HI114: History and Politics of the Modern Middle East

This module examines the history and politics of the modern Middle East through a series of questions and problems that have shaped its development. The module is divided into four sections. The first part of the module briefly questions the usefulness and origins of the term Middle East as a geographical area and unit of analysis. It raises questions about how historical and anthropological knowledge, western media, and academic scholarship in the social sciences have helped define the modern Middle East. The next section of the module offers a historical overview of the Ottoman past through the colonial and postcolonial periods, i.e. the period from the sixteenth century through the colonial period in the nineteenth century and to the present post-colonial period in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The module will then move to address more specifically some of the most important contemporary issues that have historically affected modern Middle Eastern politics along with the role of outside forces such as Britain and the United States. These include: the Arab-Israeli conflict; the history of oil in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran; the role of political Islam; questions of democracy, development, and human rights; the Gulf War, and the 2003 U.S. invasion/occupation of Iraq; the Arab Spring and the current war on terrorism.

Aims and outcomes

• Acquire an in-depth knowledge of the history and politics of the modern Middle East, the kinds of modern state that have emerged in the region, and the struggles that people have fought to gain political freedoms and economic rights.
• Analyse and assess a broad range of materials including diplomatic documents, short stories, scholarly texts, and photographs and videos, to explore the many different ways people in the Middle East have come to define and shape their world and also how outsiders have attempted to control and shape this world.
• Discuss critically and demonstrate ability to construct persuasive arguments in relation to the history and politics of the modern Middle East.
  Undertake research and assessment of readings and lecture material concerning the history of the modern Middle East.
• Identify problems for investigation and apply critical thinking skills regarding structures of power and wealth in different parts of the region and larger thematic issues organised around questions of political and historical analysis pertaining to the history of the modern Middle East.

Indicative readings

• Donald Quataert, The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922 (Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 89-109, 140-171.
• Timothy Mitchell, ‘Carbon Democracy’, Economy and Society (2009), pp. 399-432
• Lila Abu-Lughod, Do Muslim Women Need Saving? (Harvard University Press, 2013)