HIS5085 Conflict in the Modern Middle East
In late winter 2011, revolutions broke out throughout the Middle East and North Africa resulting in regime change in at least three countries while seriously challenging long-standing governments (many of which receive support from Western powers) in several others. However, the so-called "Arab Spring" was hardly the first large-scale coordinated political movement in this region to be driven largely "from below." This course aims to investigate the past century of revolutions, social movements, and political change in the Middle East, starting from the Urabi revolts in Egypt in the late 1880s to the uprisings of 2011. We will focus on the ways in which state elites, imperial powers, and other powerful groups have attempted to shape Middle Eastern politics, society, and economy to fit their own interests. More importantly, however, we will focus on how non-elite social groups, dynamic societal forces and diverse popular political movements have responded to and resisted these efforts, and the ways in which their struggles have shaped the history of this region.