Untangling the Middle East

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

All too often the problematic of the Middle East is considered from too narrow a viewpoint. Many are the experts and authorities who understand the ins and outs of Arab culture or of Islam or of the Israelis or the Iraqis or the Egyptians. Rarely if ever does one encounter a discussion that encompasses the extraordinary array of complications that interweave each other to yield an answer to the question as to why this is such a difficult region of the world. The intention of this course is to do that: to make accessible to an intelligent reader and auditor that array of complications. As such my intention is to offer a primer: each of the areas encompassed can be studied in greater detail through further discussion or reading. My goal is not to propose a given solution, in fact, but to explore and explain the problem as a starting point for thinking about solutions. My hope is also to present different issues evenhandedly, from different perspectives, which is a second flaw I find in most presentations of the region: that they are two one-sided, whether obviously or subtly.