The Middle East and North Africa in the contemporary period: history, politics, international relations – Faculty of History and Philosophy

Professional skills: Application of the assimilated knowledge for the analysis of historical, political and military events in the Middle East and North Africa today; ability to use the theoretical skills acquired for negotiation situations, post-conflict management, field research, dissemination of knowledge in scientific circles or in the public space, continuation of research activity through integration into national or international study programmes.

 Course structure:

 1. The crises and the end of the Ottoman Empire

• Ottoman reformist and modernising projects, from the Tanzimat to the Turkish Junii
• The “Eastern Question” and the rivalries of the Great European Powers in the East
• Mehmet Ali and the Khedivid dynasty: the beginnings of Egyptian modernity
• Arab and Islamic revival currents: Al-Nahda, Al-Islah
• Arab provinces at the end of the Ottoman Empire

2. Colonialism, protectorates, mandates: the European presence in the Middle East and North Africa

• Colonial domination of North Africa
• Britain in Egypt and Sudan
• The Middle East in the First World War
• Peace treaties and the construction of the post-Ottoman Middle East
• Mandate system and new state-building and nation-building processes in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine

3. Building modern Turkey

• Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and proclamation of the Turkish Republic
• Mustafa Atatürk and the Kemalist reforms
• Ismet İnönü period (1938-1950)
• Pluripartism and democratisation: the Menderes government (1950-1960)
• The period of coups (1960-1983): the military in politics

4. Egypt, from independence to Nasser

• Egypt in the interwar period: between tradition and modernism
• The Muslim Brotherhood and the founding of political Islam
• Arab Socialism, Nasserism and Reformism
• Egyptian foreign policy under Nasser. Egypt’s pan-Arab ambitions

5. Pan-Arabism, sectarianism and power in Syria

• Characteristics of Syrian society 
• Difficult state-building: political and revolutionary experiments in post-independence Syria (1946-1970)
• Hafez al-Assad and the neo-Ba’ath party (1970-2000)
• Foreign policy strategies and regional and international relations in the Ba’ath period

6. State, communities and conflict: the difficulties of nation-building in modern Iraq

• The complexity of identity in Iraqi society
• Hashemite Iraq (1921-1958) and British tutelage
• The military’s rise to power: Republican Iraq (1958-1968)
• The “Iraqi question”: the status of the Kurds and the Shiites

7. Saudi Arabia: Islam and petrodollars

• ‘Ulama: the ideological-religious foundations of the Saudi state
• ‘Umara: the Saudi political system from Abdelaziz al-Saud to Muhammad bin Sultan
• Structurile și politicile panislamice
• Internal Islamist disputes

8. Iran until the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty (1979)

• Social and cultural structures in pre-modern Persia
• Qajari Persia under the impact of Russo-British imperialism
• Reza Shah Pahlavi and the modernization of Iran
• Imperial ideology, autocracy and repression under Muhammad-Reza Shah
• The “White Revolution” and the difficulties of imposed modernisation
• Internal opposition movements
• The “Gulf Guard”: Iran’s foreign policy ambitions

9. Egypt during Sadat and Mubarak

• Infitah and the re-Islamisation of the social field in the Sadat period
• The new foreign policy guidelines of the Sadat regime
• Dinamicile Islamul politic și militant egiptean
• Mubarak’s Egypt: authoritarianism, social instabilities, regional diplomatic ambitions

10. Iraq under Saddam Hussein

• Ba’ath Party in Iraq: ideology and history
• The political and security institutional apparatus
• Internal policies
• Foreign relations and regional conflicts (Iran-Iraq war, Gulf war – 1990-1991)
• Iraq under the impact of the embargo

11. A perpetual quest for security: the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

• From Transjordan to Jordan: Hashemites, the British and the nationless state
• The Hussein II period (1952-1999): between the vocation of diplomacy and regional geopolitical conditioning
• Jordan under Abdullah II: the imperative of national stability and internal and external security strategies

12. Israel

• Jewish communities from antiquity to the modern period
• Ideological foundations and political and military structures of the Israeli state
• The long political domination of the Mapai/Workers’ Party (1949-1977)
• The rise of the Israeli right after the eighth decade
• Israel’s foreign relations

13. Arab-Israeli conflicts and the Palestinian question (1)

• The British Mandate in Palestine (1921-1948)
• The Proclamation of Israel and the First Arab-Israeli Conflict (1948-1949)
• The formation of the PLO and the Arab instrumentalisation of the Palestinian cause (1956-1967)
• The Six-Day War and its aftermath
• Palestinian resistance movements

14. Muhasasa, liberalism and political instability: the Lebanese paradox

• The formation of modern Lebanon: the National Pact and communitarian policies
• The Lebanese civil conflict (1975-1990): internal causes and external influences
• The rise of Lebanese Shiism: from Musa al-Sadr to Hezbollah
• Post-Taef Lebanon: reconstruction, Syrian rule, political dynamics

15. Islamic Republic of Iran

• The Islamic Revolution (1978-1979) and the establishment of the Islamic Republic
• “Centre of the Universe”: the ideological foundations and institutional structures of the Islamic Republic
• The Khomeini period: the utopia of Islamization of Iran and the revolutionary export (1979-1989)
• Domestic Pragmatism and Regional Reintegration: the Islamic Republic in the Rafsanjani Period (1989-1997)
• The illusions and limits of reformism under Muhammad Khatami (1989-2005)
• Populism, domestic crises and international sanctions: the Ahmadinejad period (2005-2013)
• Diplomatic openings and regional geopolitical strategies after 2013

16. Kingdom of Insolence’: traditions, conflicts and geopolitical rivalries in Afghanistan

• Socio-cultural structures and collective identities in modern Afghanistan
• Political history of Afghanistan: Hotakid dynasty (1709-1738), Durrani Empire (1747-1826), Emirate of Afghanistan (1823-1926), Kingdom of Afghanistan (1926-1973)
• Republican period (1973-1992), USSR in Afghanistan
• Anti-Soviet resistance and militant Islamic parties and movements
• “Afghan Arabs”: the emergence of international jihadist movements

17. “Global Islam”: the emergence of Salafist currents

• Salafismul și reislamizarea „de jos”
• Al-Qaida și salafismul jihadist
• Globalisation of jihadist movements

18. Persian Gulf Monarchies

• British domination of the Gulf emirates
• The United Arab Emirates: between tradition and modernity
• Qatar’s geopolitical ambitions
• Kuwait: the fragility of an oil power
• The Sultanate of Oman and the strategy of Islamic diplomacy
• Bahrain: between Saudi dependence and the Iranian threat

19. Arab-Israeli conflicts and the Palestinian question (2)

• From the Yom Kippur War to the Camp David Accords
• The Palestinian Question in the Eighth Decade: Terrorism and Negotiations
• Intifada, the rise of Hamas and the Madrid Peace Conference
• The Oslo Accords and the formation of the Palestinian National Authority
• The failure of the peace process
• The Second Intifada and inter-Palestinian rivalries
• Towards a Palestinian state?

20. Yemen: tribalism, sectarianism, civil strife

• Yemeni mentalities, social, cultural and political structures
• North Yemen and South Yemen until 1990
• Unification and the Civil War of the ninth decade
• Saleh regime. Yemen in the “Arab Spring”
• The post-2014 civil war

21. Morocco: monarchy, Islam and modernity

• Makhzen: the foundations of power in modern Morocco. Moroccan society
• The “Years of Lead”: the Hassan II period
• Relative democratization, liberalism and socio-political crises under Muhammad VI
• Islam in Moroccan society and politics
• Morocco’s foreign relations. The impossible Maghreb union
• Western Sahara issue

22. Algeria: authoritarianism, instability, violence

• Algerian society: ethno-cultural characteristics
• Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962)
• Confiscation of power management by the FLN and the military
• The Third World ambitions of the Algerian regimes during the Cold War
• The rise of political and militant Islam: the Algerian civil war (1991-2002)
• The failures of democratisation and the welfare state crisis
• The Hirak movement and the Algerian popular protests (2019-)

23. Tunisia: from Bourguiba to Kais Saied

• Socio-economic specificities of Tunisian society
• Ambitions, achievements and failures of the Burgundian modernist project
• The Ben Ali period and the patrimonialist confiscation of the state
• The Tunisian “Arab Spring” and the new post-revolutionary political and social dynamics

24. The ideological and geopolitical illusions of a welfare state: Libya

• Libyan society: regions, tribes, urban solidarities
• Post-independence Libya: Sanussi and the monarchist interval (1951-1969)
• Muammar al-Gaddafi’s regime (1969-2011): the Guide of the Revolution and the multiple ideological, political and institutional metamorphoses of the Libyan state
• Libyan foreign policies and strategies during the Gaddafi period: pan-Arabism, pan-Africanism, terrorism, petrodollars
• Post-Gaddafi Libya: political instability, violence, external interference

25. Turkey’s ambitions: the limits of democracy and a return to Islam

• Civilian governments, political instability, reintegration of Islam in the public and political space (1983-2002)
• Turkey under Erdogan
• The Kurdish problem
• External relations: between East and West

26. Post-Saddam Iraq

• US democratic state-building project in Iraq
• Iraq’s political system after 2003
• Ethno-sectarian violence and terrorism
• Emergence of the Islamic State

27. The “Arab Spring” and its consequences

• Political and socio-economic causes of the 2010-2011 revolution
• The political rise and fall of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the Middle East
• The “counter-revolution” of conservative states and the failure of democratisation processes
• Intra-regional ideological-geopolitical rivalries

28. The failed revolution: Syria after 2011

• Political and socio-economic causes of the Syrian revolution
• Militarisation of the internal opposition
• Islamisation and internationalisation of the Syrian resistance
• Involvement of regional and international actors
• Negotiations and political-diplomatic scenarios for resolving the Syrian conflict

29. The Taliban phenomenon, external interventions and the impossible stability of Afghanistan

• Civil war and the rise of the Taliban (1992-2001)

• Anti-Taliban Intervention and International Forces in Afghanistan (ISAF)
• Projects to rebuild the Afghan political and socio-economic system

• Warlords, insurgencies and the fragmentation of the socio-economic and statist order
• Taliban return to power in 2021

30. The involvement of external actors in the Middle East and North Africa in the post-war period

• American policy in the Middle East
• The strategies of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation
• The major European powers and the European Union
• China’s rise in the region

Bibliografie selectivă

• Abrahamian Ervand, A History of Modern Iran, Cambridge University Press, 2008
• Alexei Vassiliev, The History of Saudi Arabia, Saqi Books, 2013
• Almezaini Khalid, Rickli Jean-Marc (eds.), The Small Gulf States: Foreign and Security Policies before and after the Arab Spring, Routledge, 2016
• Alon Yoav, The Making of Jordan. Tribes, Colonialism and the Modern StateI.B.Tauris, 2007

• Ansari Ali, Modern Iran, Routledge, 2016

• Centre de Recherches et d’Etudes sur les Sociétés Méditerranéennes (ed.), Introduction à l’Afrique du Nord contemporaine, Institut de recherches et d’études sur le monde arabe et musulman, Éditions du CNRS, 1975
• Dawisha Adeed, Iraq: A Political History from Independence to Occupation, Princeton University Press, 2009
• Fahd al-Semmari (ed.), A History of the Arabian Peninsula, I.B.Tauris, 2010

• Gerges Fawaz (ed.), The New Middle East: Protest and Revolution in the Arab World, Cambridge University Press, 2013

• Harris William, Lebanon: A History, 600-2011, Oxford University Press, 2012
• Hopwood Derek, Egypt: Politics and Society 1945-1990, Routledge, 1993

• Kepel Gilles, Jihad, Gallimard, 2003
• Khoury Philip S., Joseph Kostiner (eds.), Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1990
• Korany Bahgat, Ali Hillal Dessouki (eds.), The Foreign Policies of Arab States: The Challenge of Globalization, The American University in Cairo Press, 2008

• Laurens Henry, L’Orient arabe: arabisme et islamisme de 1798-1945, Armand Colin, 2000

• Lawson Fred H., Constructing International Relations in the Arab World, Stanford University Press, 2006

• Mansfield Peter, Pelham Nicolas, A History of the Middle East, Humanitas, 2015
• Marc Lynch (ed.), The Arab uprisings Explained: New Contentious Politics in the Middle East, Columbia University Press, 2014.

• McDougall James, A History of Algeria, Cambridge University Press, 2017
• McHugo John, Syria: A Recent History, Saqi Books, 2015
• Miller Susan Gilson, A History of Modern Morocco, Cambridge University Press, 2013

• Morris Benny, Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001, Vintage Books, 2001

• Oyeniyi Bukola, The History of Libya, Greenwood, 2019
• Perkins Kenneth, A History of Modern Tunisia, Cambridge University Press, 2014
• Philips Christopher, The Battle for Syria: International Rivalry in the New Middle East, Yale University Press, 2016.
• Polk William, The Arab World Today, Harvard University Press, 1991
• Rabi Uzi, Yemen: Revolution, Civil War and Unification, I. B. Tauris, 2015

• Rubin Barnett, Afghanistan from the Cold War through the War on Terror, Oxford University Press, 2013

• Shindler Colin, A History of Modern Israel, Cambridge University Press, 2013

• Shlaim Avi, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, W.W. Norton & Company, 2014

• Wahab Shaista, Barry Youngerman, A Brief History of Afghanistan, Facts On File, 2010
• Zürcher Erik, A Modern History, I.B.Tauris, 2017