Readings

Course Outline and Reading Assignments

[click on “CW” to view electronic articles]



(c1) Introduction & Orientation: Scope of the Course

No Reading: Procedure and Introduction & Documentary

A. The Middle East as Construct; B. Studying the Arab World; C. Nations, Nation-States, and Imagined Communities; D. Critical and Institutional Thinking

              [Class Supplements:  CI Introduction   •   Imperial History Map ]

Questions & Issues to Consider: What, if anything, is “special” about studying the Middle East? What are the most significant challenges to studying the Middle East in the United States? What are the fundamental historical experiences in the 19th and 20th century that shaped the contemporary Middle East? What does it mean to say something is “constructed” (e.g., Middle East as construct)? What does it mean to think “critically?”


(c2) The Middle East: An Overview

A. Geography; B. Population; C. Politics; D. Religion; E. Ethnicity; F. Resources

Readings:

  1.     Deborah J. Gerner, Chapter 1, “Introduction,” in Deborah J. Gerner and Jillian Schwedler, eds., Understanding the Contemporary Middle East (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2004). [Text]
  2.     Ian R. Manners and Barbara McKean Parmenter, Chapter 2, “The Middle East: A Geographic Preface,” in Deborah J. Gerner and Jillian Schwedler, eds., Understanding the Contemporary Middle East (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2004).
  3.     Read all Middle Eastern Countries’ profiles on BBC’s website (~ one-page each) [CW]
  4.     Rashid Khalidi, “Preliminary Historical Observations on the Arab Revolutions of 2011,” Jadaliyya. [CW]

Questions & Issues to Consider: What are the important features of Middle East politics? How did the Middle East come about? What is the difference between the Arab world and the Middle East? Between Arabs and Muslims? How diverse is the Middle East (socially, economically, politically, culturally)? What are the implications of this diversity? How does it complicate the conventional wisdom on the Middle East? How can we understand the current Arab uprisings?


 (c3) Classic Orientalism and Other "Essentialisms:" The Study of the “East” 

A. Orientalism; B. Theologocentrism; C. Cultural Exceptionalism; D. Middle East Exceptionalism; E. Arab/Muslim Apologists

Readings:

  1. Walid Khalidi, Arabs and the West, The Forum, XXXII, December 1957. [CW]
  2. Zachary Lockman, “Orientalism and empire” in Contending Visions of the Middle East, the History and Politics of Orientalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 66-98. [CW]
  3. Interview with Bassam Haddad (November 2003), on Culture, Islamic Values, and Democracy in the Arab World. [CW]


                [Class Supplements:  Orientalism: Outline  • Friedman’s Mideast Rules ]

Questions & Issues to Consider: How has the Middle East (or the “East”) been studied historically? What influenced the study of the Middle East from a European perspective? Or, later, from an American perspective? How do power relations affect the production of knowledge, or notions of “objectivity?” What are the most salient categories in pop culture for understanding the Middle East? Where do they come from and how are they perpetuated? Can we produce objective knowledge about the “other?”  


 (c4) Arab and Middle Eastern Historical and Cultural Background

A. Early Arab/Islamic Empires (7th to 13th Century) and Ottoman Dominion (1516-1917)
B. European Imperialism, 1800-1917; Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire
C. European Colonialism, 1919-1950
D. The Demise of Palestine; Rise of Israel 
E. Economic, Political, Social and Ideological Transformation: Rise of Radical Arab Nationalism
F. Who are the Arabs; Arab Identity
G. What is Islam? Islamic Beliefs and Sects

Readings:

  1.   Arthur Goldschmidt Jr., Chapter 3, “The Historical Context” in Deborah J. Gerner and Jillian Schwedler, eds., Understanding the Contemporary Middle East (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2004). [Text] Also available here: [CW]
  2.   Bassam Haddad, “Notes on Arab Identity.”  [CW]
  3.   John Esposito, The Straight Path, Chapter 2, "The Muslim Community in History,” and Chapter 3, "Religious Life: Belief and Practice." [CW]

 [Class Supplements:  Mideast Historical Timeline.pdf  •  Arabs and Islam, Myth and Reality.pdf •  Middle East History:Maps.pdf   •  NPR on Middle East Troubled History (Audio) ]

Questions & Issues to Consider: What are the most significant periods in the history of the Arab/Muslim world and the Middle East? What is their cumulative impact? What is “identity?” What makes up Arab identity? What is the difference between “Arabs” and “Muslims?” What does it mean to be an Arab? A Muslim? What are the contemporary implications of Arab/Muslim history? What is the difference between Muslims and Islam? Between Islam and Islamic history? (or between Christians and Christianity?)


(c5) Politics, the State, and Authoritarian Rule (2 Sessions)

Session 1: Current Revolt Against Authoritarian Rule (Focus on Egypt)

Readings:

  1. “Preliminary Historical Observations on the Arab Revolutions of 2011,” Jadaliyya. [PDF]
  2. “The Arab Revolts: Ten Tentative Observations,” Jadaliyya. [PDF]
  3. “Why Mubarak is Out,” Jadaliyya. [PDF]
  4. “Egypt’s Three Revolutions: The Force of History Behind This Popular Uprising,” Jadaliyya. [PDF]
  5. “Egypt and the Post-Islamist Middle East,” Jadaliyya. [PDF]
  6. “Why Syria is not Next . . . So Far,” Jadaliyya. [PDF]

     Select and read one post from each country below:

  1. Egypt and Tunisia [Link]  
  2. Libya/Yemen [Link]
  3. Bahrain [Link]    
  4. Syria [Link]


Session 2: Authoritarian Rule

Readings:

  1. Deborah J. Gerner, Chapter 4, “Middle Eastern Politics,” in Deborah J. Gerner and Jillian Schwedler, eds., Understanding the Contemporary Middle East (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2004). [Text]
  2. Juan Linz, “Authoritarian Regimes,” Handbook of Political Science, 1975. [CW] 
  3. Jill Crystal, “Authoritarianism and its Adversaries in the Arab World,” in World Politics, 46 (January 1994), pp. 262-289. [CW]
  4. Marsha Pripstein Posusney, “The Middle East’s Democracy Deficit in Comparative Perspective,” in Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Regimes and Resistance (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2005). [CW]

         [Class Supplements:  Authoritarianism Outline  •  Juan Linz’s Definition •  Crystal]

Questions & Issues to Consider: Is authoritarian rule unique to the Middle East? What produces authoritarian rule? What sustains it? How does authoritarian rule affect state-opposition dynamics? Is there a relationship between levels/kinds of authoritarianism and extremist opposition? What are the bases of conflict in the Middle East?


(c6) Social Dynamics: Family and Women, Community, Ethnicity and Class

A. Community, Ethnicity, Class
B. The Family: Changing patterns
C. Women: Differential roles
D. The Veil: Meaning and Symbolism
E. Colonial Feminism and the Use of Gender Equality in Politics

Readings:

  1. Lisa Taraki, Chapter 11, “The Role of Women,” in Deborah J. Gerner and Jillian Schwedler, eds., Understanding the Contemporary Middle East (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2004). [Text]
  2. Judith Tucker, ed., Arab Women: Old Boundaries, New Frontiers, Ch. X, "The Arab Family in History," pp. 195-207. [CW] 
  3. Lila Abu-Lughod, “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others,” American Anthropologist, Sep. 2002; 104, 3. [CW]
  4. Maya Mikdashi, "How Not to Study Gender in the Middle East," Jadaliyya, March 2012. [CW]

Recommended:

Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender, “Introduction.” [CW]    
As`ad AbuKhalil, “Women in the Middle East,” Foreign Policy in Focus, Vol. 5, No. 30, September 2000 [CW]
Rema Hammami, “Women, the Hijab, and the Intifada,” Middle East Report, No. 164/165 (May-Aug., 1990). [CW]
Arlene Elowe MacLeod, “Hegemonic Relations and Gender Resistance: The New Veiling as Accommodating Protest in Cairo,” Signs, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Spring, 1992). [CW]
Laurie King Irani, Chapter 10, “Kinship, Class, and Ethnicity,” in Deborah J. Gerner and Jillian Schwedler, eds., Understanding the Contemporary Middle East (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2004). [Text]
Michael Ross, “Oil, Islam, and Women,” American Political Science Review, Vol 102, No. 1, February 2008. [CW]
Sara Mourad, "Politics at the Tip of the Clitoris," Jadaliyya, May 2012. [CW]


Questions & Issues to Consider: What is the relationship between societal development and the role of the family? What is the relationship between the role of the family in the society and gender roles? What are the bases of political action in the Middle East (e.g., communal, sectarian, religious, class, political, economic, cultural)? In studying the Middle East, why does the question of the “veil” become an all-too-important issue when other issues are clearly more significant? Should we take liberal discourse on feminism at face value (e.g., “we invaded Afghanistan partly to liberate their women”)?


 (c7) The Political Economy of Development and Oil: Social Impact

A. The political economy of development
B. State-Led Development
C. The political economy of oil


Readings: 

1. Elias H. Tuma, Chapter 7, “The Economies of the Middle East,” in Deborah J. Gerner and Jillian Schwedler, eds., Understanding the Contemporary Middle East (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2004), pp. 234-End. [Text]
2. Alan Richards and John Waterbury, Chapter 7, “The Emergence of the Public Sector,” Chapter 8, “Contradictions of State-Led Growth,” in A Political Economy of the Middle East (Boulder: Westview Press, 1996). [CW]
3. Michael Ross, “Does Oil Hinder Democracy,” in World Politics 53. 3 April, 2001. [CW]

Recommended:  

Richards and Waterbury, “Overview of Economic Growth and Structural Change,” Chapter 3 in Alan Richards and John     Waterbury, A Political Economy of the Middle East (Boulder: Westview Press, 1996). 
Mary Ann Tétreault, Chapter 8, “The Political Economy of Middle Eastern Oil,” in Deborah J. Gerner and Jillian Schwedler, eds., Understanding the Contemporary Middle East (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2004), pp. 258-End.
Hazim Beblawi, “The Rentier State in the Arab World,” in eds. Hazem Beblakgwi and Giacomo Luciani, The Rentier State (London: Croom Helm, 1987), pp. 49-71. [CW]

            [Class Supplements:  State Led Development.doc  •  Post Colonial Challenges and Factors.pdf]

Questions & Issues to Consider: What is “political economy?” Why is it absent from most conventional discussion on the Middle East? What is state-led development? How did Middle Eastern states emerge/develop in the post-colonial era? What were their characteristics and challenges, and how where they dealt with? What is a “rentier state?” What is the relationship between state-owned oil wealth and democratic development?


(c8) The Israel-Palestine Conflict

1. Simona Sharoni and Mohammed Abu-Nimer, “The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,” in Deborah J. Gerner and Jillian Schwedler, eds., Understanding the Contemporary Middle East (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2004).
2. Stephen Walt, "What's Going on in Israel?" Walt.foreingpolicy.com, July 2012. [CW].

2. [Film/Documentary]

            [Class Supplements:  Palestine-Israel Conflict.pdf  •  Palestine-Israel.ppt]


Questions & Issues to Consider: What is the basis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Is it a conflict over land? Religion? What are the conflicting claims to the land of Israel/Palestine? Why is this local conflict so global in nature?


(c9) Religion and Politics: The Rise and Use of Political Islam and Islamist Parties

A. Underlying causes: Various interpretations
B. Islamist Parties Today
C.  The Effect of Authoritarian Rule and International Politics

Readings:

  1. John Esposito, Mohammed A. Muqtedar Khan, and Jillian Schwedler, Chapter 12 “Religion and Politics in the Middle East,” in Deborah J. Gerner and Jillian Schwedler, eds., Understanding the Contemporary Middle East (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2004).
  2.   Philip Khoury, “Islamic Revivalism and the crises of the Secular State in the Arab World,” in Ibrahim Ibrahim, ed., Arab Resources. [CW]
  3.   Mahmood Mamdani, “Inventing Political Violence,” Global Agenda, January 2005. [CW]

Islamist Movements

1. Samer Shehata and Josh Stacher, "The Brotherhood Goes to Parliament," Middle East Report 240 (Fall 2006). [CW]
2. “Hamas's startling victory,” The Economist, 26 January 2006. [CW]
3.  Lara Deeb, “Hizballah: A Primer,” MERIP, July 31, 2006. [CW]

Recommended: 

“Political Islam: Forty Shades of Green,” The Economist, 2 February 2006. [CW]
Melani Cammett, “Habitat for Hezbollah,” Foreign Policy (Web Exclusive), August 2006. [CW]
Bernard Lewis, “The Roots of Muslim Rage,” Policy Vol. 17 No. 4, (Summer, 2001-2002). [CW]

            [Class Supplements:  Political Islam.pdf]

Questions & Issues to Consider: What is Islamic Fundamentalism? Why is the term controversial? What are the causes of the rise of political Islam? What is the relationship between authoritarianism and political Islam? Between the cold war and political Islam? Why is violence and fundamentalism associated more with Islam according to pop-cultural views?


 (c10) Terrorism and the Industry of Terrorism: The Arab/Muslim World in Context

A.  Culture Talk: Terrorism as Act/Terrorism as Identity
B.  Individual, Group, and State Terrorism
C.  The “War on Terrorism” and the Middle East

Readings:

  1. Fred Halliday, “Terrorism in Historical Perspective,” in Open Democracy, April 22, 2004. [CW].
  2. Selections from Dominant Discourse: Government Discourse Excerpts--click on name to access quotes [Bush Quotes, Links to Bush Speeches, Cheney Quotes, Rumsfeld Quotes, Wolfowitz Quotes part 1, Wolfowitz Quotes Part 2, Douglas Feith Speeches]
  3. Juan Cole, Blog Entry: “Foreign Occupation Has Produced Radical Muslim Terrorism,” Informed Comment, Blog by Juan Cole,  March 7, 2005. [CW]
  4. Glenn Greenwald, “Terrorism: The Most Meaningless Word,” Salon, February 19, 2010. [PDF]
  5. Robert A. Pape, “It's the Occupation, Stupid,” Foreign Policy, October 18, 2010. [PDF]

John Esposito, “America’s Response to Terrorism: How to Fight Rather than Feed the Beast,” Huffington Post, January 5, 2010. [PDf]

Recommended:  

Mahmood Mamdani, “Introduction” and “Culture Talk; or How Not to Talk about Islam and Politics” in Good Muslim, Bad Muslim (New York: Pantheon Books, 2004). [CW]
Michael Walzer, “After 9/11: 5 Questions about Terrorism,” in Michael Walzer, Arguing about War (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004). [CW]
Interview with Mahmood Mamdani (May 2004), Author of Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror (New York: Pantheon, 2004). [CW]
Mervat Hatem, Discourses on the “War on Terrorism” in the U.S. and its Views on the Arab, Muslim, and Gendered “Other,” in Arab Studies Journal, Fall 2003/Spring 2004, (Vol. XI No. 2 / Vol. XII No. 1). [CW]

                     [Class Supplements:  Terrorism and the Terrorism Industry.pdf  •  War on Terrorism Outline.pdf  •  Analyzing the Dominant Discourse.pdf]

Questions & Issues to Consider: Is there an “industry of terrorism” (who benefits from advancing a preoccupation with “terrorism”)? To what extent is the term politicized? What is the difference between terrorism and resistance? Is it all a matter of perspective? Who has the power to “define” what kind of violence is legitimate and what kind of violence is not? Why has terrorism become the most important international issue in a world wrought by more costly calamities?


(c11) Future Prospects

1. Deborah J. Gerner and Jillian Schwedler, Chapter 14, “Trends and Prospects,” in Deborah J. Gerner and Jillian Schwedler, eds., Understanding the Contemporary Middle East (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2004).


Field Trip to Qandaha

© bh 2012