Knowledge and Understanding
The course aims to provide students with essential tools to understand the politics of the Middle East and North Africa from the colonial period to the present.
It combines elements of comparative politics applied to the region—such as state formation processes and key domestic political dynamics—with classical themes and theoretical approaches from international relations.
Applying Knowledge and Understanding
The course aims to provide students with an advanced understanding of the main issues, actors, and dynamics that have shaped the political landscape of the contemporary Middle East and North Africa.
Making Judgements
By the end of the course, students are expected to have developed the theoretical and methodological tools necessary for the critical and independent analysis of key political issues in the MENA region, viewed through a historical lens.
Communication Skills
The course is designed to improve students’ oral presentation and academic writing skills through small-scale individual research assignments.
Learning Skills
Students are expected to have developed the necessary competences to undertake further studies with a good degree of autonomy.
It is important to have a basic knowledge of the contemporary history of the Middle East and North Africa
The course is divided into two parts: a series of lectures delivered by the instructor (40 hours) and a seminar component (14 hours), based on the active participation of students during class.
In the seminar component, each unit of the course will be introduced by an oral presentation given by a group of students, based on documents or texts provided by the instructor. The presentation will be followed by the submission of an individual paper.
The course makes use of the Moodle e-learning platform for the sharing of handouts and additional materials.
The final exam is oral. The grade is expressed on a 30-point scale.
The exam is conducted in Italian (it is possible to take the exam in other languages by contacting the instructor in advance).
Attending students
The final grade will be based on the following:
Non-attending students
The oral exam will assess knowledge of the international dimension of the political history of the Middle East and North Africa, from the colonial period to the present. Particular attention will be given to analytical skills, completeness of information, and the correct use of terminology.
Attending students:
Selected readings from:
In order to access the syllabus for attending students, active participation in the seminar component of the course is required. This includes completing a group project and submitting an individual paper.
Bibliographic references for the seminar component of the course and guidelines for writing the final paper will be provided to attending students during class sessions and made available through the Moodle e-learning platform.
Non-attending students:
Lecture-Based Teaching
1. The Integration of the Middle East and North Africa into the European-Dominated International System (18th–19th Centuries)
2. Colonization and the Creation of a Regional System (1914 – Second World War)
3. The Middle East and North Africa during the Cold War (1945–1989)
4. The Middle East and North Africa and the Construction of a New International Order (1990 – Present)
Seminar Section
Forms and Dynamics of Political Mobilization in the Middle East and North Africa
Italian
