DAFF 25A46 - The Contemporary Middle East: Patterns of Change and Continuity (1990-2025)

This course analyzes the major upheavals that have shaped the Middle East and North Africa's strategic landscape in the post-Cold War era. It is structured around three key modules. The first provides a chronological overview, from the 1990s "Unipolar Moment" to the collapse of the Syrian regime in December 2024. The second focuses on the persistence of authoritarianism, along with the violent backlash and counterrevolutions that followed the Arab Spring. The third examines U.S. foreign policy and the Global War on Terror. Special attention is given to the Proxy Wars and Culture Wars that will define the future of the region, to the shifting alliances within a context of competitive multipolarity, and to civil societies, literature, cinema, cultural and intellectual fault lines.
Karim BITAR
Séminaire
English
Spring 2024-2025
Students will be evaluated based on general participation in class discussions (20%), an in-class presentation (40%), and a term paper (40%)
1. Marc Lynch, Jillian Schwedler, and Sean Yom, eds., The Political Science of the Middle East: Theory and Research Since the Arab Uprisings (Oxford University Press, 2022).
2. F. Gregory Gause III, Beyond Sectarianism: The New Middle East Cold War, Brookings Institution, 2014.
3. Fawaz Gerges, The New Middle East: Protest and Revolution in the Arab World, Cambridge, 2013
4. Louise Fawcett, International Relations of the Middle East, 6th edition, Oxford University Press, 2023