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Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies · ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences
This interdisciplinary course is for students who wish to pursue an in depth interest in Iraq or Iraq-related geopolitics in the Middle East. It will examine and introduce students to national politics and recent history of modern Iraq and their intertwinement with regional and global politics. The course explores the formation of the Iraqi Sate and how it was shaped by Ottoman and British colonial legacies. It examines the intellectual and ideological currents shaping Iraqi society, politics, and foreign relations regionally and globally. The course explores how the regional Iraq/Iran war, the first and second invasion of Iraq (1991, 2003) and the economic and political sanctions on Iraq (1990-2003) have had deep consequences on the country’s social, political and economic stability and caused major upheavals in the region. Iraq’s difficult and fascinating contemporary history shows some of the most enduring problems of the modern Middle East and provides ample room for their study, including contemporary challenges of sectarianism, foreign intervention and proxy wars, social inequality, neo-patriarchy and gender representation in policy making, national fragmentation in a multi-religious and multi-ethnic societies and the repercussions for national, regional and global security.
Class Participation
Learning outcomes 1, 3, 5
Two Reaction papers (1000 word and 20% each)
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Final essay 3000 words
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
The workload for the course will encompass: (130 hours in total) Reading, thought and preparation for seminars and tutorials of some 4 hours per week over Weeks 2-12 and possibly Week 1 for some students (48 hours); Attendance at seminars for 2 hours per week (advisable and expected but not compulsory) and tutorials for 1 hour per week (advisable, expected and compulsory) over twelve weeks (36 hours); Preparation of the research essay topic outline and initial bibliography of the course assessment (around 6 hours); and Reading, preparation and writing of the major essay, worth 50% of the course assessment (the workload for which varies, but can be expected to be around 40 hours). Other Information Arabic Major - ANU Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies Major - ANU Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies Minor - ANU Middle Eastern Politics and Security Major - ANU Middle Eastern Politics and Security Minor - ANU
Charles Tripp, A History of Iraq, 3rd Ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007). Preliminary Reading Adeed Dawisha, Iraq: A Political History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013); previously published as Adeed Dawisha, Iraq: A Political History from Independence to Occupation (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009). Phebe Marr, The Modern History of Iraq, 3rd Ed. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2011). Eric Davis, Memories of State: Politics, History, and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2005). Marion-Farouk-Sluglett and Peter Sluglett, Iraq Since 1958: From Revolution to Dictatorship, Rev. Ed. (London: I. B. Taurus, 2001).