Taught In English

There is no language prerequisite for courses at this language level.

1.- Brief History of the Middle East since the Fall of the Ottoman Empire to the present:
- From World War I (the Sykes-Pikot Agreement ) to World War II:
- From the origins of Sionism to the birth of Israel
- From Arab nationalism to Islamic fundamentalism
- Six Arab-Israeli wars (1948-2006)

2.- Modernity and the Arab world:
- Failure of the West or failed modernization?
- Two historical accounts, two cultural perspectives: Edward Said vs Bernard Lewis.

3.- Geopolitical realities and political interests:
- Oil, water and nukes
- The big players: the quartet (USA, Russia, European Union, United Nations)
- Regional players: Israel, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iran
- Israel and the palestinians (Al Fatah and Hamas)
- Lebanon’s mosaic, Irak’s quagmire and Iran’s gamble

4.The Middle East in the movies:
Cultural prejudice and warped visions of the region analyzed through five masterly films:
- Exodus (Otto Preminger, 1960)
- Hanna K. (Costa Gavras, 1983))
- Syriana (Stephen Gaghan, 2005)
- Paradise Now (Hany Abu-Assad, 2005)
- Munich (Steven Spielberg, 2005)

5.-Everything is connected:
Analysis of the region’s conflicts (Israel/Palestine, Lebanon, Irak, Iran and the shiite-sunni divide) and their interconnections through recent and current media coverage:
- USA’s International Herald Tribune (NYT) vs Lebanon’s Daily Star and Egypt’s Cairo Times
- Israel’s Haaretz vs Palestine Chronicle and Palestine Media Centre
- CNN and BBC vs Al Jazeera
- The Economist vs Iran Daily

BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Orientalism (Edward W.Said)
- What Went Wrong? (Bernard Lewis)
- A Peace to end all Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation ot the Modern Middle East (David Fromkin)
- Scars of War, Wounds of Peace (Shlomo Ben-Ami)
- Israel-Palestine: The Alternative of Binational Coexistence (Michel Warschawski)
- The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (Avi Shlaim)
- From Beirut to Jerusalem (Thomas L. Friedman, 1990)

Evaluation:

35% med-term exam
55% final exam
10% classroom participation

Absences:

Attendance is mandatory