In the first part, you will acquire the theoretical and practical skills how to analyze the regional and international dimensions of politics (conflicts, peace, alliances, great powers interferences, transnational religious activism etc.) in the Middle East-North Africa region. The second part provides you with tools and empirical data to analyze states, foreign policies, and transnational ideologies and movements, culture, art, economic activities, and human movement.
You will become familiar with:

• different theories of international relations;
• the role of Europe, the United States, Russia and China in regional politics;
• analyzing the major historical, and current conflicts in the region;
• old and new rivalries at both local, regional and international levels;
• the concept of transnationalism (‘from above and below’);
• processes of Islamic and Pan-Arab revival, and its relation to the diasporas;
• the influences of intra-regional and extra-regional migrations;
• the roles of women and minorities in the flows of people, ideas, and goods.

This course addresses the question how the Middle East is part of international politics, globalization, and regional dynamics. The course consists of two parts:

1. The first part deals with the international and regional relations, and is an International Relations (IR) analysis of the regional and international conflicts in the region. It specifically focuses on the principal conflicts in the Middle East: the Syrian civil war, the Iran-Saudi rivalry, Israel-Palestine, the Yemeni civil war and a few other ones. Central questions are: what are the roles of regional actors Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkey in some conflicts, what are their interests, how do these constantly change, and what are the relations between these regional actors and international actors such as the Russia and the United States? With regard to the Iranian-Saudi rivalry, the focus is on sectarian dimension of the conflict, and how religion is manipulated for political ends. As for Israel-Palestine, we will tackle the notions of identity, nations and nationalisms, territories and borders, and the role of religious narratives in the conflict. Other conflicts will also be treated across the semester in North Africa, the Gulf, and the Levant.

2. The second part focuses on the flows of people, goods and ideas, modes of belonging, and the emergence of social movements and their relation to international politics. We discuss concepts such as transnationalism from above and below, diaspora, cosmopolitanism by looking at flows, routes, places, and borders, and how these are related to political developments at a macro level. The issue of transnational Islamic fighters but also the role of great powers as well as the crisis of the Arab states will be addressed.