Comparative Politics of the Middle East - 15PPOC026

Announcements

Syllabus - Comparative Politics of the Middle East - Term 1

Term 2 - Developing research essay question

Term 1 - Critical Review Assignment

Critical review assignment – useful samples

Term 1 - Essay Questions

Useful References and Resources

Useful referencing guide: Harvard Manual style

Sample essays (graded above 70) in the politics department

AS1

AS2

AS3

SA/E TERM 2 ALTERNATIVE

1. Introduction: Thinking Comparatively about the Middle East

Eric Davis, “10 Conceptual Sins in Analyzing Middle East Politics” (2009)

Gause III, F. Gregory. "Why Middle East Studies missed the Arab spring: The myth of authoritarian stability." Foreign Affairs (2011): 81-90.

Gelvin, James L. The Arab uprisings: what everyone needs to know. 2015. Chapter 1: A Revolutionary Wave? pp 1 – 32.

Lecture notes 1

2. Colonialism, Orientalism and the Making of the Modern Middle East

Edward Said. Orientalism New York: Vintage, 1987, Introduction (pp. 1-28).

Lockman, Zachary. Contending visions of the Middle East: the history and politics of Orientalism. Vol. 3. Cambridge University Press, 2009.pp. 182-241.

Owen, Roger. State, power and politics in the making of the modern Middle East. Routledge, 2013. (pp. 5-23)

Lecture notes 2

3. States and state formation

Anderson, Lisa. "The state in the middle east and North Africa." Comparative Politics 20, no. 1 (1987): 1-18.

Ayubi, Nazih N. Over-stating the Arab state: Politics and society in the Middle East. IB Tauris, 1996. Conclusion.

Owen, Roger. State, power and politics in the making of the modern Middle East. Routledge, 2013. (pp 23 – 38)

Lecture notes 3

4. Regional nationalisms

Owen, Roger. State, power and politics in the making of the modern Middle East. Routledge, 2013. Pp 56-73

Abrahamian, Ervand. A history of modern Iran. Cambridge university press, 2018. pp 97-122

Lecture notes 4

Ayşe Kadioğlu - The paradox of Turkish nationalism and the construction of official identity

5. Dyamics of authoritarianism

Bellin, Eva. "The robustness of authoritarianism in the Middle East: Exceptionalism in comparative perspective." Comparative politics (2004): 139-157.

Hinnebusch, Raymond. "Authoritarian persistence, democratization theory and the Middle East: An overview and critique." Democratization 13, no. 3 (2006): 373-395.

Crystal, Jill. "Authoritarianism and its Adversaries in the Arab World." World Politics 46, no. 2 (1994): 262-289.

Khalidi, Rashid “Preliminary Historical Observations on the Arab Revolutions of 2011,” Jadaliyya.

CPME Lecture 5 - Dynamics of Authoritarianism

6. The United States in the Middle East

Carapico, Sheila and Chris Toensing. ‘The Strategic Logic of the Iraq Blunder,’ Middle East Report 239, vol. 36, Summer 2006.

Jones, Toby Craig. "America, oil, and war in the Middle East." Journal of American History 99, no. 1 (2012): 208-218.

Krieg, Andreas. "Externalizing the burden of war: the Obama Doctrine and US foreign policy in the Middle East." International Affairs 92, no. 1 (2016): 97-113.

Lecture notes 6

7. Oil, liberalisation and rentier states

Hanieh, Adam. Capitalism and class in the Gulf Arab states. Springer, 2016. Chapter 3.

Longva, Anh Nga. "Neither autocracy nor democracy but ethnocracy: Citizens, expatriates and the socio-political system in Kuwait." Monarchies and nations: Globalisation and identity in the Arab states of the Gulf (2005): 114-135.

Ross, Michael. “Does Oil Hinder Democracy,” in World Politics 53. 3 April, 2001.

CPME - Lecture 7 - Oil and Rentier state theory

8. Militarisation and military regimes

Kamrava, Mehran. "Military Professionalization and Civil‐Military Relations in the Middle East." Political Science Quarterly 115, no. 1 (2000): 67-92.

Stacher, Joshua. "Fragmenting states, new regimes: militarized state violence and transition in the Middle East." Democratization 22, no. 2 (2015): 259-275.

Gürsoy, Y. “The changing role of the military in Turkish politics: democratization through coup plots?”, Democratization, 19:4 (2012) pp 735-760

CPME - Lecture 8 - Militarisation and military regimes

9. Neoliberalism - reshaping the region

Hanieh, Adam. Lineages of revolt: issues of contemporary capitalism in the Middle East. Haymarket books, 2013. Chapter 3.

Joya, Angela. "The Egyptian revolution: crisis of neoliberalism and the potential for democratic politics." Review of African political economy 38, no. 129 (2011): 367-386.

Khalidi, Raja, and Sobhi Samour. "Neoliberalism as liberation: The statehood program and the remaking of the Palestinian national movement." Journal of Palestine Studies 40, no. 2 (2011): 6-25.

CPME – Lecture 9 – Liberalisation and Neo-Liberalism: Reconfiguring Political Society

10. Democracy and democratisation

Niblock, Tim. "Democratization: a theoretical and practical debate." British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 25, no. 2 (1998): 221-233.

Dalacoura, Katerina. "US democracy promotion in the Arab Middle East since 11 September 2001: a critique." International affairs 81, no. 5 (2005): 963-979.

Dodge, Toby. "Iraq's road back to dictatorship." Survival 54, no. 3 (2012): 147-168. URL

Durac, Vincent, and Francesco Cavatorta. "Strengthening authoritarian rule through democracy promotion? Examining the paradox of the US and EU security strategies"

Lecture notes 10

Term 2, Lecture 1: Democratisation from below

Bayat, Asef, “Activism and Social Development in the Middle East” in International Journal of Middle East Studies 34 (2002).

Joel Beinin and Vairel Frederic, The Middle East and North Africa: Beyond Classical Social Movement Theory. In Social Movements, Mobilisation, and Contestation in the Middle East and North Africa (Stanford UP &amp; I, 2011), Chapter I: pp.1-23

CPME – Lecture 11 – Democratisation from “below” – Social and Political Mobilisation

Term 2, Lecture 2: Arab/Israeli conflict

Jabotinsky, Ze’ev (Vladimir), ‘The Iron Wall: We and the Arabs (1923)’

Said, Edward W. "Zionism from the Standpoint of its Victims." Social Text 1 (1979): 7-58.

Rose, John. Myths of Zionism, Pluto Press, 2004. Chapter 7

CPME – Lecture 12 - Origins of the Conflict – Zionism and Palestinian Nationalism

Term 2, Lecture 3: War economies

Abboud, Samer. "Social Change, Network Formation and Syria's War Economies." Middle East Policy 24, no. 1 (2017): 92-107.

Li, Darryl. "The Gaza Strip as laboratory: Notes in the wake of disengagement." Journal of Palestine Studies 35, no. 2 (2006): 38-55.

Term 2, Lecture 4: Islam and Politics

Ismail, Salwa. Rethinking Islamist politics: Culture, the state and Islamism. IB Tauris, 2006. Chapters 1 &amp; 5

Joel Beinin and Vairel Frederic, The Middle East and North Africa: Beyond Classical Social Movement Theory. In Social Movements, Mobilisation, and Contestation in the Middle East and North Africa (Stanford UP & I, 2011), Chapter I: pp.1-23

Ismail, Salwa. Rethinking Islamist politics: Culture, the state and Islamism. IB Tauris, 2006. Chapters 1 & 5