To develop an understanding of the role of Islam as a tool for political and social mobilisation. To understand the political processes of the Arab Middle East and to analyse the complex relationship between political structures (both domestic and international) and Islam.

Students should acquire an insight into the complexity of Islam as a religion and as apolitical ideology. Also, they should become more familiar with the politics of authoritarian regimes and the politics of `religious'' opposition. Finally they should acquire an insight on the relationships between the West and Islam.

• Introduction: Overview of the course. Islam in a western dominated world.
• Political regimes in the Arab world.
• Islamic Response to the Modern world.
• Islam and Liberal Democracy
• Democratisation processes in the Middle East and North Africa
• Political Islam and radicalism - Part I
  • History and Beliefs
• Political Islam and radicalism - Part II
  • Actors
• Political Islam and radicalism - Part III
  • -Relations with the West
• Political Islam and radicalism - Part IV
  • Prospects for the future
• September 11 th - Causes and Consequences
• Islam and the West: democracy by imposition or democracy by contagion?

Course texts

• Karen Armstrong, Islam. A Short History , London: Phoenix Press, 2000.
• Fred Halliday, Two Hours that Shook the World , London: Saqi Books, 2002.
• Amin Saikal, Islam and the West. Conflict or Cooperation? , Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

Highly recommended:

• Fawaz Gerges, America and Political Islam , Cambridge University Press, 1999.
• Mir Zohair Husain, Global Islamic Politics , Longman, 2002.
• Roger Owen, State, Power and Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East . Routledge, 2000.
• Reinhard Schulze, A Modern History of the Islamic World , New York University Press, 2000.

Selection of required journal articles:

• Samuel Huntington, "The Clash of Civilizations?" Foreign Affairs , Vol. 72, No. 3, Summer 1993.
• Gerd Nonneman, "Rentiers and autocrats, monarchs and democrats, state and society: the Middle East between globalisation, human `agency'', and Europe", International Affairs , vol. 77, n. 1, 2001.
• Daniel Brumberg, "The Trap of Liberalised Autocracy", Journal of Democracy , vol. 13, No. 4, October 2002.
• Bernard Lewis, "The Revolt of Islam", The New Yorker , November 19 th , 2001.
• Bernard Lewis, "The Roots of Muslim Rage", The Atlantic Monthly , 1990 (available at http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/90sep/rage.htm ).
• Kazem Alamdari, "Terrorism cuts across the East and the West: deconstructing Lewis''s Orientalism", Third World Quarterly , Vol. 24, No. 1, 2003.
• Ali Mazrui, "Islamic and Western Values", Foreign Affairs , Vol. 76, No. 5, September/October 1997.
• Abdou Filali-Ansary, "The Sources of Enlightened Muslim Thought", Journal of Democracy , Vol. 14, No. 2, April 2003.
• Ira Lapidus, "The separation of state and religion in the development of early Islamic societies", International Journal of Middle East Studies , Vol. 6, No. 4, October 1975.
• Hugh Goddard, "Islam and Democracy", Political Studies Quarterly , vol. 73, n. 1, January-March 2002.
• Lahouari Addi, "Islamicist Utopia and democracy", Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science , vol. 524, 1992.
• Bernard Lewis, "Islam and Liberal Democracy", Atlantic Monthly , February 1993.
• Fareed Zakaria, "Islam, Democracy and Constitutional Liberalism", Political Science Quarterly , Vol. 119, No. 1, 2004.
• Janine Astrid and Jillian Schwedler, "Who Opened the Window? Women''s Activities in Islamist parties", Comparative Politics , April 2003.
• Larbi Sadiki, "Towards Arab liberal governance: from the democracy of bread to the democracy of the vote", Third World Quarterly , Vol. 18, No. 1, 1997.
• Bruce-Maddy-Weitzman, "Islamism, Moroccan style: the Ideas of sheikh Yassine", Middle East Quarterly , Vol. 10, no. 1, winter 2003.
• Ali Abootalebi, "Islam, Islamists and Democracy", Middle East Review of International Affairs , Vol. 3, No. 1, March 1999.
• Nazih Ayubi, "The Politics of Militant Islamic Movements in the Middle East", Journal of International Affairs , 1982.
• Mustapha Kamel al-Sayyid, "The Other Face of the Islamist Movement", Carnegie Papers, No. 33, January 2003 (available at http://www.ceip.org/pubs ).
• Fred Halliday, "Review Article: The Politics of Islam - A Second Look", British Journal of Political Science , Vol. 25, No. 3, July 1995.
• James Toth, "Islamism in Southern Egypt: A Case Study of a Radical Religious Movement", International Journal of Middle East Studies , vol. 35, 2003.
• Sheri Berman, "Islamism, Revolution and Civil Society", Perspectives on Politics , Vol. 1, No. 2, June 2003.

MA in Globalisation, MA in International Relations
MA in International Security and Conflict Studies