Regional Security in the Middle East

Rather than treating "the Middle East" as a fixed map of states with security problems to solve, the course asks how different actors, colonial planners, Cold War blocs, OPEC, Islamist movements, the EU, Washington, have *constructed* the region itself and the security visions attached to it, from Sykes-Picot through Bandung, the Arab Cold War, Oslo, 9/11, and ISIS. You will read this literature contrapuntally and produce a paper proposal plus a research essay applying security theory to a case of your choice, with weekly response papers feeding class discussion. As a senior POLS elective it builds on the IR theory and Middle East politics courses, and is most useful if you want to write a thesis, work in policy, or simply stop taking regional maps at face value.