McGill University DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE Fall Term 2018 POLI 340 Developing Areas: Middle East INSTRUCTOR: Prof. Rex Brynen office: Leacock 510 phone: (514) 398-4400x00634 (office) email: rex.brynen@mcgill.ca CLASS HOURS: OFFICE HOURS: Tuesdays and Thursday, 16h05 17h25 (Stewart Biology S1/4) Tuesdays 10h15-11h15, 14h30 15h30, or by appointment. Course Description This course will examine the political dynamics of selected Middle Eastern regimes, and offer a comparative examination of key political trends and themes. Particular attention will be devoted to the dramatic series of protests, uprisings, repression, and conflicts that have affected the region since 2011. The prerequisite for POLI 340 is a previous course in comparative politics, or a previous course on the region. Please note that Middle East international relations/foreign policy and Israeli politics will not be covered in this course, since they are addressed in POLI 341 and POLI 437 respectively. This course involves a substantial amount of reading. Students are urged to keep on top of this, and to read all assigned readings before each lecture for maximum benefit. Text The texts for this course are: Rex Brynen, Pete Moore, Bassel Salloukh, and Marie-Joelle Zahar, Beyond the Arab Spring: Authoritarianism and Democratization in the Arab World (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2012). My author royalties from the sale of this book are donated to UN humanitarian agencies. Ellen Lust, ed., The Middle East, 14 th edition (Los Angeles: CQ Press/SAGE, 2016). Do not use an earlier edition. Readings for the course are drawn from the course text or have been placed online via mycourses (http://www.mcgill.ca/mycourses). They may also be available on reserve in the library. Because of this, there is no coursepack. Additional required readings will be placed on mycourses during the term, so please check it regularly. In addition, students are encouraged to follow regional events via some of the following websites:
POLI 340 2 of 5 BBC News (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world/middle_east) Foreign Policy/Middle East Channel (http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com) al-jazeera English (http://english.aljazeera.net) Jadaliyya (http://www.jadaliyya.com) al-monitor (http://www.al-monitor.com) Please note that anything we discuss in class is potential material for the exams, including discussions of recent developments in the region. There are no conferences for this course. Course Requirements and Grading quizzes (October 4, November 1) o best quiz 20% o second best quiz 10% research paper (4-5,000 words, due in class on November 15) 30% final examination (university-scheduled) 40% The quizzes will be in multiple-choice format (40 questions/60 minutes), and will test all material covered in class up to the day of the exam. Your best quiz result will count for 20% of your course grade, and your second best quiz result will count for 10%. If you miss a quiz you will require a documented medical (or similar) excuse for any special arrangements to be made. The requirements of the research paper will be detailed in a special handout distributed in mid- September. Late papers will only be accepted in class on November 22 (at a penalty of 3.0 marks out of 30). Only documented medical excuses (or equivalent) justify the unpenalized late submission of a paper. Submission of an unplagiarized research paper is a required part of the course. The final exam will consist of longer essay questions, and will cover all course material, emphasizing the major themes developed in the course. Plagiarism: McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore, all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures (see http://www.mcgill.ca/integrity for more information). If parts of someone else s work are used directly (paraphrased or quoted) without acknowledgement, this constitutes plagiarism. If you are unsure of what plagiarism is or how to identify your sources, ask the course instructor or consult a style manual. Plagiarism is cheating, to the detriment of both the university and fellow students. Research papers that contain plagiarized material will receive a grade of 0/30, and the student will be assigned an incomplete J (F) grade for the course overall. In addition, they will be reported to the Faculty with a recommendation for the strongest possible disciplinary action. Supplemental exams: As outlined in the Faculty of Arts calendar, students receiving a final grade of D or F for the course may write a supplemental exam, which will replace their original final exam grade. If so, they may also submit a supplemental research paper at this time (which will replace their original research paper grade), UNLESS the failing grade was the result of plagiarism. In accord with McGill University s Charter of Students Rights, students in this course have the right to submit in English or in French any written work that is to be graded.
POLI 340 3 of 5 COURSE OUTLINE (dates are approximate) September 4 (video lecture, no class) Introduction to POLI 340 September 6 (video lecture, no class) The Arab Spring : A Region Transformed? New Horizons in Arab Politics, in Brynen, Moore, Salloukh, and Zahar, Beyond the Arab Spring, chapter 1. Scott Anderson, Fractured Lands: How the Arab World Came Apart, New York Times Magazine, August 2016 [mycourses] F. Gregory Gause III, Why Middle East Studies Missed the Arab Spring, Foreign Affairs 90, 4 (July/August 2011). [mycourses] September 11, 13 Historical Context: Islamic, Ottoman and Colonial Legacies Michael Gasper, The Making of the Modern Middle East, in Lust, ed, The Middle East, chapter 1. September 18, 20, 25 North Africa Lahouari Addi, Algeria, in Lust, ed, The Middle East, chapter 9. Jacob Mundy, Libya, in Lust, ed, The Middle East, chapter 17. Dross Maghraoui and Saloua Zerhouni, Morocco, in Lust, ed, The Middle East, chapter 19. Laryssa Chomiak and Robert Parks, Tunisia, in Lust, ed, The Middle East, chapter 24. September 27, October 2 Egypt Tarek Massoud, Egypt, in Lust, ed, The Middle East, chapter 10. October 4 Quiz 1 (covers all course material up to the day of the exam) October 9, 11 Levant I: Jordan and Palestine Laurie Brand, Jordan, in Lust, ed, The Middle East, chapter 14. Alaa Tartir and Benoît Challand, Palestine, in Lust, ed, The Middle East, chapter 20.
POLI 340 4 of 5 October 16, 18 Levant II: Lebanon, Syria, Iraq Julia Choucair-Vizoso, Iraq, in Lust, ed, The Middle East, chapter 12. Paul Salem, Lebanon, in Lust, ed, The Middle East, chapter 16. Raymond Hinnebusch, Syria, in Lust, ed, The Middle East, chapter 23. October 23, 25, 30 The Arabian Peninsula Hesham al-awadi, Kuwait, in Lust, ed, The Middle East, chapter 15. Michael Herb, Lower Gulf States, in Lust, ed, The Middle East, chapter 18. Pascal Menoret, Saudi Arabia, in Lust, ed, The Middle East, chapter 21. Sarah Philips, Yemen, in Lust, ed, The Middle East, chapter 26. November 1 Quiz 2 (covers all course material up to the day of exam) November 6 Ideas, Attitudes, Ideologies, and Participation Political Culture Revisited, in Brynen, Moore, Salloukh, and Zahar, Beyond the Arab Spring, chapter 5. The New Arab Media, in Brynen, Moore, Salloukh, and Zahar, Beyond the Arab Spring, chapter 11. Janine Clark and Lina Khattib, Actors, Public Opinion, and Participation, in Lust, ed, The Middle East, chapter 6. November 8, 13 Political Economy Rentierism and Resource Politics, in Brynen, Moore, Salloukh, and Zahar, Beyond the Arab Spring, chapter 9. Economic Liberalization, in Brynen, Moore, Salloukh, and Zahar, Beyond the Arab Spring, chapter 10. Melani Cammett and Ishac Diwan, The Political Economy of Development in the Middle East, in Lust, ed, The Middle East, chapter 4. November 15 Islamist Movements and Politics Robert Lee and Lihi Ben Shitrit, Religion, Society, and Politics in the Middle East, in Lust, ed, The Middle East, chapter 5. Islamist Movements and Democratic Politics, in Brynen, Moore, Salloukh, and Zahar, Beyond the Arab Spring, chapter 6. November 20 Electoral Politics and the Politics of Transition Electoral Politics, in Brynen, Moore, Salloukh, and Zahar, Beyond the Arab Spring, chapter 7.
POLI 340 5 of 5 November 22 Middle East Monarchies The Politics of Monarchical Survival, in Brynen, Moore, Salloukh, and Zahar, Beyond the Arab Spring, chapter 8. November 27 Middle East Militaries Derek Lutterbeck, Arab Uprisings, Armed Forces, and Civil Military Relations, Armed Forces & Society, 39, 1 (January 2013). [mycourses] Aaron Stein, Inside a Failed Coup and Turkey s Fragmented Military, War on the Rocks, 20 July 2016. [mycourses] November 29 The Regional and International Environment Marc Lynch, Regional International Relations, in Lust, ed, The Middle East, chapter 8. The Impact of the Regional and International Environment, in Brynen, Moore, Salloukh, and Zahar, Beyond the Arab Spring, chapter 12. Max Fisher, How the Iranian-Saudi Proxy Struggle Tore Apart the Middle East, New York Times, 19 November 2016. [mycourses]