DPI 440: MIDDLE EASTERN POLITICS AND POLICY
Tarek Masoud, Sultan of Oman Associate Professor of International Relations
Mondays and Wednesdays, 1:15 – 2:30 pm, L280
DRAFT SYLLABUS * DECEMBER 15, 2015
Faculty Assistant:
Course Assistant:
Mary Anne Baumgartner
Ash Center
TBD
124 Mt. Auburn St., Suite 200N, 217F
Maryanne_Baumgartner@harvard.edu
617.496.7466
Instructor’s office hours:
TBD
Ash Center
124 Mt. Auburn St., Room 236N
COURSE DESCRIPTION
For decades, the Arab world was talked of as the “sick man” of international politics, its
people mired in poverty and oppression, and perhaps doomed to be forever so.
Economies that once lagged behind Arab ones leapfrogged over them. Those Arab
countries that did achieve wealth seemed to do so only by having the good fortune to be
situated atop great reservoirs of oil. No one spoke of the “Syrian miracle” or the “Arab
Tigers” or the “Egyptian model.” In fact, to the extent that anyone looked to Arab
countries as models of anything, it was as models of “durable authoritarianism”—
autocracy with incredible staying power. As democracy flowered in southern and Eastern
Europe, in Latin America, and elsewhere, in the Middle East it found mostly inhospitable
soil. Strongmen seemed to have perfected the art of managing, manipulating, and
ultimately suppressing the people’s will. So dim were the prospects of democracy
emerging organically in that part of the world that, to many, foreign invasion (as in Iraq)
actually seemed like a reasonable and workable route to democracy.
The outbreak of so-called Arab Spring in 2011 initially seemed to throw all of what we
thought we knew about the region into disarray. Popular protests against
authoritarianism emerged throughout the region. Dictators fell in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen,
and Libya; autocrats in Syria and Bahrain face major challenges to their survival; and
leaders elsewhere were forced to undertake reforms in a frantic effort to stave off the
contagion. Yet the hopefulness of the Arab Spring soon gave way to something much
darker. A military coup in Egypt, state collapse in Libya, Yemen, Syria, and Iraq, and the
rising threat of self-styled Islamic militants seem to validate earlier seasons of pessimism
regarding the region’s democratic prospects.
This class will introduce students to the political, social, and economic dynamics acting on
the region over the last century, and what they mean for the region’s future. Though we
1
will examine some of the Arab Spring upheavals and their aftermaths in detail, we will
spend most of our time discussing the past, for only by understanding the Arab past can
we understand the magnitude of the challenge facing those yearning for a democratic and
prosperous Arab world. We’ll pay particular attention to the counsels of pessimism in the
region—scholars and writers who argued that the region was condemned to its uninviting
fate by its religion, culture, natural environment, colonial past, sectarian divisions,
demography, oil, or by the dark plans of foreign powers. We’ll ask what these scholars got
wrong, what they got right, and what their work tells us, if anything, about what is yet to
come.
EXPECTATIONS, ASSIGNMENTS, GRADING, AND OTHER MATTERS
This class combines lectures, discussions (both of specific cases and of conceptual issues
suggested by the readings), and in-class exercises. Your full participation in class
discussions is essential to making this course work. It is important that you complete the
readings and come to class ready to participate, ask questions, debate with your
colleagues, and contribute to our collective enterprise. Attendance is mandatory, and 20%
of your grade will be based on class participation. I will do my best to make it possible for
everyone in this class to participate to their full potential.
Assignments: The bulk of your grade will be based on three written assignments (two
1,500 word memos and a final, 3,000-word take-home exam). Due dates and the relative
share of each assignment in your overall grade are below (DATES TBD):
Assignment
Memo 1
Date out
February XX
Due
February XX
% of grade
20
Memo 2
February XX
March XX
25
Final Exam
April XX
May XX
35
Please note that your final grade for the course will not be based on your absolute score on
any of the graded exercises, but rather on how well you performed relative to other
students in the class. The Kennedy School’s grading curve is as follows: the top 10 to 15%
of the class will receive a grade of A; the next 20 to 25% will receive a grade of A-; the next
30 to 40% will receive a grade of B+; the next 20 to 25% will receive a grade of B; and the
lowest 5 to 10% will receive a grade of B- or lower.
Academic Honesty: It is important that you adhere to the Kennedy School’s policies
regarding proper academic practice. The academic code can be found here. Please pay
particular attention to the section on plagiarism, which is the appropriation of others’
words and ideas without proper attribution. The disciplinary consequences of this
violation are serious, so please take care to quote and cite your sources. I will discuss
strategies for avoiding plagiarism throughout the course.
2
Policy on laptops, tablets, and smart-phones: Tablets, laptops, and phones must be shut
off during class. I know that this policy seems draconian, but recent research has shown
that the use of these devices is detrimental to learning—not just to the learning of the
students using the laptops, but also of those seated near those students. If you’ve ever been
seated next to someone who is checking their email, browsing Facebook, tweeting their
professor’s witty remarks, or surfing the web during lecture (due, presumably, to an
absence of witty remarks), you know how distracting this can be. In order to demonstrate
that this policy is not just an exercise in the capriciousness for which I am occasionally
known, I’d encourage you to read the study on which it is based:
http://www.yorku.ca/ncepeda/laptopFAQ.html. If you are too busy to read the study,
you can read nice summaries of the findings here:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/laptop-use-lowers-student-grades-experimentshows-1.1401860 and here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answersheet/wp/2013/08/20/how-distracting-are-laptops-in-class/.
Readings: There are two required texts for this class:
Bunton, The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford 2013
Brownlee et al, The Arab Spring: Pathways of Repression and Reform, Oxford University Press,
2015.
All other materials are available on the course web page.
A few more things:
 Depending on class size, there may be assigned seating.
 I’m not able to post lecture slides, so please plan accordingly.
 You are strongly encouraged to attend the Middle East Initiative’s speaker series,
the schedule of which can be found here: [insert url]
SCHEDULE OF MEETINGS AND READINGS (TENTATIVE)
Week 1: The Big Questions
 “The Tragedy of the Arabs,” The Economist, July 5, 2014
 Bernard Lewis, “What Went Wrong?” The Atlantic, January 2002
 Tarek Masoud, “Has the Door Closed on Arab Democracy?” Journal of
Democracy, 2015
 Lisa Anderson, “Arab Democracy: Dismal Prospects” World Policy Journal,
2001
Part 1: Some Old Answers
Week 2: The Trouble with Islam?
3





Elie Kedourie, Democracy and Arab Political Culture, “Introduction:
Democracy and the Middle Political Tradition,” pp. 1-11.
David S. Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So
Rich and Some Are So Poor, W.W. Norton, 1998, pp. 392-421
Timur Kuran, The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the
Middle East, Princeton, 2010, pp. 279-302.
Mark Tessler, “Islam and Democracy in the Middle East: The Impact of
Religious Orientations on Attitudes toward Democracy in Four Arab
Countries,” Comparative Politics, Vol. 34, April, 2002, pp. 337-354 Available
at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4146957
Eric Chaney, “Democratic Change in the Arab World, Past and Present,”
Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 2012
Week 3: Arab Culture
 Stepan and Robertson, “An ‘Arab’ More than a ‘Muslim’ Democracy
Gap,” Journal of Democracy, 2003
 Hisham Sharabi, Neopatriarchy: A Theory of Distorted Change in Arab Society,
Oxford University Press, 1988, pp. 3-17. Available at:
http://www.google.com.eg/books?id=tXtE20fVTvEC&printsec=frontcov
er#v=onepage&q&f=false
 Abdellah Hammoudi, Master and Discipline: The Cultural Foundations of
Moroccan Authoritarianism, University of Chicago Press, 1997, pp. 11-32
 Raphael Patai, The Arab Mind, Hatherleigh Press, 2002, pp. 1-42
 Edward Said, Orientalism, “Introduction,” pp. 1-30
Week 4: Colonialism and Foreign Intervention
4







Lisa Anderson, “The State in the Middle East and North Africa,”
Comparative Politics 20 (Oct. 1987), pp. 1-18.
David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and
the Creation of the Modern Middle East, Henry Holt, 1989, pp. 493-567
Iliya Harik, “The Origins of the Arab State System,” International Spectator,
vol. 20, no. 2, April 1985, pp 20-32.
Amaney Jamal, “Chapter 2: Jordan and Kuwait: The Making and
Consolidating of US Client Regimes” in Of Empires and Citizens: ProAmerican Democracy or No Democracy At All? Princeton University Press
2012.
Lisa Anderson, “Peace and Democracy in the Middle East: The
Constraints of Soft Budgets,” Journal of International Affairs, 49:1, pp. 819832. Available at: http://ezpprod1.hul.harvard.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.asp
x?direct=true&db=mth&AN=9509230297&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Ian Lustick, “The Absence of Middle Eastern Great Powers: Political
‘Backwardness’ in Historical Perspective,” International Organization, Vol.
51, No. 4, 1997, pp. 653-683. Available at: http://web.ebscohost.com.ezpprod1.hul.harvard.edu/ehost/pdf?vid=3&hid=7&sid=49d11384-b2cc4be7-991d-af2cb5e50241%40sessionmgr2
Excerpt from Zaid al-Ali, The Struggle for Iraq’s Future: How Corruption,
Incompetence, and Sectarianism Have Undermined Democracy, Yale University
Press, 2014
Week 5: Oil Wealth and the Politics of the Rentierism
 Jill Crystal, Oil and Politics in the Gulf: Rulers and Merchants in Kuwait and
Qatar, Cambridge University Press, 1995, pp. 36-109
 Michael L. Ross, “Does Oil Hinder Democracy?” World Politics. April 2001.
Available at http://muse.jhu.edu.ezpprod1.hul.harvard.edu/journals/world_politics/v053/53.3ross.pdf
 Michael Herb, “No Representation without Taxation? Rents,
Development, and Democracy,” Comparative Politics, April 2005, 297-316
http://www2.gsu.edu/~polmfh/herb_rentier_state.pdf
 Stéphane Lacroix, “Is Saudi Arabia Immune?” Journal of Democracy (22:4,
2011).
Week 6: Authoritarian Statecraft
5











Nazih Ayubi, Over-stating the Arab State: Politics and Society in the Middle
East, I.B. Tauris, 2008, pp. 447-459 [in packet]
Eva Bellin, “The Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East: A
Comparative Perspective,” Comparative Politics, vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 139-157.
Jan, 2004. Available at http://ezpprod1.hul.harvard.edu/login?url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/4150140
James T. Quinlivan, “Coup-proofing: Its Practices and Consequences in
the Middle East,” International Security, Vol. 24, No. 2, 1999, pp. 131-165.
Available at: http://ezpprod1.hul.harvard.edu/login?url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/2539255
Larry Diamond, “Why are there no Arab democracies?” Journal of
Democracy, January 2010
Martha Pripstein-Posusney, “Multi-party elections in the Arab world:
Institutional engineering and oppositional strategies,” Studies in
Comparative International Development, vol. 36, no. 4, December 2002, pp.
34-62
Hugh Roberts, “Algeria: The Subterranean Logics of a Non-election,” Real
Instituto Elcano, 4/22/2009.
I. William Zartman, “Opposition as Support of the State,” in Giacomo
Luciani, ed. The Arab State, Routledge, 1990, p. 220-247
Steven Heydemann, “Upgrading Authoritarianism in the Arab World,”
Brookings Institution, 2007.
http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2007/10arabworld.aspx
Ellen Lust-Okar, Structuring Conflict in the Arab World: Incumbents,
Opponents, and Institutions, Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp 37-95.
Lisa Blaydes, “Elections and Elite Management,” in Elections and
Distributive Politics in Mubarak’s Egypt, Cambridge University Press, 201,
pp. 48-64
Tarek Masoud, “Chapter 2: Clientelism and Class: The Tragedy of Leftist
Opposition in Mubarak’s Egypt” in Counting Islam: Religion, Class, and
Elections in Egypt, Cambridge University Press, 2014.
****MEMO 1 ASSIGNED AT THIS POINT
Part 2: Contemporary Challenges
Week 7: Political Islam I
6

Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age: 1798-1939, Cambridge
University Press, 1983, pp. 67-192 Available at: http://hdl.handle.net.ezpprod1.hul.harvard.edu/2027/heb.00896
 Richard P. Mitchell, The Society of Muslim Brothers, Oxford University
Press, 1993, pp. 1-35 Available at: http://hdl.handle.net.ezpprod1.hul.harvard.edu/2027/heb.00919
 Mona El-Ghobashy, “The Metamorphosis of the Egyptian Muslim
Brothers,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 37, No. 3, 2005,
pp. 373-395. Available at:
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?aid=322987
 Carrie Rosefsky Wickham (2004). “The Path to Moderation: ... Learning in
the Formation of Egypt's Wasat Party,” Comparative Politics, vol. 36, no. 2
 Jillian Schwedler, 2011 “Can Islamists Become Moderates? Rethinking the
Inclusion-Moderation Hypothesis,” World Politics 63(2): 347-76
 Tarek Masoud, “Islamist Parties: Are they democrats? Does it Matter?”
Journal of Democracy, July 2008.
 Sayyid Qutb, Milestones, 1964. Introduction, chapters 3, 4, and 5. Available
at: http://majalla.org/books/2005/qutb-nilestone.pdf
Week 8: Political Islam II
 Osama bin Laden, “Declaration of War Against the Americans Occupying
the Land of the Two Holy Places,” August, 1996. Available at:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/terrorism/international/fatwa_1996.ht
ml
 Graeme Wood, “What ISIS Really Wants,” The Atlantic, March 2015
 Thomas Hegghammer, “Terrorist Recruitment and Radicalization in Saudi
Arabia,” Middle East Policy (2006)
 Sayyid Qutb, “The America I Have Seen: In the Scale of Human Values,”
in Kamal Abdel-Malek, ed., America in an Arab Mirror: Images of
America in Arabic Travel Literature, St. Martin’s, 2000, pp. 10-27 [in
packet]
 Saad Eddin Ibrahim, “Anatomy of Egypt’s Militant Islamic Groups:
Methodological Note and Preliminary Findings,” International Journal of
Middle East Studies, vol. 12, no. 4, 1980, pp. 423-453. Available at:
http://ezpprod1.hul.harvard.edu/login?url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/163128
****MEMO 1 DUE
Week 9: The Arab Spring I
7







Rabab al-Mahdi, “Enough! Egypt’s Quest for Democracy,” Comparative
Political Studies, August 2009, pp. 1011-1039
Dina Shehata, “Youth Activism in Egypt,” Arab Reform Brief, October
2008. http://www.arabreform.net/sites/default/files/ARB.23_Dina_Shehata_ENG.pdf
Laryssa Chomiak, “The Making of a Revolution in Tunisia,” Middle East
Law and Governance, 2011, pp. 68-83
Zeynep Tufekci and Christopher Wilson, “Social Media and the Decision
to Participate in Political Protest: Observations From Tahrir Square,”
Journal of Communication, 62:2, April 2012, pp. 363-379
Masoud, “The Road to and from Liberation Square,” Journal of Democracy,
July 2011
Zoltan Barany, “The Role of the Military,” Journal of Democracy, 22:4,
October 2011
Yom and Gause, “Resilient Royals: How Arab Monarchies Hang On,”
Journal of Democracy, 23:4, October 2012
Week 10: The Arab Spring II
 Brownlee, Masoud, Reynolds, “Why the Modest Harvest?” Journal of
Democracy, October 2013
 Eva Bellin, “Drivers of Democracy: Lessons from Tunisia,” Crown Center
for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University, August 2013. Available
online.
 Brownlee, Masoud, and Reynolds, The Arab Spring: Pathways of Repression
and Reform, Oxford University Press, 2015, chapters 4 and 5
****MEMO 2 ASSIGNED AT THIS POINT
Week 11: The Arab Israeli Crisis
 Martin Bunton, The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Very Short Introduction,
Oxford 2013
 Marilyn Grobschmidt and Mark Tessler, “Democracy in the Arab World
and the Arab-Israeli Conflict,” in David Garnham and Mark Tessler (eds),
Democracy, War, and Peace in the Middle East, Indiana University Press,
1995, pp. 135-169
Week 12: Selected topics
Gender:
8



Mounira Charrad, “State and Gender in the Maghrib,” Middle East Report,
No. 163, March-April 1990, pp. 19-24
Saba Mahmood, “Chapter 1: The Subject of Freedom,” in The Politics of
Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject, Princeton University
Press 2011.
Michael L. Ross “Oil, Islam, and Women,” American Political Science
Review, Vol. 102. No. 1 Feb 2008. Available at
http://journals.cambridge.org/production/action/cjoGetFulltext?fulltext
id=1720696
Sectarianism:
 Madawi Al-Rasheed, “Sectarianism as Counter-Revolution: Saudi
Responses to the Arab Spring,” Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism (11:3,
2011)
 Vali Nasr, The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the
Future, W.W. Norton, 2006, pp. 227-254
 F. Gregory Gause III, “Beyond Sectarianism: The New Middle East Cold
War,” Brookings.
 Usama Makdisi, “Reconstructing the Nation State: The Modernity of
Sectarianism in Lebanon,” Middle East Report, 200, Summer 1996, pp. 23-26
Water:
 Mounir Belloumi and Mohamed Salah Matoussi, “Water Scarcity
Management in the MENA Region from a Globalization Perspective,”
Development, 51, 2008, pp. 135-138.
 Ashok Swain, “Ethiopia, the Sudan, and Egypt: The Nile River Dispute,”
Journal of Modern African Studies, vol. 35, 1997, pp. 675-694
 Jeannie Sowers, “Natural Reserves and Authoritarian Rule in Egypt:
Embedded Autonomy Revisited,” Journal of Environment and Development,
vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 375-397
****MEMO 2 DUE
Week 13: Wrap up
 Lisa Wedeen, “The Politics of Deliberation: Qat Chews as Public Spheres
in Yemen,” Public Culture 19:1, 2007.
 Charles Kurzman, “Not Ready for Democracy? Theoretical and Historical
Objections to the Concept of Prerequisites, “ Sociological Analysis,
December 1998. Available at:
http://www.unc.edu/~kurzman/cv/Kurzman_Not_Ready_for_Democr
acy.pdf
9
10