HIST 3687

HIST 3687

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2020-2021.

This seminar examines the history of the United States' involvement with Middle East beginning with evangelical efforts in the 19th century and President Wilson's engagement with the colonial powers in the early 20th century during and after WWI. The discovery of vast Middle Eastern oil reserves and the retreat of the colonial powers from the region following WWII drew successive US administrations ever deeper into Middle Eastern politics. In due course the US became entrenched in the post-colonial political imagination as heir to the British and the French especially as it challenged the Soviet Union for influence in the region during the Cold War. And that only takes the story to the mid-1950s and the Eisenhower administration. Our discussions will be based on secondary readings and primary sources as we interrogate the tension between realist and idealist policies toward the Middle East and trace how these tensions play out in subsequent developments including the origins and trajectory of the US strategic alliances with Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey and conflict with Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the two Gulf Wars.

When Offered Fall.

Distribution Category (HA-AS, HST-AS)

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Syllabi: none
  • 17075 HIST 3687   SEM 101

  • Instruction Mode: Online
    Taught in Washington D.C. This is part of the Cornell in Washington program.

Syllabi: none
  • 21820 HIST 3687   SEM 102

  • Instruction Mode: Online