Syllabus History 241: America and Middle Eastern Wars

    Department of history       University of Michigan
    History 241                        Fall 2011


    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.
    Required texts:    (Available at Ulrich's and at Reserve Reading Room, 3rd Floor, Shapiro Undergraduate Library).


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

    Texts:

    Ali M. Ansari, Confronting Iran (New York: Basic Books, 2006).
    Patrick Cockburn, Muqtada Al-Sadr and the Battle for the Future of Iraq (New York: Scribner, 2008)
    James Ferguson, Taliban: The Unknown Enemy (De Capo Press, 2011)
    Phebe Marr, The Modern history of Iraq (Boulder, Co.: Westview, 2004).

    Class Sessions

    BACKGROUND

    Sept. 6      Orientation

    THE COLD WAR

    Sept. 8      The Cold War and the Middle East

         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
          Nick Cullather, "Damming Afghanistan: Modernization in a Buffer State," The Journal of American History, Vol. 89, No. 2, (Sep., 2002), pp. 512-537, JSTOR Stable URL
          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

    Sept. 13       Afghanistan Wars and the Fall of the Soviet Union
        Andrew Hartman, "'The Red Template': US Policy in Soviet-Occupied Afghanistan," Third World Quarterly, Vol. 23, No. 3 (Jun., 2002), pp. 467-489 JSTOR Stable URL
          Bruce W. Jentleson, "The Reagan Administration and Coercive Diplomacy." Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 106, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 57-82. JSTOR Stable URL
          Fred Halliday and Zahir Tanin, "The Communist Regime in Afghanistan 1978-1992: Institutions and Conflicts," Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 50, No. 8 (Dec., 1998), pp. 1357-1380 JSTOR Stable URL

    Sept. 15       The Islamic Revolution in Iran and Regional Implications
        Ansari, chapter 3
         Cockburn, pp. 16-43
          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
    Sept. 20       Reagan and The Saudi Alliance
    William Ochsenwald , "Saudi Arabia and The Islamic Revival," International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 13, No. 3. (Aug., 1981), pp. 271-286. [Or keyword search title at Jstor)

    Sept. 22       The United States and the Iran-Iraq War
          Ansari, pp. 93-128
          Cockburn, pp. 25-54
          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
    HYPERPOWER AMERICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST CHALLENGE

    Sept. 27       The Kuwait Crisis in a Post-Soviet Context

          Ansari, pp.128-137
          Marr, pp. 217-235
    Sept. 29       The Gulf War, 1991
          Marr, pp. 235-280
          Cockburn, pp. 55-94
    Oct. 4       The Rise of the Jihadis and the Beginnings of al-Qaeda
          Ziad Munson, "Islamic Mobilization: Social Movement Theory and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood," The Sociological Quarterly, Vol. 42, No. 4 (Autumn, 2001), pp. 487-510 Stable JSTOR URL
          William E. Shepard, "Sayyid Qutb's Doctrine of 'Jahiliyya'," International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 35, No. 4 (Nov., 2003), pp. 521-545 Stable JSTOR URL
          Saad Eddin Ibrahim. "Egypt's Islamic Activism in the 1980s." Third World Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 2, Islam & Politics. (Apr., 1988), pp. 632-657.
          Ann M Lesch "Osama Bin Laden: Embedded in the Middle East crises," Middle East Policy, Washington: Jun 2002. Vol. 9, Iss. 2; pg. 82, 10 pgs Stable Proquest URL

    Oct. 6       Warlords and Taliban in Afghanistan

          Ferguson, Taliban, chapters 1-4
    THE WAR ON TERROR

    Oct. 11       Al-Qaeda and September 11

          Ferguson, Taliban, chapter 5
          Robert S. Snyder, "Hating America: Bin Laden as a Civilizational Revolutionary," The Review of Politics, Vol. 65, No. 4 (Autumn, 2003), pp. 325-349 JSTOR Stable URL
    Oct 13       The Unseating of the Taliban in 2001-2003
          Ferguson, Taliban, chapter 6
    Oct. 18       Fall Break


    Oct. 20       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
          John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, "The Israel Lobby," London Review of Books, 23 March 2006

    Oct. 25       Class Review


    Oct. 27       Midterm


    Nov. 1       The US Invasion of Iraq

          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

    Nov. 3       The Sunni Arab Guerrilla Insurgency Grows, 2003-2004
          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
          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)
          Roel Meijer, "The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq," Middle East Report, No. 237 (Winter, 2005), pp. 12-19 JSTOR stable URL
    Nov.8       The Rise of the Mahdi Army
          Juan Cole, "The Iraqi Shiites: On the history of Americas would-be allies," Boston Review, Fall, 2003
         Cockburn, pp. 95-162
         Juan Cole, "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)
    Nov. 10       Shiite-Ruled Iraq and Civil War
          Juan Cole, "The Ayatollahs and Democracy in Iraq" ISIM Paper no. 7 (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2006).
          Cockburn, pp. 163-186
          James D. Fearon," Iraq's Civil War," Foreign Affairs, March/April 2007 Proquest Stable URL
    Nov. 15       Surge, al-Maliki, SOFA and the End of American Iraq
          Cockburn, pp. 187-204
         
    Nov. 17       The Kurdistan Question and Post-Baath Iraq
          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.
    Nov. 22       Iran, the Nuclear Issue, and Election Protests
    Ansari, pp. 165-232
          Mahmood Monshipouri, Ali Assareh, "The Islamic Republic and the "Green Movement": Coming Full Circle," Middle East Policy. Washington: Winter 2009. Vol. 16, Iss. 4; pg. 27, 20 pgs Proquest Stable URL

    Nov. 29 Free Day

    Dec. 1       The Resurgence of the Taliban

          Ferguson, Taliban, Chapter 7
    Dec. 6       Obama and Counter-Insurgency
          C Christine Fair, "'Clear, Build, Hold, Transfer': Can Obama's Afghan Strategy Work?" Asian Affairs, an American Review (Jul-Sep 2010), Vol. 37, Iss. 3; p. 113 (19 pages); Stable Proquest URL
          Ferguson, Taliban, Chapters 8-13
    Dec. 8       Crisis in Pakistan and Afghanistan
          Christine Fair, "Pakistan in 2010," Asian Survey. Berkeley: Jan/Feb 2011. Vol. 51, Iss. 1; p. 97 (14 pages); Stable Proquest URL
          Adeel Khan. "Pushtun Ethnonationalism and the Taliban Insurgency in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan." Asian Survey. Berkeley: Nov/Dec 2009. Vol. 49, Iss. 6; p. 1092 (23 pages) Proquest Stable URL
          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.

    Dec. 13 Review Toward Exam

    Dec. TBA Final Exam


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