History of the Middle East

The course surveys the major historical processes evolving in the modern Middle East in the past two centuries. It analyzes the interaction between internal developments and Western political, economic and cultural influences.

It discusses the emergence of modern nationalism; the foundation of new states in the early Twentieth Century, their struggle for independence and their grappling with parliamentary systems under the Mandate system. It will examine the replacement of the old elites by new radical military elites, which became in turn more moderate in the course of years, as well as their confrontation with the rising tide of Islamic radicalism.