SYLLABUS:  AMH 5905

Readings In United States History:

THE U.S. AND THE MIDDLE EAST

#12921, AH 105, T   06:30-09:40PM

 

Instructor: Dr. Kenneth Osgood

Phone:  (561) 297-2816

Home: (561) 243-9377 (please use for emergencies only)                                       

Email:  kosgood@fau.edu

Web Site:  http://www.fau.edu/~kosgood

 

Course Description:

 

This readings course will examine major issues and problems concerning the history of U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East, from 1945 to the present.  This is primarily a reading and discussion course: students are expected to complete all of the reading on time and to participate actively in discussion.

 

Discussion Leaders:

 

Each week 1 or 2 students will be in charge of leading discussion. When it is your turn, please prepare a 5-10 minute commentary assessing the readings for the week. Please also prepare a list of discussion questions, and bring enough copies of that list for each student in the class.

 

Review Essay & Presentation:

 

Read and review the secondary literature on a specialized topic pertaining to U.S.-Middle East relations.  Write a critical review essay that analyzes existing scholarship and the state of the latest research on this issue.  Each essay should do the following four things:

 

(1)   summarize succinctly the historical background/context of the issue;

(2)   identify points of controversy and disagreement – what are the disputed issues & ideas;

(3)   analyze how different scholars have interpreted these issues;

(4)   assess the differing scholarly viewpoints – in other words, on balance, which viewpoint do you think is most persuasive, or if none are persuasive to you, why not? 

 

When preparing this essay, consider Douglas Little’s essay (“Gideon’s Band”) as a model for how to write this essay and as a reference source for secondary literature.  Please be advised that Little’s essay is now a bit dated, so you will need to conduct research to find the most recent writings on your topic.  Your papers should be approximately 10-15 pages long.

 

Paper proposals:

Your topics must be approved by me, and no two students will be allowed to write on the same topic.  Send me an email proposing 2 topics that interest you.  Include a paragraph describing each and indicate which you prefer.  I will approve them in order I receive them – thus the sooner you submit your proposal to me, the more likely it is your first choice will be approved.  All students are encouraged to submit proposals by May 31. 

 

Presentations:

During the final weeks of the course, you will present to the class the basic findings from your Review Essay research.  Presentations should be approximately 15 minutes long, and should be accompanied by an outline.  Make sufficient copies to provide copies of your outline to all members of the course. 

 

Email Policy:

In accordance with FAU policy, all students are required to have and to use their MyFAU email accounts.  No excuses, no exceptions, and no whining.

 

About the Readings:

 

The books should be available for purchase at the Bookstore; less-expensive used copies of most of these books can be found online.  Copies owned by FAU library will be placed on reserve.  Articles will be available on MyFAU or via the library’s electronic reserve. 

 

REQUIRED READINGS

 

Books:

 

Douglas Little: The United States and the Middle East Since 1945 (University of North Carolina Press, ISBN: 0807855391) $14

 

Melani McAlister, Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and U.S. Interests in the Middle East, 1945-2000 . (University of California Press, ISBN: 0520228103) $20.

 

Peter Hahn, Caught in the Middle East: U.S. Policy Toward the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1945-1961. (University of North Carolina Press, ISBN: 0807828408) $40

 

Warren Bass, Support Any Friend: Kennedy’s Middle East and the Making of the U.S.-Israel Alliance (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003). $12

 

Stephen Kinzer.  All the Shah's Men : An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror (John Wiley & Sons, ISBN: 0471678783) $12

 

David Farber, Taken Hostage : The Iran Hostage Crisis and America's First Encounter with Radical Islam (Princeton University Press, ISBN: 0691119163), $15

 

William B. Quandt, Peace Process: American Diplomacy and the Arab-Israeli Conflict since 1967, Revised Edition (Brookings Institution Press; ISBN: 0520225155) $20

 

Steve Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (Penguin, ISBN: 0143034669) $11

 

Timothy Naftali, Blind Spot: The Secret History of American Counterterrorism. (Basic Books, ISBN: 0465092810) $17

 

Articles:

 

Douglas Little, “Gideon’s Band: America and the Middle East since 1945,” in Michael J. Hogan, ed. America in the World: The Historiography of American Foreign Relations Since 1941 (Cambridge UP, 1995), 462-500.

 

Fred H. Lawson, “Rethinking U.S. Intervention in the Middle East [Feature Review],” Diplomatic History 23/2 (Spring 1999): 385-389.

 

Rashid I. Khalidi, “The United States and the Middle East at the End of the Cold War [Feature Review],” Diplomatic History 23/2 (Summer 1999): 553-558.

 

R. Stephen Humphreys, “The Shaping of Foreign Policy: The Myth of the Middle East Madman,” in R. Stephen Humphreys, Between Memory and Desire: The Middle East in a Troubled Age (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999).

 

Stephen L. McFarland, “The Iranian Crisis of 1946 and the Onset of the Cold War,” in Mevlyn Leffler and Davis S. Painter, eds. Origins of the Cold War: An International History (Routledge, 1994), 239-256.

 

Talia I. Yegorova, “The ‘Iran Crisis’ of 1945-46: A View from the Russian Archives,”

Cold War International History Project Working Paper No. 15, http://wwics.si.edu/topics/pubs/ACFB51.pdf.

 

Nathan J. Citino, “Middle East Cold War(s):  Oil and Arab Nationalism in U.S.-Iraqi Relations, 1958-1961,” in Kathryn Statler and Andrew L. Johns, eds. Managing an Earthquake: Eisenhower and the Globalization of the Cold War (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, forthcoming.)

 

Timothy J. Naftali, “Iraq 1958,” in Khrushchev’s Cold War [draft chapter].

 

“Fifty Years of U.S.-Israel Relations: A Roundtable,” Diplomatic History 22/2 (Spring 1998): 231-284.

 

SCHEDULE (subject to change):

 

May 17:  Introduction

 

May 24: Thinking about the Middle East

  • Douglas Little, American Orientalism (except chapters 3 & 8, to be read later).
  • Douglas Little, “Gideon’s Band: America and the Middle East since 1945.”
  • Fred H. Lawson, “Rethinking U.S. Intervention in the Middle East.”
  • Rashid I. Khalidi, “The United States and the Middle East at the End of the Cold War.”

 

May 31: Media and Culture

  • Melani McAlister, Epic Encounters.
  • R. Stephen Humphreys, “The Shaping of Foreign Policy: The Myth of the Middle East Madman.”

 

June 7: Early Cold War

  • Peter Hahn, Caught in the Middle East.

 

June 14:  The Middle East and the Cold War: Soviet and American Perspectives

  • Stephen L. McFarland, “The Iranian Crisis of 1946 and the Onset of the Cold War.”
  • Talia I. Yegorova, “The ‘Iran Crisis’ of 1945-46.”
  • Nathan J. Citino, “Middle East Cold War(s).”
  • Timothy J. Naftali, “Iraq 1958.”

 

 

June 21: Israel: A Special Relationship?

  • Warren Bass, Support Any Friend.
  • “Fifty Years of U.S.-Israel Relations: A Roundtable.”
  • Douglas Little, American Orientalism, chapter 3 (Israel), pgs. 77-116.

 

June 28:  Iran: Blowback? 

  • Stephen Kinzer.  All the Shah's Men.
  • David Farber, Taken Hostage.

 

July 5:  Peace Process

  • William B. Quandt, Peace Process
  • Douglas Little, American Orientalism, chapter 8 (peace process), pgs. 267-306. 

 

July 12: Afghanistan

  • Steve Coll, Ghost Wars.

 

July 19: Counterterrorism

  • Timothy Naftali, Blind Spot.

 

July 26: TBA

August 2: Presentations

August 9:  Presentations