Course summary and objectives
This course examines the role of the greater Middle East and North Africa region (the Arab states and Turkey, Iran, and Israel) in the international system. It also looks at the development of state power in the modern Middle East. The course primarily covers the period from the First World War and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire to the present. It focuses on regime development, regional and inter-Arab relations, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, relations between the region and the West, and important transnational forces at work in the region.

Among the topics covered in the course are: colonialism and its legacies, regional security, conflict and the role of outside powers, nationalism and pan-Arabism, the region's political economy, political regimes and their opposition, authoritarianism and democracy, and political Islam. Students are introduced to analytical frameworks that are used to examine the international and domestic politics of the Middle East. Students are expected to master those frameworks and to develop an informed understanding of the region's politics, domestic and international. Students will acquire the analytical skills necessary for challenging resilient stereotypes about the region.

Course materials
The following books are available for purchase in the WU bookstore. Other materials will be placed on reserve in the Hatfield library or handed out in class.
Liam Anderson and Gareth Stansfield, The Future of Iraq: Dictatorship, Democracy, or Division? (Palgrave MacMillan, 2004)
Francois Burgat, Face to Face with Political Islam (I.B. Tauris, 2003)
T.G. Fraser, The Arab-Israeli Conflict 2nd edition (Palgrave MacMillan, 2004)
Raymond Hinnebusch, The International Politics of the Middle East (Manchester University Press, 2003)
Roger Owen, State, Power and Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East 3rd edition (Routledge, 2004)

Course format, student obligations and student evaluation
The course is organized around class discussion of the assigned reading materials. Lectures are infrequent and are primarily aimed to providing context and background to the readings. Students are expected to be fully prepared each day to participate in class discussions by contributing relevant information, developing controversial issues, and asking probing questions. All assigned readings are to be completed prior to the class session in which they will be discussed. All assignments will be discussed at the appropriate time in the course. Final grades in the course will be assigned on the following bases
· Twenty percent of the final course grade is based on the instructor's assessment of student preparation for and participation in class discussions. Informed and thoughtful participation in class discussion is expected of all students. For this to occur, regular class attendance is absolutely necessary; class attendance will be tracked and this portion of the final course grade will be lowered for excessive absences (beyond three, for whatever reason)
· Sixty percent of the final course grade will be based on the writing of two policy papers, one of democracy in the Middle East and the second on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Each assignment will count 30 percent of the final course grade.
· Twenty percent of the final course grade will be assigned to a paper on one significant theme in the course, e.g., gender and politics in one of the countries.

Please note my grading policy on work that is turned in late: I accept work that is turned in late, but late work is graded down by one-third of a letter grade for every twenty-four hour period that I receive it beyond the due date. Also, I do not accept work by email. It is your responsibility to provide me with a hard copy. Finally, it is your responsibility to understand and conform to the university's policy on plagiarism, which the CLA Catalog defines as:

Cheating is any form of intellectual dishonesty or misrepresentation of one's knowledge. Plagiarism, a form of cheating, consists of representing someone else's work as one's own. All members of the Willamette University community are expected to be aware of the serious breach of principles involved in plagiarism. Ignorance of what constitutes plagiarism shall not be considered a valid defense. If students are uncertain as to what constitutes plagiarism for a particular assignment, they should consult the instructor for clarification. (See pages 319-321)

Office Hours and Telephone
My office is Smullin 317, my campus telephone number is 370-6262, and my office times are Wednesday 9:00 to 11:00 and 1:00 to 2:00, and on Monday by prior appointment only.

COURSE SCHEDULE

Introduction to ME Politics
Thursday 1/20 Introduction. Read: Raymond Hinnebusch, The International Politics of the Middle East, pp. 1-35; and Roger Owen, State, Power and Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East, pp. x-xiii and 1-22
Tuesday 1/25 State Formation and Single-Party Regimes in the ME. Read: Hinnebusch, pp. 73-90 and Owen, pp. 23-38
Thursday 1/27 State Formation, Family Regimes and Oil in the ME. Read: Hinnebusch, pp. 35-53, Owen, pp. 39-55
Tuesday 2/1 Identity and Arab Nationalism. Read: Hinnebusch, pp. 54-72 and Owen, pp. 56-72
Thursday 2/3 Non-Arab States in the ME. Read Owen, pp. 73-89
Tuesday 2/8 Foreign Policy Making in the ME. Read Hinnebusch, pp. 91-120
Thursday 2/10 Comparative Foreign Policy Making in the ME. Read Hinnebusch, pp. 121-153
Tuesday 2/15 War and Order in the ME. Read Hinnebusch, pp. 154-203: Frank Rich, "On Television, Torture Takes a Holiday," New York Times January 23,
2005; and Andrew W. Sullivan, "Atrocities in Plain Sight," New York Times, January 23, 2005.
Thursday 2/17 ME Politics After the First Gulf War. Read Hinnebusch, 204-239 and Owen, pp. 90-109
Tuesday 2/22 Economic Restructuring. Read Owen, pp. 111-130
Thursday 2/24 Elections and Democracy. Read Owen, pp. 131-153, Daniel Neep, "Dilemmas of Democratization," pp. 73-84 and Volker Perthes, "America's
'Greater Middle East' and Europe," pp. 85-97, both in Middle East Policy Fall 2004; Patrick Basham and Christopher Preble, "The Trouble with Democracy in
the Middle East," http://www.cato.org; George Bush, "President Bush Discusses Freedom in Iraq and Middle East: Remarks by the President at the
20th Anniversary of the National Endowment for Democracy, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/11; " November 6, 2003; "Democracy in the
Islamic World," pp. 47-53 in The Brookings Project on U.S. Policy Toward the Islamic World: An Agenda for Action: 2002 Doha Conference
Proceedings; John Chapman, "The Real Reasons Bush Went to War," July 28, 2004, http://www.guardian.co.uk; Victor Davis Hanson, "Democracy in the
Middle East: It's the Hardheaded Solution," The Weekly Standard, October 21, 2002, http:www.weeklystandard.com; Martin Kramer, "Should America
Promote a Liberal, Democratic Middle East?", 2002 Weinber Founders Conference, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy,
http://www.geocities.com/martinkramerorg; Marina Ottaway and Thomas Carothers," Think Again: Middle East Democracy,' Foreign Policy;
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story; Derek Reveron, "Hour of the Lawyer," National Review Online, February 2, 2005; http://www.nationalreview.com;
and Said al-Shihabi, "Democracy in the Middle East: The Gulf after the Change," World Press Review July 2003, http://www.worldpress.org/article.

The Arab-Israeli Conflict
Tuesday 3/1 Origins. Read T.G. Fraser, The Arab-Israeli Conflict, pp. 1-21
Thursday 3/3 Partition. Read Fraser, pp. 22-48
Tuesday 3/8 From the 1948 War to Fatah. Read Fraser, pp. 49-75; and Ghassan Kanafani, "Men in the Sun."
Thursday 3/10 The 1967 and Yom Kippur Wars. Read Fraser, pp. 76-106
Tuesday 3/15 From 1973 to the First Gulf War. Read Fraser, pp. 107-144
Thursday 3/17 From the First to the Second Gulf Wars. Read Fraser, pp. 145-180; and James Bennet, "The Interregnum," New York Times Magazine
March 13, 2005

Iraq in Regional and Global Politics
Tuesday 3/29 The Hashemite Monarchy. Read Liam Anderson and Gareth Stansfield, The Future of Iraq: Dictatorship, Democracy, or Division?, pp. 1-29
Thursday 3/31 The Republic and the Ba'ath Regime. Read Anderson, pp. 31-81
Tuesday 4/5 1988 to Present. Read Anderson, 83-115
Thursday 4/7 The Shi'a, Sunnis, and Kurds. Read: Anderson, pp. 117-183; and Nils Rosen, "In the Balance," The New York Times Magazine,
February 20, 2005.
Tuesday 4/12 Democracy? Read Anderson, pp. 185-236 and Owen, pp. 217-240

Political Islam
Thursday 4/14 From Nationalism to Islamism. Read Francois Burgat, Face to Face with Political Islam, pp. xiii-xviii, 1-42 and Owen, pp. 154-177
Tuesday 4/19 Secularism and Identity. Read Burgat, pp. 43-72
Thursday 4/21 Violence; and Egypt. Read Burgat, pp. 73-101
Tuesday 4/26 Algeria; and Democracy. Read Burgat, pp. 102-139
Thursday 4/28 Political Islam, Women, and Modernity. Read Burgat, pp. 140-185

Tuesday 5/3 Conclusion to Course