Department of History       University of Michigan
History 241                        Fall 2008

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 second half of the 20th Century and into the 21st. We will examine how the Cold War, the Arab-Israeli Wars, 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.

Required texts:    (Available at Shaman Drum, 313 S. State St., tel. 662-7407, and at Reserve Reading Room, 3rd Floor, Shapiro Undergraduate Library).

Coursepack at Dollar Bill's, 611 Church St.

Texts:

Ali M. Ansari, Conftonting 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).
Thomas E. Ricks, Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq (New York: The Penguin Press, 2006)
Bob Woodward. Bush at War. (New York: Simon and Shuster, 2002).

Class Sessions

BACKGROUND

Sept. 2      Orientation

Sept. 4      The Formation of the Modern Middle East
      Coursepack: The Remaking of the Near East, pp. 301-401?
      Marr, Modern History of Iraq, pp. 21-49

     Hiro, War, pp. 3-56

Sept. 9     The Cold War as a Framework for Middle Eastern Wars, 1946-1991

     Coursepack: The Middle East, the Great Powers, and the Cold War, pp. 6-26
     Ansari, pp. 7-43

      Ian Lustick, "Changing Rationales for Political Violence in the Arab-Israeli Conflict," Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Autumn, 1990), pp. 54-79; stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2537322
     Georges Corm,"Thoughts on the Roots of the Arab-Israeli Conflict," Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3, (Spring, 1992), pp. 71-79; Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2537520
      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
      Augustus Richard Norton, "Changing Actors and Leadership among the Shiites of Lebanon." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 482, (Nov., 1985), pp. 109-121. 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

Oct. 2      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. 14       Warlords and Taliban in Afghanistan

      Hiro, 225-264

Oct 16       Al-Qaeda and September 11

      Hiro, pp. 300-335

Oct. 23       Pakistan, Diplomacy and the Taliban

Woodward, Bush at War, pp. 139-237

Oct. 30       Midterm

Nov. 4       The Afghanistan War

      Woodward, Bush at War, pp. 238-322
      Hiro, pp. 335-372

      Woodward, Bush at War, pp. 322-352.
      Ricks, Fiasco, pp. 35-111.
      Cole, "The Lies that Led to War", Salon, May 19, 2005

      Ricks, Fiasco, pp. 115-188
      Marr, pp. 281-308

      Ricks, Fiasco, pp. 189-274, 330-385
      Ahmed Hashim, "The Sunni Insurgency in Iraq." Middle East Institute Perspective. August 15, 2003
Juan Cole, "The Reelection of Bush and the Fate of Iraq" Constellations Vol. 12, no. 2 (2005) (at Course Tools)
.

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
    "Portrait of a Rebellion." In These Times. May 24, 2004.
         "The New Improved, Iraq." In These Times, June 22, 2004.

     Ricks, Fiasco, 413-439
      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

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

      Daniel Markey, "A False Choice in Pakistan" Foreign Affairs, July/August 2007
     Juan Cole, "With Bhutto Gone, Does Bush have a Plan B?", Salon, Dec. 27, 2007.
     Juan Cole, "Pakistan Turns Scary for Bush's War on Terror," Salon, Feb. 30, 2008
     Sharad Joshi, "Is Pakistan Appeasing the Taliban?" Foreign Policy in Focus, June 13, 2008

Dec. Final Exam