This course enables cadets to explore the social, political, economic, and military interactions in the formation of the Modern Middle East. The first block examines the decline of the Gunpowder Empires and the subsequent penetration of European colonialism into the Islamic world (India, North Africa, Egypt, and the Levant), with emphasis on the factors that led to military decline of the Turkic world and the relative economic and military advantages of the European powers. During this block, students will discuss the Middle East's modernizing and reform efforts that European colonialism helped to catalyze, to include democratization, constitutions, capitalism, and industrialization. The second block covers the events that follow the World Wars and subsequent decolonization of the Middle East against the backdrop of the Cold War. Cadets will closely examine the Arab-Israeli conflict, the rise of Arab Nationalism and the tension between military revolutionary dictatorship and attempts at constitutional monarchy and republics. The final phase will begin with the Iranian revolution of 1979 and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. It will consider the rise of political Islam as a revolutionary ideology and the post-Cold War challenges leading to current wars and insurrections.
