Course outline

Week I Introductory Class (update on current issues, backdrop, open discussion)
January 11

Readings:
Rashid, "Prologue," pp. vii-xiv

"Islamic Responses to the September 11 Attack" available at:
http://home.wlu.edu/~lubint/islamonWTC.htm

Week II A Primer on States, Politics and Economics of the Middle East
January 18

Guest lecturer: Shaul Cohen, Geography, UO

Readings:
Barry Rubin "The Truth about U.S. Middle East Policy" Middle East
Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal Volume 5, Number 4, December 2001 available at:
http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2001/issue4/jv5n4a1.htm

Edward Said "The Desertion of Arafat"

David Fromkin "How the modern Middle East map came to be drawn" Global Studies: The Middle East Sixth Edition 1996, Guilford: Dusking/McGraw Hill, pp. 164-167 ( in packet)

Week III Islamic Attitudes toward Reform and Secularism: A Historical Perspective
January 25

Guest Lecturer: Jon Katz, History, OSU

Readings:
John L. Esposito "The West Triumphant: Muslim Responses" The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality? Third edition Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 45-73
(in packet)

Week IV Globalization and Islamic Societies' Grievances with the Western Order Today
February 1

Readings:
Raghida Dergham "You Won't Win With Words Alone" Washington Post
Sunday, October 14, 2001; Page B01

Peter Ford "Why do they hate us?' Christian Science Monitor, September 27, 2001, available at:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/0927/p1s1-wogi.html

Pervez Hoodbhoy "Muslims And The West After September 11" The Nautilus
Institute Policy Forum Online, Special Forum #43, December 19, 2001;
available at:
http://www.nautilus.org/fora/Special-Policy-Forum/43_Hoodbhoy.html

Edward Said "A vision to lift the spirit" Cairo: Al-Ahram Weekly Online 25 - 31 October 2001 Issue

Bernard Lewis ''What Went Wrong?' Between Islam and the West

Marc Champion Huntington's Polarizing Essay on Islam-West `Clash' Takes Center Stage

Week V Afghanistan, the Taliban and International Assistance,
February 8 and Domestic Challenges in Pakistan & Links to Afghanistan and the Wider Muslim World

Guest Lecturer: Lynn Renken, Mercy Corps International, Portland
(with Professor Weiss)

Readings:
Rashid, "Introduction," pp.1-13; History of the Taliban Movement," pp. 17-80;
Islam and the Taliban," pp. 82-140

Faruq Achikzad "A Neutral Afghanistan" The Nautilus Institute Policy Forum
Online, Special Forum #42, December 12, 2001; available at:
http://www.nautilus.org/fora/Special-Policy-Forum/42_Achikzad.html

Paula R. Newberg " Buying Allies" Los Angeles Times, Sunday, 2 December 2001

RAWA statement on the terrorist attacks in the US

Week VI Other States in the Mix: Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Malaysia, Yemen, and others
February 15

Guest Lecturers:
Readings:
Rashid, "The New Great Game," pp. 143-216

Bush speech sparks chorus of condemnation in ME http://frontierpost.com.pk/main.asp?id=26&date1=2/1/2002

Week VII International Law and Self-defense:
February 22 Analyzing the Use of force in Afghanistan and other US options

Guest Lecturer: Ibrahim Gassama, Law, UO

Readings:
Howard Zinn "A Just Cause, Not a Just War" The Progressive December 2001; available at:
http://www.commondreams.org/views01/1109-01.htm

Convention (III) relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949 available at:
http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/7c4d08d9b287a42141256739003e636b/6fef854a3517b75ac125641e004a9e68?OpenDocument

Statue of the International Tribunal. Read articles 1, 3, 5, 6, 7 available at:
http://www.un.org/icty/basic/statut/stat2000_con.htm

Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court available at:
http://untreaty.un.org/English/notpubl/rome-en-c.htm

Week VIII The Media's Coverage of September 11th and Subsequent Events
March 1

Guest Lecturers: Carl Bybee, Journalism, UO and Alan Siporin, KLCC, Eugene

Readings:
The Shot Seen Around the World: The Middle East Reacts to September 11th By Cameron S. Brown

Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent, New York: Pantheon Books, 1988. "Manufacturing Consent: A Propaganda Model" and "Manufacturing Consent: Conclusions" availabe at:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Herman%20/Manufacturing_Consent.html

Issue Guide on Media Concentration from mediachannel.org.
http://www.mediachannel.org/ownership/
This is a rich source of information on media concentration and its implications for democracy. For a quick introduction to the issues at hand, scroll down the page to Project On Media Ownership (US), then click on "Who Owns the News".

Benjamin Barber, "Beyond Jihad vs. McWorld," The Nation, January 21, 2002.
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020121&s=barber
This article briefly reviews the clash between the rise of world fundamentalisms and economic globalization, discussing how both trends undermine the possibilities for deepening world democracy.

Why we know so little: Neil Hickey, "Access Denied: The Pentagon's War Reporting Rules are the Toughest Ever," Columbia Journalism Review, January/February 2002.
http://www.cjr.org/year/02/1/hickey.asp

What is to be done: Robert W. McChesney & John Nichols, "The Making of a Movement Getting Serious About Media Reform," The Nation, January 7, 2002.
http://www.commondreams.org/views01/1221-08.htm

Optional:
An Extensive Analysis of the Politics of the News Coverage of the War on Terrorism Since Sept. 11, "September 11, Terror War, and the New Barbarism," by leading Media Scholar Douglas Kellner:
http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/papers/sept11kell.htm

Week IX Effects of September 11th Events on US Foreign Policy
March 8

Guest Lecturer: Richard Kraus, Political Science, UO

Readings:
 Susan Woodward, "On War and Peace-Building: Unfinished Legacy of the 1990s"; available at:
http://www.ssrc.org/sep11/essays/woodward.htm

Bruce Cumings, "Some Thoughts Subsequent to September 11", available at: http://www.ssrc.org/sept11/essays/cumings.htm

Congressman Ron Paul, House of Representatives, November 29, 2001, "Keep Your Eye on the Target", available at:
http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2001/cr112901.htm

"Dangerous Dealings: Changes in U.S. Military Assistance After September 11" available online at: http://hrw.org/reports/2002/usmil/

Week X Effects of September 11th Events on Internal US issues
March 15

Guest Lecturers: Gordon Lafer, LERC, UO
Lynn Stephen, Anthropology, UO

Readings:
Sasha Polakow-Suransky "The Invisible Victims: Undocumented Workers at the World Trade Center" The American Prospect December 3, 2001, pp. 11-12

Michele Waslin "Immigration Policy in Flux" NACLA Report on the Americas, Vol. XXXV, No. 3, November/December, 2001, pp. 34-38

Bill Moyers "Which America will we be Now?" November 19, 2001

 

 

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