AMES 201(F) Order, Disorder and Political Culture in the Islamic World (Same as INTR 295 and Political Science 241)*
Southwest Asia, the swath of territory that extends west and south from the Chinese border to east Africa is not usually treated as a single entity, though it is united together by two important features: culturally it was the heart of Islamic civilization and Islam continues to provide a common identity to the area in the face of remarkable ethnic and historical differences; geologically it is the site of the preponderance of the earth's oil and natural gas reserves. This course will bring to bear some of the theories of comparative politics and international relations to better understand the region. Naturally terrorism and the obsessions with the war on terrorism will be important themes in the course, but we will attempt to both contextualize and judge the significance of those phenomena with a deeper investigation of the relation between Islam and violence, Islamic political theory and the tendency towards authoritarianism, the political economy of the region and the character of the processes of modernization and globalization. Format: discussion/lecture. Requirements: one midterm paper (4-6 pages) based on class materials and a final research paper (12-15 pages). No prerequisites. Enrollment limit: 30 (expected: 20-30.) Preference given to first-year students and sophomores. Satisfies one semester of Division II requirement.