Middle East in the International Relations
Preliminary requirements:
Basic knowledge of the modern history, political geography and international political relations
Course Description:
1. Introduction
2. Characteristic of the region of Middle East and South Asia as an area of the clash of cultural and civilization influences and social, political and economic interests.
3. Political systems and internal problems of the Middle Eastern and South Asian states (political instability, economic problems, social movements and processes, cultural and ideological changes).
4. Situation in the Middle East in the international context (territorial disputes, wars and armed conflicts, conflicts of interest, alliances and international cooperation, activities of the other states in the region).
5. Evaluation of the course
Aims of the course:
Student explains issues of the political geography and modern history of the states of the Middle East and South Asia. Student knows the important lines of political, economic, cultural, civilization, religious and ethnic divisions.
Student understands and is able to exemplify the political, economic and social processes occurring in the region nowadays and relate them to the role of the region in international relations.
Student is able to analyze and evaluate the meaning of the key regional and international factors including the Middle Eastern resources of crude oil, the US politics towards the region, Israeli-Arab and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, assumptions of the foreign policy of main states of the region, the problem of water, situation in Afghanistan, India-Pakistani conflict, the Kurdish problem, origins and development fundamentalist Islam.
Student knows the conditions internal politics and socio-economic process in the most important states of the Middle East and South Asia.
Student is able to properly operate the main concepts from the theory of international relations and use them to construct the descriptions of political, economic and social events in the Middle East and South Asia.
Student has the skills to evaluate and describe the role of the Middle East and South Asia in the international politics. Student is able to distinguish and differentiate the political interests the states of the region and the interest of the third parties in the region.
Student posses the ability to present the processes and occurrences such as democratization, islamization, fundamentalism, ethnic and religious conflicts in the Middle Eastern context, and is able to use the to describe the current events.
Student is able to plan different variants of the socio-political processes in individual Middle Eastern and South Asian states and draw up the main methods of dealing with the new dangers and challenges.
Student is qualified to formulate and verify his/her own opinion about the internal and international processes occurring in the states of the Middle East and South Asia. Student is able to discuss on the given topic and independently arrange the discussions about the countries of the region.
Working individually and in a group student can prepare analytical models, presentations, papers and reports on a given topic.
Student understands the importance of the knowledge from the field of international relations for the analysis of social, economic and political problems of the Middle Eastern and South Asian states.
Teaching methods:
Seminar, text analysis, discussion, case studies, work in groups, presentation, report, paper.
Evaluation & Completion:
Passing of a written test consisting of 5 questions. Preparation of presentation or writing of an essay. Active participation in the discussion.
Basic Literature:
1. Henry C. M., Springborg R., Globalization and the Politics of Development in the Middle East, New York 2011.
2. King S. J., The New Authoritarianism in the Middle East and North Africa, Bloomington 2009.
3. Long D. E., Reich B., Gasiorowski M., The Government and the Politics of the Middle East and North Africa, Boulder 2011.
4. Milton-Edwards B., Contemporary politics in the Middle East, Cambridge 2008.
5. Owen R., State, Power and Politics In the Making of the Modern Middle East, London 2008.
Additional Literature:
1. After Oslo. New Realities, Old Problems, Giacman G., Lonning D. J., New York 1998.
2. Burr J. M., Collins R. O., Alms for Jihad, Cambridge 2006.
3. Corm G., Bliski Wschód w ogniu, Warszawa 2003.
4. Democracy, Peace and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, E. Kaufmann, S. B. Abed, R. L. Rothstein, (red.), London 1993.
5. Keddie N., Współczesny Iran, Kraków 2007.
6. Lewis B., The Crisis of Islam, Holy War and Unholy Terror, London 2004.
7. Selvik K., Stensile S., Stability and Change in the Modern Middle East, London 2011.
