The International Relations of the Middle East
6 hour course by Fawaz Gerges, The London School of Economics and Political Science
- Schedule: 1 July (14:30-17:30) & 2 July (11:30-14:30)
- Venue: Blanquerna
The course is intended to provide an analysis of the regional politics of the Middle East since 1918, and of their interaction with problems of international security, global resources and great power/super power/hyperpower politics.
Topics covered include: the emergence of the state system in the Middle East during the inter-war period; the interplay of domestic politics, regional conflicts and international rivalries; the Cold War and post-Cold War significance of the Middle East in global politics; the importance of oil and other economic factors and interests; conflict in the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Gulf; the role of ideologies and social movements, such as Arab nationalism, political Islam, state and non-state actors, the Arab Spring uprisings, and international relations theory and its significance for the study of Middle East politics.
Fawaz A Gerges
Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science where he also holds the Chair in Contemporary Middle Eastern Studies
Fawaz A. Gerges was the LSE’s inaugural Director of the Middle East Centre from 2010 until 2013. He earned a doctorate from Oxford University and M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has taught at Oxford, Harvard, and Columbia, and was a research scholar at Princeton and chairholder at Sarah Lawrence College, New York. His most recent book is called, What Really Went Wrong: The West and the Failure of Democracy in the Middle East (Yale University Press, May 2024). His forthcoming book is titled: The Great Betrayal: The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in the Middle East (Princeton University Press, Spring 2025).
He is author of several acclaimed recent books: Making the Arab World (Princeton University Press, April 2018); ISIS: A History (Princeton University Press, February 2021); The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global (Cambridge University Press, 2009); The Rise and Fall of Al Qaeda (Oxford University Press, 2011); The Hundred Years’ War for Control of the Middle East: From Sykes-Pico to the Deal of the Century (Princeton University Press, April 2023); The New Middle East: Social Protest and Revolution in the Arab World (Cambridge University Press, 2013); Contentious Politics in the Middle East: Popular Resistance and Marginalised Activism beyond the Arab Uprisings (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015); Obama and the Middle East (Palgrave and MacMillan, 2012); America and Political Islam: Clash of Cultures or Clash of Interests? (Cambridge University Press, 1999); The Superpowers and the Middle East: Regional and International Politics (Oxford and Westview Press, 1993).
His articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, International Herald Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, The Guardian; The Independent, Middle East Journal, Survival, and many others. He has been the recipient of a MacArthur, Fullbright and Carnegie Fellowships and his books have been translated into a number of foreign languages.
His special interests include the study of international relations, political economy, risk analysis, grand strategy, the Great Powers and the Middle East, mainstream Islamist movements and jihadist groups; Arab politics and Muslim politics in the 20th century, state and society, the Arab-Israeli conflict, American foreign policy, the modern history of the Middle East, history of conflict, diplomacy and foreign policy, and geopolitics. Gerges has given hundreds of TV and radio interviews for top talk and news shows and programs on various media outlets throughout the world, including BBC, Sky, CNN, ABC, PBS, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, NPR, CBC, and Aljazeera.