Course Description

Chemin Eugène-Rigot 2 | CP 1672 - CH-1211 Genève 1 | +41 22 908 57 00 | graduateinstitute.ch MAISON DE LA PAIX

International Relations/Political Science Academic year 2018-2019

Middle East Politics

RI-SP059

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Course Description

This course provides a thematic overview of Middle East politics. Its main objective is to develop a broad understanding of the roots and consequences of the most relevant contemporary issues ranging from comparative state building to the Arab uprisings. Each topic will present enough historical background to understand contemporary political developments. Although this course is empirical, each theme is related to major theoretical debates in the discipline.

PROFESSOR

Jerome Drevon

(jerome.drevon@graduateinstitute.ch) Office hours: by appointement 8 th floor, petale 2, CCDP

Thursday 12.15 -> 14.00 S4

Syllabus

Introduction

The course on Middle East politics is structured around several themes covering salient subjects related to the region. The themes covered in the course are eclectic. They include state-centred questions particularly relevant to international relations as well as social movement mobilisation in violent and non-violent forms. The course is suited to students with limited background in Middle Eastern studies and students who want to explore more specific issues in depth, especially in their written assignments.

The course can only be successful with the active partciipation of the students. I have limited the number of readings to facilitate your work but I expect you to do the readings every week. Critical reading is not the same as word-by-word reading. I expect the students to have a general understanding of the main arguments developed by the authors and to develop their own informed opinion on each topic. The final grades will therefore include student participation.

Assignments

The class will be evaluated with two written assignments. The first assignment is a book-review or a thematic review of several books of 1500 words. The list will be given to you in the beginning of the first course. The single-book review and the thematic review are not a simple rearticulation of the arguments developed by one or several authors. It is a critical reading that engages actively with them to help you develop your own position.

The first assignment is due by April 15.

The second assignment is an individual research paper of 20 pages (12 font, double space, inpaper references). I welcome a wide range of topic related to Middle East politics broadly defined or to the specific themes covered this semester. The papers cannot, however, be a mere literature review. You are expected to actively engage with the relevant academic literature and present a structured analysis. The papers are due by May 9. You have to contact me by email or discuss your choice of topic and a one page provisional outline with me by April 18. In addition to discussing the topic, I will give you advise on the structure of the paper. You are free to chose a topic

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that can serve as a foundation for an article or that helps you structure your thoughts for a dissertation or doctoral research.

The assignments can be written in English and French.

Evalutation

Class participation 20%

Book review 30%

Final paper 50%

References

General introductions to the discipline are available in the library and online:

Fawcett, L., 2016. International relations of the Middle East. Oxford University Press.

Halliday, F., 2005. The Middle East in international relations: power, politics and ideology. Cambridge University Press.

Milton-Edwards, B., 2018. Contemporary politics in the Middle East. John Wiley & Sons.

Owen, R., 2013. State, power and politics in the making of the modern Middle East. Routledge.

Specific academic journals accessible online:

British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies Middle East Critique

Middle East Journal More general journals:

Foreign Affairs Foreign Policy Security Studies International Security

Terrorism and Political Violence

1) Introduction (March 21)

Bates, R.H., 1997. Area studies and the discipline: a useful controversy?. PS: Political Science &

Politics, 30(2), pp.166-169.

Halliday, F., 1993. ‘Orientalism’and its critics. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 20(2), pp.145-163.

Kuran, T., 2004. Why the Middle East is economically underdeveloped: historical mechanisms of institutional stagnation. Journal of economic perspectives, 18(3), pp.71-90.

Schwarz, R., 2008. The political economy of state-formation in the Arab Middle East: Rentier states, economic reform, and democratization. Review of International Political Economy, 15(4), pp.599-621.

2) Colonial Legacies and Comparative State-Building in the Middle East and North Africa (March 28) Ayubi, N.N., 1996. Over-stating the Arab state: Politics and society in the Middle East. IB Tauris. Chapter 3

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Halliday, F., 2005. The Middle East in international relations: power, politics and ideology (Vol. 4). Cambridge University Press. Chapter 3

Harik, I., 1985. The origins of the Arab state system. The International Spectator, 20(2), pp.20-32.

Owen, R., 2013. State, power and politics in the making of the modern Middle East. Routledge. Chapter 1 &

Chapter 2

Rogan, E.L., 2005. The Emergence of the Middle East into the Modern State System. International Relations of the Middle East, pp.17-39.

3) Competing Ideologies and the State (April 4)

Fawcett, L., 2016. International relations of the Middle East. Oxford University Press. Chapter 3 & Chapter 7

Halliday, F., 2005. The Middle East in international relations: power, politics and ideology (Vol. 4). Cambridge University Press. Chapter 7

Telhami, S. and Barnett, M.N. eds., 2002. Identity and foreign policy in the Middle East. Cornell University Press. Chapter 8.

Walt, S.M., 1987. The origins of alliance. Cornell University Press. Chapter 6.

4) The Roots and Expansion of Political Islam (April 11)

Bayat, A., 1998. Revolution without movement, movement without revolution: Comparing Islamic activism in Iran and Egypt. Comparative studies in society and history, 40(1), pp.136-169.

International Crisis Group, 2005. Understanding Islamism. Middle East/North Africa Report, (37).

Lacroix, S., 2011. Awakening Islam. Harvard University Press. Chapter 1.

Mitchell, R.P., 1993. The society of the Muslim Brothers. Oxford University Press, USA. Chapter 1 pp. 1-35.

Wiktorowicz, Q., 2006. Anatomy of the Salafi movement. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 29(3), pp.207-239.

5) The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (April 18)

Fawcett, L., 2016. International relations of the Middle East. Oxford University Press. Chapter 12

Pappe, I., 2004. A history of modern Palestine: One land, two peoples. Cambridge University Press. Chapter 6

& Chapter 7

Sayigh, Y., 1997. Armed struggle and state formation. Journal of Palestine Studies, 26(4), pp.17-32.

6) The Arab Uprisings (May 2)

Bellin, E., 2012. Reconsidering the robustness of authoritarianism in the Middle East: Lessons from the Arab Spring. Comparative Politics, 44(2), pp.127-149.

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Brownlee, J., Masoud, T.E. and Reynolds, A., 2015. The Arab Spring: Pathways of repression and reform.

Oxford University Press, USA. Chapter 1, pp 18-40

Gause III, F.G., 2011. Why Middle East studies missed the Arab Spring: The myth of authoritarian stability.

Foreign Affairs, pp.81-90.

Goodwin, J., 2011. Why we were surprised (again) by the Arab Spring. Swiss Political Science Review, 17(4), pp.452-456.

7) Al-Qaeda, Islamic State and the Transnationalisation of Violence (May 9)

Drevon, J., 2017. The Jihadi Social Movement (JSM): Between Factional Hegemonic Drive, National Realities, and Transnational Ambitions. Perspectives on Terrorism, 11(6).

Gerges, F.A., 2009. The far enemy: why Jihad went global. Cambridge University Press. Chapter 1, pp 16-43

Hegghammer, T., 2010. The rise of Muslim foreign fighters: Islam and the globalization of Jihad. International Security, 35(3), pp.53-94.

Moghadam, A., 2009. Motives for martyrdom: Al-Qaida, Salafi Jihad, and the spread of suicide attacks.

International Security, 33(3), pp.46-78.

Wiktorowicz, Q., 2001. The new global threat: transnational salafis and jihad. Middle East Policy, 8(4), pp.18-38.