Study Center in Rabat, Morocco

Transcription

1 Study Center in Rabat, Morocco Course name: The Arab Spring and Birth of the Arab Citizen Course number: POLI 3003 MORC Programs offering course: Rabat Study Center Language of instruction: English U.S. Semester Credits: 3 credits Contact Hours: 45 hours Term: Summer 2019 Course meeting times: Course meeting place: Rabat Study Center Professor: Contact Information: Office hours: Upon Request Course Description Some political and social scientists hold the assumptions according to which the Middle East and North Africa are an exception in their resistance to global democratization changes. Their explanation hinges on the presupposition that Arab people would accept authoritarianism in return for political stability, economic growth, and social well-being. The Arab Spring has come to refute this long-held assumption that there was in Arab countries actually nothing inherently adverse to democratization. This course principally tackles this and other non-scientific conclusions. Besides, it considers the emerging citizenship in the context of the Arab Spring as promises of democratization under the recent social and political changes which affected the MENA region. In this regard, the course will, on the one hand, explore the reasons and the conditions of the upheavals in the Arab World and, on other hand, will starve to explain the possibility of the Birth of an Arab Citizen free from any political submission. Also, it will analyze the new status and role of Islam as a political and social driving force. Course Objectives The course has an interdisciplinary, integrative, and critical focus. Its main objectives are to: Introduce students to a variety of institutions, individuals and viewpoints on the Arab Spring; Explore contemporary issues related to the political changes in the MENA region and examine the effects of uprisings on Arab cultures and the emergence of civil society; Enable students to gain factual insightful information and a theoretical framework regarding the Arab Spring and democratization in the MENA region;

2 Position the transformations in the MENA region within the democracy promotion framework and analyze how these transformations can bridge the gap inside, between Arab countries and with the West. Learning outcomes for the course By completion of this course, students will be able to: Identify the similarities or lack thereof between the different protests movements and relate these diverse forms to democratic claims; Demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of the transition from authoritarian legacy in the MENA region and the relationship between this legacy and the different political protest movements; Recognize the causes and forms of stability and resistance to the dissemination of democracy; Formulate an informed, culturally appropriate, and intellectually rigorous independent reflection paper grounded on course readings, lectures, and discussions. Show informed opinions regarding protests, revolutions and democratic change; Participate in well-documented written or spoken presentations on the Arab Spring; Build upon the present period across the MENA while pulling out comparative wisdom on previous historical moments. Assessment Overview Weekly Reports and Participation 40% Research paper 25% Final exam 25% Course Requirements Students are responsible for the timely reading and preparation of materials assigned for each session. In addition to readings and assignments, attendance and active participation during lectures is required. The success of the course depends upon the creation of a community of active readers, listeners and thinkers. You will rely on each other for lively discussion, respectful dissension, and conscientious, critical analysis of the readings. Assistance will be given to students to clarify confusions and misunderstandings, but no lecture overview of the readings will be provided by the Professor. Each week, a student or set of students will lead the discussion on the readings. However, because students are all doing the readings for each class, anyone

3 could be arbitrarily picked to answer any question at any time. E ach student is required to submit a page or so of thoughts on the readings prior to each class. These readings should be ed to the professor by 5:00pm the day before class, and will be used by the leaders of the discussion for that day as organizing material. These statements can be summaries of the readings with added commentary, an application of the readings to a novel/different situation /context, a contrasting of the readings with one another or with other literature, or basically anything that is reasonably smart and shows that the readings have been done. 30% of the final grade will be based on these weekly response papers, as well as the discussion that you lead during the semester. Final Paper The paper can discuss particular questions within the broad themes covered in class. It should conform to academic standards of proper citation, elaborate research questions, and relevant bibliography. The research paper should be at least 3500 words on a topic approved by the instructor. The research paper will constitute 30% of the semester grade for this course. Prior to the meeting students should submit a proposed topic described in approximately 100 words and an indication of the sources available. Papers that are less than 3500 words will be penalized 10 points. Papers that are late will be penalized 10 points for each day that they are turned in after the announced deadline. Weekly Schedule: CLASS TOPIC READING 1 Introduction (Nature and Structure of the course, Method, Rationale, presentations). 2 Before the Arab Spring: Dictatorship, Theocracy, and Hybrid Regimes 1. Francesco Cavatorta (2010). The Convergence of Governance: Upgrading Authoritarianism in the Arab World and Downgrading Democracy Elsewhere?. Middle East Critique, Vol.19, No.3, pp Heydemann Steven (2007). Upgrading Authoritarianism in the Arab World. The Good Autocrat, pp Michael B. Bishku (2013): Is It an Arab Spring or Business As Usual? Recent Changes in the Arab World In Historical Context. Journal of Third World Studies, Vol. XXX, No. 1, pp Perry Anderson. On The Concatenation In the Arab World. New Left Review, Vol.68, March-April A General Overview of the Arab Spring 1. Michael B. Bishku (2013).Is It An Arab Spring or Business As Usual? Recent Changes

4 in the Arab World In Historical Context. Journal of Third World Studies Vol. XXX, No. 1, pp F. Gregory Gause, III (2011). The Middle East Academic Community and the Winter of Arab Discontent: Why Did We Miss It?. In Seismic Shift: Understanding Change in the Middle East, pp Lisa Anderson. Demystifying the Arab Spring. Foreign Affairs 90, 3(May 2011), pp Tunisia: The Jasmine Revolution. 1. Peter J. Schraeder (2012). Tunisia s Jasmine Revolution, International Intervention, and Popular Sovereignty. The Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations Vol.75, pp Michele Penner Angrist (2011).Morning in Tunisia: the Frustrations of the Arab World Boil Over. The New Arab Revolt. What Happened, What It Means, and Comes Next, pp Steven Heydemann. What Tunisia Will Mean for Arab Democracy. Revolution In The Arab World: Tunisia, Egypt, And The Unmaking Of An Era, 2011, pp Eric Goldstein. A Middle-Class Revolution. Revolution In The Arab World: Tunisia, Egypt, And The Unmaking Of An Era, 2011, pp Egypt: Revolt of the Pharaohs. 1. Jason Beownlee. Egypt s Incomplete Revolution: the Challenge of Post-Mubarak Authoritarianism. Jadaliyya, July Carrie Rosefsky Wickham. The Muslim Brotherhood After Mubarak. Foreign Affairs, February 3, Dina Shehata. The Fall of The Pharaoh: How Hosni Mubarak s Reign Came to an End. Foreign Affairs, May/June Sophie McBain. Letter from Cairo: Three Years on from the Arab Spring, Egyptians Hope Another Strongman Can Save Them. New Statesman, February Libya: When NATO Becomes an Arab Spring 1. Mary-Jane Deeb. The Arab Spring: Libya s

5 Defender Second Revolution. In Haas and Lesch The Arab Spring: Change and Resistance in the Middle East, Colorado: Westview Press, Chapter 3, pp Frederic Wehrey. Libya s Terra Incognita: Who and What Will Follow Qaddafi? Foreign Affairs, February 28, Syria: Bashar Al-Assad s Resistance 1. Michael Broning. The Sturdy House That Assad Built: Why Damascus Is Not Cairo. Foreign Affairs, March 7, Tony Badran. Syria s Assad No Longer in Vogue: What Everyone Got Wrong About Bashar Al-Assad. Foreign Affairs, March 25, Steven Heydemann. Syria and the Future of Authoritarianism. Journal of Democracy, October 2013, Vol.24, No.4, pp Arab Monarchies Response to the Arab Spring: The case of Morocco. 1. Laila Lalami. The Moroccan Exception. The Nation, September 12, 2011, pp Thierry Desrues. Mobilizations in a Hybrid Regime: The 20th February Movement and the Moroccan Regime. Current Sociology, Vol.61, No.4, pp The United States and the Arab Spring. 1. Gamal Selim. The United States and the Arab Spring: The Dynamics of Political Engineering. Arab Studies Quarterly, Vol.35, No.3. Pluto Journals. 2. Amy Myers Jaffe & Keily Miller (2012). The Arab Awakening And The Pending Oil Pinch. The Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, Vol Media/Social Media and the Arab Spring 1. Tim Markham (2014). Social Media, Protest Cultures and Political Subjectivities of the Arab Spring. Media, Culture & Society, Vol. 13(1), pp Afife Idil Akin, Carlos Encina, Michael Restivo, Michael Schwartz, and Juhi Tyagi (2012). Old Wine in a New Cask? Protest Cycles in the Age of the New Social Media. The Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and

6 International Relations, Vol.13, pp Miriyam Aouragh & Anne Alexander (2011). The Egyptian Experience: Sense and Nonsense of the Internet Revolution. International Journal of Communication, Vol.5, pp Armando Salvatore (2013). New Media, the Arab Spring, and the Metamorphosis of the Public Sphere: Beyond Western Assumptions on Collective Agency and Democratic Politics. Constellations, Vol.20, No.2, pp Women Of the Arab Spring. 1. Elza Lbroscheva (2013). The First Ladies and The Arab Spring: A Textual Analysis Of The Media Coverage Of The Female Counterparts Of The Female Counterparts of Authoritarian Oppression In The Middle East. Feminist Media Studies, Vol.13, No.5, pp Elisabeth Johansson-Nogues (2013). Gendering The Arab Spring? Rights And (In)Security Of Tunisian, Egyptian and Libyan Women. Security Dialogue, Vol.44, No.5-6, pp Jennifer Pedersen & Monalisa Salib (2013). Women Of The Arab Spring. International Feminist Journal Of Politics, Vol.15, No.2, pp Islam in the Arab Spring 1. Maher Abu-Munshar. In the Shadow of the Arab Spring: The Fate of non-muslims Under Islamist Rule. Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Vol.23, No.4, October 2012, pp: Tarek Mitri. Middle Eastern Christians and the Arab Spring. Theological Review, Vol.33, 2012, pp Shadi Hamid. The Rise of the Islamists: How Islamists Will Change Politics, and Vice Versa. Foreign Affairs, May/June In The New Arab Revolt. What Happened, What It Means, and Comes Next, pp Final Term Papers Due

7 14 Papers Discussion 15 Final Exam and Evaluation of Term