Middle East Policy 16 (3), 2009, pp. 1-27. Mark L. Haas. "Missed Ideological Opportunities and George W. Bush’s Middle Eastern Policies". Security Studies 21 (3), 2012, pp. 416-454.