“Let me tell you
something that we Israelis have against Moses. He took us 40 years
through the desert
in order to bring us to the one spot in the Middle East that has no oil!”
-Israeli PM
Golda Meir
PSCI
4242/Middle East Politics
Spring
2022
Instructor: Dr. Gregory D. Young
Email: gyoung@colorado.edu (Primary contact method)
|
Course Time and Location Tuesdays & Thursdays: |
Professor’s Office & Hours Ketchum 212 |
|
2:00-3:15pm Synchronous REMOTE via Zoom only for first two weeks. After that in person in Fleming
157 |
Tuesdays & Thursdays: 12:30-1:45pm or Wednesdays by appt. on Zoom |
Teaching Assistant:
Jordan Noelle Hale
Email: jordan.hale@colorado.edu
Office Hours: Tuesdays 1:00-2:00pm or Thursday 3:15-4:00 or by appt. on Zoom
Office: Fleming Lounge
COURSE LINKS
·
POD Assignments, Current Event Schedule and Reading Summary Links
and Schedule
· Midterm Grading Statistical Summary
·
Five Point Midterm Answers for the Terms
·
Link to Weekly Thought Questions
·
Link to Final Exam Study Guide
· Direct URL to this syllabus: http://spot.colorado.edu/~gyoung/home/4242/4242_syl.htm
Course Objectives and Description
This introductory course is designed to give the student a broad
overview of conflict in the Middle East Region. No single semester is
sufficient to trace or attempt to examine all of the conflicts or their root
causes. Scholars also have a difficult time defining what might be the
boundaries of any region entitled the “Middle East.
Given that the Arab – Israeli question often sits at the center of any
conflict, even those which involve neither Arabs nor Israelis, that conflict
shall be the focus of this course. Using a historical approach, this course
will examine the conflict from religious, historical, geopolitical, and
theoretical perspectives.
This course focuses on evolution of contemporary politics
and economics. The subject is divided into four parts:
1.
The study of Islam and its context
2.
Islam versus the West, myth, or reality?
3.
History and evolution of the
Arab/Israeli conflict
4.
Shifting conflict, the Arab Spring,
rise & fall of ISIL (Daesh), and
Democratic decline in Turkey.
Throughout the course, special attention is given to sources
and transformations of power, population dynamics and migration, resources and
energy, as well as implications of technological change.
Required
Readings
We will be using excerpts from the following books which are also available for purchase online:
·
Bernard
Lewis (2002), What Went Wrong? Western
Impact and Middle Eastern Response. Oxford University Press, ISBN:
0195144201.
·
Ian J.
Bickerton & Carla L. Klausner (2017), A History of the Arab-Israeli
Conflict. 8th Ed. Routledge Press, ISBN: 9781138243736
·
Karen
Armstrong (2000), Islam: A Short History.
The Modern Library, ISBN: 0679640401.
·
Ellen
Lust Ed. (2017), The Middle East, 14th
ed. Thousand Oaks CA, Sage Pub.,
·
Thomas
Friedman (1991), From Beirut to Jerusalem.
Farrar, Straus & Giroux Pub., ISBN: 0374158959
·
Geraldine Brooks (1995), Nine
Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women. Anchor Books, ISBN:
038547577
·
Lawrence Wright (2014), Thirteen
Days in October: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David, Alfred Knopf Pub,
ISBN: 9780385352031
·
Ari Shavit (2013), My
Promised Land, Spiegel, and Grau Pub. ISBN: 0385521707
·
Quil Lawrence (2009), Invisible
Nation: How the Kurds quest for statehood is shaping Iraq and the Middle East,
Walker & Co. Pub.,
·
Payind & McCimans (2011), Keys to Understanding the Middle East.
Creative Commons an Open Educational Resource.
All of these
course readings (plus other required articles are available online linked to
this syllabus. This course is supported by CU’s Open Access Initiative to
reduce textbook cost for Students - COURSE READINGS
Course Requirements
Readings,
Attendance and Class Participation
It is essential that
students Zoom in to every class on time. It is equally important if we return
to in-person teaching. Regular attendance and active participation in class
discussion will enhance your understanding of the course material and almost
certainly improve your performance on the mid-term and final exams, which are
together worth 50% of the course grade. Attendance is also a large portion of
your 10% participation grade. Excused absences only require notification of the
professor in advance via email. In this semester, the required readings range
from 100 to 150 pages per week, as set out in the course schedule. Students
should come to class having already completed (and thought carefully about) the
assigned reading for each class period. Participation means remaining on the
course Zoom and having your camera on until the end of class.
Mid-Term and Final
Exams
The mid-term exam
will be held on Tuesday, March 1st in the usual class meeting
times. The final exam will be Sunday,
May 1st at 4:30 until 7:00pm. Students must write both exams in
order to pass the course. If remote, both exams will be open book/note and will
be emailed to students at the beginning of the exam period. The completed exam
will be uploaded to CANVAS at the end of the one hour and fifteen-minute
period. If the course has returned to in-person learning, the exams will not be
open book/note. Bluebooks should
be purchased by each student and brought in the class period the day of the
midterm; 8.5x11 Blue books are preferred. Do not put your name on your Bluebook
as they will be redistributed. Make up exams will not be given unless
the instructor has been notified in advance. Both examinations will be short
answer and essay in format. A study guide for both exams will be linked to this
course syllabus one week prior
Reading
Summary and Current Events
Two to three
students will be assigned to 25 individual PODs. Each POD will be assigned one
day of the course to outline reading summaries and present current events. The
assigned POD will summarize each of the readings due in class that day and
submit them to your professor via email attachment in either WORD or as a PDF.
In a 1-2 page synopsis of each assigned article/chapter, the designated POD
will give an overview of the key points of the reading. The summary can either
be in outline form or complete paragraphs. The summary should include (at the
end) an answer to the “so what?”
question, in other words, why should one read it when studying the Middle East.
The summary is due by midnight the day before that reading is discussed. Your
professor will post the summaries on the course web site for the review by you
and your classmates by class time. Late Reading Summaries will be docked 10%
per class day up to 50%.
In addition, on
the same day that the POD Reading Summary is due, each POD will present a
current event orally at the beginning of class. The presentation should be no
more than five minutes in length. The current event must relate to conflict or
politics in the Middle East. The source should be from a respected news source,
be less than one week old. Each POD should then try to relate the article to
some element of what we have been discussing in class. Students will email an Ecopy of the article to your professor prior to class.
Included in the email submission will a discussion question that you will pose
to the class and use to lead a discussion with the class for an additional five
minutes. Two very good sources are both the Middle
East Forum (https://www.meforum.org/)
and Al Monitor (http://www.al-monitor.com). Students should subscribe to both of
these free sites.
These POD Reading
Summaries and Current Event submissions/presentation will be 10% of your final
grade
Thought Papers
For each week of the course (except the first, midterm, and Spring Break
weeks), there will be a thought paper question assigned and posted on this
course website. The question will be posted every Thursday and is due the
following Tuesday by class time. Each student must complete THREE of the TEN
papers. Students completing less than three will receive a zero grade for
that number less than three. If you complete more than three, the best three
grades will be averaged. These papers should be between 900 and 1000 words in
length (approximately 2 pages single-spaced). Include a word count on the
first page. Since students do not have to write them all, late essays will
not be accepted. Computer malfunction is not an acceptable excuse for a late
paper. Re-read your essay for clarity, grammar, spelling and punctuation, since
poor execution of these elements will also affect 50% of your grade. No
research beyond the assigned readings is required. Append a bibliography and
provide references or footnotes where appropriate. Each paper will be submitted
to the Assignment Box on CANVAS and will be run through their anti-plagiarism
service to which CU subscribes.
Grading Criteria
POD
Reading Summaries/Current Event 10%
Mid-term
exam 25%
Thought
Papers 30%
Final
exam 25%
Attendance
& participation 10%
Total 100%
Final Course Grades will be curved unless a straight 90/80/70/60 etc system proves more beneficial to the students (higher overall grade average). If curved, the mean overall average will become the highest C grade, and two standard deviations below the mean will be necessary to fail the course. One standard deviation about the mean becomes the criteria for an A grade. The grading policy will be explained in detail on the first day of class.
Course
Schedule
|
PSCI 4242 – Middle East Politics Course Schedule Spring
2021 |
||
|
Day/Date |
Topic |
Assigned Reading |
|
Tues 11 Jan |
Course Introduction & Administration What causes conflict
in the Middle East? Geopolitics, Religion, or “Clash of Civilizations?” |
|
|
Thurs 13 Jan |
What is the
Middle East? Introduction to
Islam History of
Islam: The Prophet and ruling the Caliphate (Part 1) |
·
Payind
& McClimans, Keys to Understanding the Middle
East - Ch. 1-2 |
|
Tues 18 Jan |
Islam and the
Caliphate Women in Islam |
|
|
Thurs 20 Jan |
The Clash
Between Islam and The West (Part 1) |
|
|
Tues 25 Jan |
The Clash
Between Islam and The West (Part 2) Film: “Islam and
Democracy” (excerpts) Thought
Paper 1 Due |
|
|
Thurs 27 Jan |
The Arab Israeli
Conflict: Palestine in the 19th Century |
|
|
Tues 1 Feb |
The Arab Israeli
Conflict: Palestine under the League of Nations Mandate and WWII and the
partition of Palestine Thought
Paper 2 Due |
|
|
Thurs 3 Feb |
The Arab Israeli
Conflict: The Founding of Israel and the Suez Crisis of 1956, The Six-Day War
and the 73 Yom Kippur War |
|
|
Tues 8 Feb |
The Arab Israeli
Conflict: The Search for Peace and the Camp David Accords and the 1st
Intifada Thought
Paper 3 Due |
|
|
Thurs 10 Feb |
The Arab Israeli
Conflict: The Lebanese Civil War |
|
|
Tues 15 Feb |
The Arab Israeli
Conflict: Israeli Domestic Politics and American Jews Thought
Paper 4 Due |
|
|
Thurs 17 Feb |
The Arab Israeli
Conflict: The Oslo Accords, Gulf War I and the 1st & 2nd
Intifadas |
|
|
Tues 22 Feb |
Israel and
Palestine: The “Road Map to Peace”, Hamas and the post 9/11 world Thought
Paper 5 Due |
|
|
Thurs 24 Feb |
Catch up and
review for midterm exam |
|
|
Tues 1 Mar |
Midterm Exam |
|
|
Thurs 3 Mar |
The Arab Spring:
Tunisia and Libya |
|
|
Tues 8 Mar |
Go Over Midterm Thought
Paper 6 Due |
|
|
Thurs 10 Mar |
The Arab Spring:
Egypt Film: “The
Square” excerpts |
|
|
Tues 15 Mar |
The Arab Spring:
Syria Thought
Paper 7 Due |
|
|
Thurs 17 Mar |
Syrian Civil
War, and the Rise & Fall of ISIS Spring Pause no paper due |
|
|
Tues 22 Mar |
Spring Break |
|
|
Thurs 24 Mar |
Spring Break |
|
|
Tues 29
Mar |
Hizbollah, Syria, Iran and Israel |
|
|
Thurs 31 Mar |
Iran, WMD and
Israel |
|
|
Tues 5 Apr |
The Founding of the Turkish Republic: Attatürk
to Erdoğan Thought Paper 8 Due |
|
|
Thurs 7 Apr |
A country divided: Turkey, Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean |
·
Gregory
D. Young (2016) “Cyprus: The Struggle for Independence” ·
The
Economist (2010), “Anchors Aweigh: A Survey of Turkey |
|
Tues 12 Apr |
Regional Hegemony:
Iran vs. Saudi Arabia: Sunni vs. Shia or just geopolitics The Civil War in
Yemen: A Saudi/Iran proxy war? Sam Foredyce Lectures Thought
Paper 9 Due |
|
|
Thurs 14 Apr |
Turkish/Israeli
Relations |
|
|
Tues 19 Apr |
The Kurds:
People without a nation. Thought Paper 10 Due |
|
|
Thurs 21 Apr |
Turkey: Last
Hope for Democracy in the Middle East and Moderator for the Arab Spring? Jordan Hale Lectures |
|
|
Tues 26 Apr |
The Turkish
Spring and the Coup in Turkey and the erosion of Turkish democracy FCQ Day |
|
|
Thurs 28
Apr |
Catch up day, review for final examination |
|
|
Sun 1 May |
Final Examination (4:30-7:00pm) |
|
KEY
·
Lewis -
Bernard Lewis, What Went Wrong? Western
Impact and Middle Eastern Response.
·
Lust – The Middle East
·
A - Karen Armstrong, Islam: A Short History, 2000.
·
B&K -
Ian Bickerton & Carla Klausner, The
History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict.
·
F - Thomas Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem.
·
Br – Geraldine Brooks, Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of
Islamic Women.
·
S – Air Shavit, My Promised Land.
·
W – Lawrence Wright, Thirteen Days in September.
·
Q – Quil
Lawrence – Invisible Nation.
·
P&M - Payind & McCimans, Keys to Understanding the Middle East. Creative
Commons an Open Educational Resource, 2001.
Classroom Behavior
Both students and faculty are responsible
for maintaining an appropriate learning environment in all instructional
settings, whether in person, remote or online. Those who fail to adhere to such
behavioral standards may be subject to discipline. Professional courtesy and
sensitivity are especially important with respect to individuals and topics
dealing with race, color, national origin, sex, pregnancy, age, disability,
creed, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression,
veteran status, political affiliation or political philosophy. For more information, see the policies
on classroom
behavior and
the Student
Code of Conduct.
Requirements for COVID-19
As a matter of public health and safety, all
members of the CU Boulder community and all visitors to campus must follow
university, department and building requirements and all public health orders
in place to reduce the risk of spreading infectious disease. Students who fail
to adhere to these requirements will be asked to leave class, and students who
do not leave class when asked or who refuse to comply with these requirements
will be referred to Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution. For more
information, see the policy on classroom behavior and the Student Code of
Conduct. If you require accommodation because a disability prevents you from
fulfilling these safety measures, please follow the steps in the “Accommodation
for Disabilities” statement on this syllabus.
CU Boulder currently requires masks in
classrooms and laboratories regardless of vaccination status. This requirement
is a precaution to supplement CU Boulder’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement.
Exemptions include individuals who cannot medically tolerate a face covering,
as well as those who are hearing-impaired or otherwise disabled or who are
communicating with someone who is hearing-impaired or otherwise disabled and
where the ability to see the mouth is essential to communication. If you
qualify for a mask-related accommodation, please follow the steps in the
“Accommodation for Disabilities” statement on this syllabus. In addition,
vaccinated instructional faculty who are engaged in an indoor instructional
activity and are separated by at least 6 feet from the nearest person are
exempt from wearing masks if they so choose.
If
you feel ill and think you might have COVID-19, if you have tested positive for
COVID-19, or if you are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated and have been in
close contact with someone who has COVID-19, you should stay home and follow
the further guidance of the Public Health Office (contacttracing@colorado.edu).
If you are fully vaccinated and have been in close contact with someone who has
COVID-19, you do not need to stay home; rather, you should self-monitor for
symptoms and follow the further guidance of the Public Health Office
(contacttracing@colorado.edu).
Accommodation for Disabilities
If you qualify for accommodations because of
a disability, please submit your accommodation letter from Disability Services
to your faculty member in a timely manner so that your needs can be
addressed. Disability Services
determines accommodations based on documented disabilities in the academic
environment. Information on requesting
accommodations is located on the Disability Services website. Contact
Disability Services at 303-492-8671 or dsinfo@colorado.edu for further
assistance. If you have a temporary
medical condition, see Temporary Medical Conditions on the Disability Services
website.
Preferred Student Names and Pronouns
CU Boulder recognizes that students' legal
information doesn't always align with how they identify. Students may update
their preferred names and pronouns via the student portal; those preferred
names and pronouns are listed on instructors' class rosters. In the absence of
such updates, the name that appears on the class roster is the student's legal
name.
Honor Code
All students enrolled in a University of
Colorado Boulder course are responsible for knowing and adhering to the Honor
Code academic integrity policy. Violations of the Honor Code may include, but
are not limited to: plagiarism, cheating, fabrication, lying, bribery, threat,
unauthorized access to academic materials, clicker fraud, submitting the same
or similar work in more than one course without permission from all course
instructors involved, and aiding academic dishonesty. All incidents of academic
misconduct will be reported to the Honor Code (honor@colorado.edu); 303-492-5550).
Students found responsible for violating the academic integrity policy will be
subject to nonacademic sanctions from the Honor Code as well as academic
sanctions from the faculty member. Additional information regarding the Honor
Code academic integrity policy can be found on the Honor Code website.
Sexual Misconduct, Discrimination,
Harassment and/or Related Retaliation
CU Boulder is committed to fostering an
inclusive and welcoming learning, working, and living environment. The
university will not tolerate acts of sexual misconduct (harassment,
exploitation, and assault), intimate partner violence (dating or domestic
violence), stalking, or protected-class discrimination or harassment by or
against members of our community. Individuals who believe they have been
subject to misconduct or retaliatory actions for reporting a concern should
contact the Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance (OIEC) at
303-492-2127 or email cureport@colorado.edu. Information about university
policies, reporting options, and the support resources can be found on the OIEC
website.
Please know that faculty and graduate instructors
have a responsibility to inform OIEC when they are made aware of incidents of
sexual misconduct, dating and domestic violence, stalking, discrimination,
harassment and/or related retaliation, to ensure that individuals impacted
receive information about their rights, support resources, and reporting
options. To learn more about reporting and support options for a variety of
concerns, visit Don’t Ignore It.
Religious Holidays
Campus policy regarding religious
observances requires that faculty make every effort to deal reasonably and
fairly with all students who, because of religious obligations, have conflicts
with scheduled exams, assignments or required attendance. In this
class, to obtain an excuse absence students need only to email their instructor
in advance of class regarding their upcoming absence.
CELLULAR TELEPHONE/LAPTOP COMPUTER POLICY
Needless to say, all cellular phones must be
turned off and put away at the beginning of each class meeting. Classes failing
to comply will be issued a stern warning on the first occasion of a phone
ringing during class time. The entire class will have a pop quiz over the
previous reading assignments/lectures on the second and subsequent occurrences.
Phones will not be out on desks or used during any quiz or examination.
Laptop computers have been allowed in my
classes for the 20 years that I have been teaching at CU, beginning this year
however, they will not be allowed to be out or open in class. I still believe
that they can assist learning in the classroom, but significant new research
shows that taking notes by hand increases learning. Also, a new study shows
that laptops open and displaying non-class materiel are distracting not only to
the user, but the students in view of the laptop and inhibit learning. Students
can apply for exceptions for reason of disability or a proven track record of
in class note-taking on the computer. Here is a link to an article about laptop
impact on education: Laptops Are Great. But Not During a Lecture or a Meeting,
New York Times Op Ed, By SUSAN DYNARSKI NOV. 22, 2017
Taking this course signifies acceptance of
the terms and conditions stated in this syllabus.
