Department of history       University of Michigan
History 241                        Fall 2009

SYLLABUS

Course Title: America and Middle Eastern Wars

Class Schedule: Lec TTH 2:30-4:00
Office Hours: 2527 Haven Hall, Thurs. 1:30-2:30 and by appt.
Instructor: Juan Cole
Telephone: 764-6305; e-mail: j r c o l e /at/ u m i c h /dot/ e d u

This course treats the impact and experience of warfare on the Middle East in the last third of the 20th Century and into the 21st. We will examine how the Cold War, Afghanistan, the Gulf War, the Iraq War and the War on Terror have shaped the modern Middle East. We will consider political and social history as well as the military aspect. We will also look at the causes for Washington policy-making toward the region. Grading is based upon a midterm and a final.

Optional coursepack at Dollar Bill's, 611 Church St.

Texts:

Ali M. Ansari, Confronting Iran (New York: Basic Books, 2006).
Dilip Hiro, War without End (London: Routledge, 2005).
Phebe Marr, The Modern history of Iraq (Boulder, Co.: Westview, 2004).
Bing West, The Strongest Tribe: War,Politics and the Endgame in Iraq (New York: Random House, 2008).

Class Sessions

BACKGROUND

Sept. 8      Orientation

THE COLD WAR

Sept. 10     The Cold War as a Framework for Middle Eastern Wars, 1946-1991

     John C. Campbell, "The Soviet Union and the United States in the Middle East," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 401, America and the Middle East (May, 1972), pp. 126-135 JSTOR Stable URL
     Ansari, pp. 7-43
      Douglas Little, "The Making of a Special Relationship: The United States and Israel, 1957-68." International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 25, No. 4. (Nov., 1993), pp. 563-585. JSTOR Stable URL

    Hiro, War, pp. 179-225
   Bruce W. Jentleson, "The Reagan Administration and Coercive Diplomacy." Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 106, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 57-82. JSTOR Stable URL

    Ansari, chapter 3
      Avi Shlaim, "The Impact of U.S. Policy in the Middle East.." Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 17, No. 2. (Winter, 1988), pp. 15-28. JSTOR Stable URL
      Judith Palmer Harik, "Between Islam and the System: Sources and Implications of Popular Support for Lebanon's Hizballah," The Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 40, No. 1 (Mar., 1996), pp. 41-67. JSTOR Stable URL

Hiro, War, pp. 113-178

      Ansari, pp. 93-128
      Marr, pp. 139-215
      Jack Colhoun, "Washington Watch: How Bush Backed Iraq." Middle East Report, No. 176, Iraq in the Aftermath. (May - Jun., 1992), pp. 35-37 JSTOR Stable URL

Sept. 29       The Kuwait Crisis in a Post-Soviet Context

      Ansari, pp.128-137
      Marr, pp. 217-235

      Marr, pp. 235-280

      Hiro, pp. 59-112, 267-299

Oct. 8       Warlords and Taliban in Afghanistan

      Hiro, 225-264

Oct. 13       Al-Qaeda and September 11

      Hiro, pp. 300-335

      Hiro, pp. 335-372

Oct. 22       The Build-Up to the Iraq War

      Amy Gershkoff and Shana Kushner, "Shaping Public Opinion: The 9/11-Iraq Connection in the Bush Administration's Rhetoric," Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Sep., 2005), pp. 525-537 JSTOR Stable URL
      Alex Callinicos, "Iraq: Fulcrum of World Politics," Third World Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 4/5, (2005), pp. 593-608 JSTOR Stable URL
      Sukumar Muralidharan, "Intelligence, Incompetence and Iraq: Or, Time to Talk of Democracy, Demography and Israel," Social Scientist, Vol. 32, No. 11/12 (Nov. - Dec., 2004), pp. 21-80 JSTOR Stable URL
      Cole, "The Lies that Led to War", Salon, May 19, 2005
      John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, "The Israel Lobby," London Review of Books, 23 March 2006

      Timothy Garden, "Iraq: The Military Campaign," International Affairs Vol. 79, No. 4 (Jul., 2003), pp. 701-718 JSTOR Stable URL
      Marr, pp. 281-308
      Eugene J Palka, Francis A Galgano, Mark W Corson. "Operation Iraqi Freedom: A Military Geographical Perspective," Geographical Review. Jul 2005. Vol. 95, Iss. 3; pg. 373, 27 pgs Stable Proquest URL

      Toby Dodge, "Iraqi Transitions: From Regime Change to State Collapse," Third World Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 4/5, (2005), pp. 705-721 JSTOR Stable URL
      West, Strongest Tribe, pp. 1-28, 55-63
      Steve Negus, "The Insurgency Intensifies," Middle East Report, No. 232 (Autumn, 2004), pp. 22-27 Stable Jstor URL
      Juan Cole, "The Reelection of Bush and the Fate of Iraq" Constellations Vol. 12, no. 2 (2005) (at Course Tools)
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      Roel Meijer, "The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq," Middle East Report, No. 237 (Winter, 2005), pp. 12-19 JSTOR stable URL

Nov. 5       Midterm

     West, Strongest Tribe, pp. 28-55
Articles by Juan Cole:
    "The Iraqi Shiites: On the history of Americas would-be allies," Boston Review, Fall, 2003
     "The United States and Shiite Religious Factions in Post-Bathist Iraq,"The Middle East Journal, Volume 57, Number 4, Autumn 2003, pp. 543-566 (at Proquest, Ctools)
    "Portrait of a Rebellion." In These Times. May 24, 2004.
         "The New Improved, Iraq." In These Times, June 22, 2004.

     West, Strongest Tribe, pp. 84-105, 113-172
      Juan Cole, "The Ayatollahs and Democracy in Iraq" ISIM Paper no. 7 (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2006).
      James D. Fearon," Iraq's Civil War," Foreign Affairs, March/April 2007 Proquest Stable URL

West, Strongest Tribe, 227-251, 273-308,325-360
      Ned Parker, "Machiavelli in Mesopotamia: Nouri al-Maliki Builds the Body Politic," World Policy Journal Spring 2009, Vol. 26, No. 1, Pages 17-25

      Michiel Leezenberg, "Iraqi Kurdistan: Contours of a Post-Civil War Society," Third World Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 4/5, (2005), pp. 631-647 JSTOR Stable URL
      Gareth Stansfield, Liam Anderson, "Kurds in Iraq: The Struggle between Baghdad and Erbil," Middle East Policy, Washington: Spring 2009. Vol. 16, Iss. 1; pg. 134, 12 pgs. Stable Proquest URL
      International Crisis Group, Iraq and the Kurds: Trouble along the Trigger Line , 8 July 2009.

Ansari, pp. 165-232

     Pamela Constable, "A Wake-up Call in Afghanistan," Journal of Democracy. Baltimore: Apr 2007. Vol. 18, Iss. 2. Ctools.
     Barnett R. Rubin, "Saving Afghanistan," Foreign Affairs, January/February 2007
      Seth G. Jones, "Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan," RAND Counterinsurgency Study -- Volume 4, (June 2008), pp. 29-86
      Tariq Ali, Afghanistan: mirage of the good war, New Left Review, 6 May 2008
      Gilles Dorronsoro, "The Taliban's Winning Strategy in Afghanistan," Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, June, 2009.

      Matthew J Nelson, "Pakistan in 2008: Moving beyond Musharraf," Asian Survey Berkeley: Jan/Feb 2009. Vol. 49, Iss. 1; p. 16 (12 pages) Stable Proquest URL.
     Sharad Joshi, "Is Pakistan Appeasing the Taliban?" Foreign Policy in Focus, June 13, 2008
      Nasreen Akhtar, "Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Taliban," International Journal on World Peace, New York: Dec 2008. Vol. 25, Iss. 4; pg. 49, 25 pgs Stable Proquest URL
      Anita Demkiv, "Pakistan's FATA, Transnational Terrorism and the Global Development Model," Journal of Global Change and Governance ? Volume II, Number 1 ? Winter/Spring 2009, pp. 1-20.
     Mustafa Malik, "Pakistan: Can U.S. Policy Save the Day?" Middle East Policy, Washington: Summer 2009. Vol. 16, Iss. 2; pg. 138, 11 pgs Stable Proquest URL.

Dec. 10       Class Review

Dec. Final Exam