The Us The Modern Middle East

This course begins with a general introduction to US relations with the Middle East and Islamic world in the broader region from the early twentieth century to the present. Here, you will become familiar with the foundations of the Arab-Israeli conflict, unleashed after World War One by the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the rapid expansion of European imperial power in the Middle East. Thereafter, you will study how American intervention in the Middle East unfolded and intensified after the Second World War severely weakened the European powers. Seminal events that you will examine include US competition with the Soviet Union for clients and allies in the Middle East and Persian Gulf; American efforts to satisfy the competing demands of Arab and Jewish nationalism; US meddling in revolutionary nationalist movements such as those in Iran, Iraq and Libya; rising American dependence on Middle East/ Persian oil from the 1960s onward; the oil crises of the 1970s, the Middle East peace process following the Six Day War of 1967, the Palestinian nationalist movement from the 1970s; the Soviet-Afghan War and Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, the first Gulf War of 1991, the rise of Al Qaeda from the late 1980s, the terrorist attacks on the US of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent American invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq that have now become the longest wars that the US has ever been embroiled in.