Course Offerings
SOUTHWEST ASIA AND ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION
Southwest Asia and Islamic Civilization provides students with conceptual skills that will assist them in interpreting current events taking place in what was the core region of Islamic Civilization. Thus the regional focus on the field includes Southwest Asia (roughly South Asia to Egypt), the Eastern Mediterranean, Central Asia and the Caucasus. At the global level of analysis its courses are particularly concerned with how the history, culture, politics and economics of the states and societies of this portion of Eurasia condition the human response to an accelerating impact of global change. Lectures, reading assignments and other course requirements are specifically designed to fit the curriculum of The Fletcher School and do not require a level of knowledge not relevant to the explanation of modern problems.
- * DHP D260: Southwest Asia: History, Culture, Politics ++
- * DHP D263: The Arabs and Their Neighbors Since World War I ++
- DHP D264: History of the Turks and the International Politics of Eurasia
- DHP D265: The Politics and Culture of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan
- DHP D267: The Globalization of Central Asia and the Caucasus
- DHP D268: [ The Middle East in International Relations ]
- DHP D269: [ Colonialism, Imperialism, Dependency and State Formation in the Modern Middle East and North Africa ]
- DHP P260: Islam and the West
- DHP P261: Seminar on the Making and Remaking of Modern Turkey, 1908-2000
* This course is required for constitution of the field. ++ Any one of these courses may be used as the required course in the field. + Any one of these courses may be used as the second required course in the field Bracketed courses ( [ ] ) are those not offered during the current academic year.
DHP D260: Southwest Asia: History, Culture, Politics
A survey of Southwest Asian history from the conquest of the Crimea (1783) to modern times. Trade with Asia and Europe, Turko-Muslim empires and culture, Shi’ism and Persia, Great Power competition in Southwest Asia, colonialism, formation of modern states, development, fundamentalism, the end of the Cold War, regional violence, and the role of oil are emphasized. Fall semester. Professor Hess
DHP D263: The Arabs and Their Neighbors Since World War I
With a particular focus on the Arab-Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Arab world, this course examines the evolution of nation-states in the Middle East from colonial rule to the present. Rise of nationalism and pan-Arabism; ideologies of internal unity and regional tensions; Islam as a political force; radical trends and the search for new alternatives. Fall semester. Professor Fawaz
DHP D264: History of the Turks and the International Politics of Eurasia
An historical survey of the Turks designed to emphasize the geopolitical importance of the Eurasian steppe. Topics examined are: formation of Eurasian steppe empires; the era of Turko-Mongol invasions; decline of classical Islamic civilization; conversion of the Turks to Islam; the rise of Turko-Muslim empires; decline of Byzantium and the conquests of the Ottoman empire; expansion of Russia and the absorption of Turko-Muslims modernization movements among the Turks; the emergence of Modern Turkey; Soviets and Central Asian society; the collapse of the USSR and the emergence of modern nationalism in Central Asia; China and the New Great Game. Spring semester. Professor Hess
DHP D265: The Politics and Culture of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan
The course establishes a basis for understanding modern political and cultural change in Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A major effort will be made to discover the causes and identify the consequences of the Iranian and Afghan revolutions. The modern political culture of each of the three states of this Turko-Persian region will be examined and compared with special attention to the disintegrative role of ethnic violence. Other topics studied are: modern development, fundamentalism, the role of Islamic law, education, the place of women in society, transfer of modern technology, ethnic politics, regional violence, and actions of Great Powers. Spring semester. Professor Hess
DHP D267: The Globalization of Central Asia and the Caucasus
The course establishes a basis for understanding modern political and cultural changes in Central Asia and the Caucasus through the application of concepts derived from an understanding of the process of Global change. A major effort will be made to describe how the role of external factors in combination with internal conditions framed the problems new leaders had to confront when the Soviet Union collapsed. Special attention will be devoted to the place of ethnic and sectarian violence. Other topics studied are: economic development, transfer of modern technology and its environmental impact, ethnic politics, fundamentalism as a response to rapid change, politics of oil and the new ‘Great Game’ in Central Asia. Fall semester. Professor Hess
DHP D268: The Middle East in International Relations
An examination of the relations between the Middle East and the Great Powers from the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire to the post-Cold War period. Beginning with a survey of the most important theoretical approach, the specificity of international relations to and in the Middle East will be elaborated. The region was of outstanding strategic and economic importance for the Great Powers ever since the 18th century. Since its very importance prevented it from being taken over wholly by one Power alone the region remained over the last 250 years the stage for repeated crises and conflicts between different Great Powers. Such conflicts were always closely entwined with local political systems and ambitions. The course will consider the most important international conflict situations in modern times and the main, but frequently changing, actors, locally as well as internationally. The course will also explore the underlying, more general, patterns, which shape the interdependence between regional and international relations and shape the ways in which conflicts have developed in the Middle East. Not offered in the current academic year. Instructor to be announced.
DHP D269: Colonialism, Imperialism, Dependency and State Formation in the Modern Middle East and North Africa
This seminar will discuss various theoretical approaches to the issue of imperialism and the creation of colonial states. It will study specific forms Western imperialism has taken in the region, ranging from indirect control and penetration as in Iran in the 19th century, to the establishment of protectorates as in Morocco or the Persian Gulf, to direct conquest as in Egypt, Tunisia, Aden, etc., to settler colonialism as in Algeria and Palestine and, finally, to the Mandatory regimes in the Levant--the last formal construct of imperialism. Economic penetration and dependency is a further essential aspect of this discussion. In addition, the resulting formation of new states, their longevity and stability shall be discussed. Not offered in the current academic year. Instructor to be announced.
DHP P260: Islam and the West
Going beyond the simplistic notion of a great civilizational divide, this course lends historical depth and comparative context to the currently vexed relationship between Islam and the West. IT puts both categories ‘Islam’ and ‘the West’ under the spotlight of searching analysis. After providing some essential background, the course concentrates on the colonial and post-colonial encounter between Muslim and Western societies and polities. It does so with particular but not exclusive reference to the South Asian subcontinent. Organized along both historical and thematic lines, the course studies both the domains of culture and politics, thought and practice, in their interaction in order to elucidate the aspects of dialogue, tension and confrontation between the worlds of Islam and the West. Fall semester. Adjunct Professor Jalal.
DHP P261: Seminar on the Making and Remaking of Modern Turkey, 1908-2000
The idea of Turkey’ emerged only after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I; prior to that, the Turks thought of themselves principally as Ottomans, people who had a dynastic loyalty. Until the summer of 1918, they expected to retain the Ottoman Empire and maintain a multi-ethnic, multi-religious state dominated by the faith of Islam. Elements of a Turkish nationalism had begun to emerge during the late 19th century as a response to the nationalism in Europe and within the Empire among the Greeks, Serbs, Bulgarians, Armenians, Albanians, and Arabs, but the tendency among the Turks was restricted to a minority of intellectuals who expressed it in their writing; there was no political manifestation. There was no geographical conception of ‘Turkey’ either for the Ottomans did not emerge from a homeland, as did other imperial peoples. The ‘national struggle’ was both a fight against the Greeks and the Armenians for territory, and against the Sultan’s palace for the kind of Turkey that would be created if the nationalists or the Palace won. The seminar is organized chronologically beginning with the constitutional revolution of 1908 when the process of rethinking about Ottoman state and society was activated. It will conclude with a discussion of contemporary Turkey and the attempts being made to remold it by secularists and Islamists. Spring semester. Adjunct Professor Ahmad or Adjunct Professor Keridis.
DHP P281: Russian Foreign Policy
What are Russian national security interests? Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian foreign policy establishment has been engaged in a series of internal battles to (re) define Russian national security interests and the role in the international system that derives from these interests. Is it a European power? A great power? A failed state? Inconsequential in world politics? Or an important player with a nuclear arsenal that could destroy the United States? To what degree do economic concerns drive policy or traditional balance of power interests? This course will explore these questions by looking at the role played by various institutions in foreign policy decision-making, as well as Russian participation in international organizations, Russian-European relations, and Russian-American relations. Not offered in the current academic year. Instructor to be announced.