HIST 4163 - The United States and the Middle East

3 credits

[Meets the Core Curriculum Writing Practice Requirement] This course provides an overview of the formation of the American understanding of and engagement with the region of the world generically called the middle east. The course focuses on the consequences to America of the European involvement in the region in the 19th century, the fall of the Ottomans, the Mandates, the rise of independent Arab nation states, the creation of Israel, the effects of the cold war and global geopolitics, and the post-colonial, post-cold war, rise of Islamist states, the modern fundamentalist Jihad and the Arab Spring. The proper role for America in this volatile region will be our common frame of interpretation and debate.

Prerequisite: at least one college-level History or Political Science course or Instructors permission.