Middle East & Mediterranean Studies

Module code: 7AAJM004
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 60
Semester:  summer session 1;  summer session 2; 
Teaching pattern: Teaching is by supervision with an appropriate member of the faculty.
Assessment:  coursework 
Dissertation, of up to 15,000-words.

For a full module description and further information, please see the module page on the Middle East & Mediterranean Studies website.
 

Module code: 7AAJM005
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 40
Semester:  Full-year 
Teaching pattern: 


Assessment:  coursework 
Assessed by 3 x 3,000-word essays

By way of an interdisciplinary approach, and in support of more detailed case study analysis on optional courses available on this MA, this core module introduces the history and politics of the Middle East & Mediterranean. Special emphasis is placed on the dialectics of unity and fragmentation, created by a millenarian legacy of universal empires, and their impact on the modern Middle East and Mediterranean, introducing you to the main religious, intellectual, political and cultural trends that have flourished in the region since antiquity. 

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/mems/modules/7aajm005.aspx

Module code: 7AAJM204
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:  Semester 1 (autumn) 
Teaching pattern: 
one two-hour class weekly over ten weeks
Assessment:  coursework 
Assessed by 1 x 5,000-word essay

The aim of this module is to provide an in-depth historical analysis of the origin and development of the Arab-Israeli conflict from its onset in the early 20th century to the present day. More specifically, it provides an introduction to the primary literature and the historiographical debate surrounding the creation of the State of Israel, the collapse and dispersal of Palestinian Arab society, and the ongoing conflict between Arabs and Jews over the Holy Land.


http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/mems/modules/7aajm204.aspx

Teaching staff: Professor Michael Kerr
Module code: 7AAJM205
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:  Semester 1 (autumn) 
Teaching pattern: 
one two-hour class weekly over ten weeks
Assessment:  coursework 
Assessed by 1 x 5,000-word essay

This course examines how national, religious and ethnic conflicts have been viewed and addressed in the contemporary world. A special emphasis will be placed on the historical nation state building failures that are at the heart of many of today’s contested pluri-national disputes, with particular focus on Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lebanon, Iraq and Northern Ireland.

Using comparative analysis, this course enables you to evaluate the impact third party intervention has on civil war and peace processes in these case studies. It will familiarise you with the scholarly theoretical debate over the use of the power-sharing model as a means of ending civil war and regulating political violence in deeply divided societies.

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/mems/modules/7aajm205.aspx

Teaching staff: Dr Ashraf Mishrif
Module code: 7AAJM213
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:  Semester 2 (spring) 
Teaching pattern: one two-hour class per week over ten weeks.
Assessment:  coursework 
Assessed by 1 x 5,000-word essay

The module is expected to provide students with an understanding of current international trade flows and trade policies, and allow them to appreciate and participate in the debates and discussions that constantly rage in this area in the Middle Eastern contextthrough detailed case studies. It will also provide students with the tools to address the theoretical approaches underpinning the development of foreign trade policies and institutions, as well as the analytical, research, presentation and writing skills that are essential for employability and marketplace.

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/mems/modules/7aajm213.aspx

Module code: 7AAJM216
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:  Semester 2 (spring) 
Assessment:  coursework 

1 x 5,000-word essay

The course begins with a broad survey of US-Iranian relations since the beginning of the Cold War and since Jimmy Carter became US president. It then looks at Western policy towards Iran prior to, during and after the 1970 revolution, the Iranian hostage crisis and the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The course then looks at the export of the revolution and the rise of the Shi’a Crescent in the Middle East. Finally, the course accesses the current conflict between the US and Iran in the context of power politics in the Middle East.

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/mems/modules/7aajm216.aspx

Module code: 7AAJM206
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:  Semester 1 (autumn) 
Teaching pattern: one two-hour class weekly over ten weeks
Assessment:  coursework 
Assessed by 1 x 5,000-word essay

This module analyses contemporary Islamist revolutionary movements in the Middle East, charting the rise of leading figures in the Egyptian, Saudi and Iraqi Islamist movements. Examining the influence their ideas had on Islamist groups in Algeria, Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories, this course evaluates the challenge militant Islam poses to the Middle East state system and how this challenge has been met.

Using comparative analysis, this course enables you to evaluate the origins of political Islam and its impact on the contemporary Middle East. It will familiarise you with the scholarly theoretical debates over the rise of militant Islam and Western responses to the phenomena of international jihadism.

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/mems/modules/7aajm206.aspx

Teaching staff: Simon Waldman
Module code: 7AAJM214
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:  Semester 2 (spring) 
Teaching pattern: one two-hour class per week, for ten weeks
Assessment:  coursework 
Assessed by 1 x 5,000-word essay

The contemporary state system in the Middle East is a relic of World War I, in the aftermath of which the European powers and their regional allies dismembered the defeated Ottoman Empire and distributed the parts in accordance with their interests. But the artificiality and instability of the resultant entities created a political legacy whence the role of the absolute leader supersedes the role of political institutions, and where citizenship is largely synonymous with submission. This course offers an in-depth analysis of the origin, scope, and implications of this phenomenon through an examination of the main leaders who shaped Middle Eastern history during this period.

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/mems/modules/7aajm214.aspx

Teaching staff: Professor Rory Miller
Module code: 7AAJM201
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:  Semester 1 (autumn) 
Teaching pattern: TBC
Assessment:  coursework 
Assessed by 1 x 5,000-word essay

This module examines the development of EU-involvement in the politics and economics of the Middle East. Your study will give special emphasis to the Union's evolving role in the economics and politics of the Middle East peace process.

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/mems/modules/7aajm201.aspx

Teaching staff: Dr Stacey Gutkowski
Module code: 7AAJM202
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:  Semester 1 (autumn) 
Teaching pattern: one two-hour class weekly over ten weeks
Assessment:  coursework 
Assessed by 1 x 5,000-word essay

The United States has become the pre-eminent power in an area that stretches from the western Mediterranean to central Asia. Americans have had an enduring fascination with the region beginning with the arrival of missionaries on Middle Eastern shores in the 19th century, but it is only relatively recently—slightly more than 50 years—in which Washington has become an important political actor in the region. The goal of this course is to examine and explain the determinants of U.S. involvement in the Middle East. In order to ground the subject matter in firm analytical foundations, the course applies general concepts and theories of international politics to illuminate Washington’s role in the region.

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/mems/modules/7aajm202.aspx

Teaching staff: Professor Clemens Sedmak
Module code: 7AAJM209
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Semester:  Semester 2 (spring) 
Teaching pattern: 
ten two-hour classes
Assessment:  coursework 
Assessed by 1 x 5,000-word essay

This module examines the concept of reconciliation, the connection between truth and reconciliation and concrete examples and good practices of "Truth and Reconciliation Commissions". By way of case studies in reconciliation processes in South Africa and Germany, it examines the theories of conflict regulation in their relevance to reconciliation issues and familiarises students with the scholarly debates over the use of truth and reconciliation commissions.

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/mems/modules/7aajm209.aspx

Module code: 7AAJM200
Credit level: 7
Credit value: 20
Teaching pattern: TBC
Assessment TBC

For a full module description and further information, please see the module page on the Middle East & Mediterranean Studies website.
 
Please note that module content may change from year to year.