History 3345, U.S.-Middle Eastern Relations

Course Requirements:

Midterm/final exams: 55%
NSC-style group presentation: 30%
Quizzes: 10%
Participation: 5%

Contact Information:

email (kcjohnson9@gmail.com); cell (207-329-8456); office hours: T/Th, 3.30-4.30, Whitehead 501

Lecture Handouts & PowerPoints

Course Schedule:

August 30: Introduction: 19^th Century Contacts

September 1: The Decline of the Ottoman Empire (1900-14)

Ronald Bobroff, “Behind the Balkan Wars: Russian Policy toward Bulgaria and the Turkish Straits, 1912-13,” The Russian Review, pp. 76-95.
Ömer Turan, “American Protestant Missionaries and Monastir, 1912-17,” Middle East Review, pp. 119-136.
W. David Wrigley, “Germany and the Turco-Italian War, 1911-1912,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, pp. 313-338.

September 6: World War I & Middle East International Relations (1914-8)

Michael A. Reynolds, “Buffers, Not Brethren: Young Turk Military Policy in the First World War and the Myth of Panturanism,” Past & Present, pp. 137-179.
Margaret Lavinia Anderson, “’Down in Turkey Far Away’: Human Rights, the Armenian Massacres, and Orientalism in Wilhelmine Germany,” Journal of Modern History, pp. 80-113.
Mustafa Aksakal, “’Holy War Made in Germany’? Ottoman Origins of the 1914 Jihad, in War in History, pp. 184-99.

September 8: Wilsonianism & the Postwar Settlement (1919-23)

Erez Manela, “The Wilsonian Moment and the Rise of Anticolonial Nationalism: The Case of Egypt,” Diplomacy & Statecraft, pp. 99-122.
A. E. Montgomery, “The Making of the Treaty of Sevres of 10 August 1920,” The Historical Journal, pp. 775-787.
Jehuda Reinharz, “The Balfour Declaration and Its Maker: A Reassessment,” The Journal of Modern History, pp. 455-499.

September 13: The Middle East and Interwar International Relations (1924-1938)

Erez Manela, “Goodwill and Bad: Rethinking US-Egyptian Relations in the Interwar Years,” Middle Eastern Studies, pp. 71-88.
Amikam Nachmani, “’It is a Matter of Getting the Mixture Right’: Britain’s Post-War Relations with America in the Middle East,” Journal of Contemporary History, pp. 117-140.
Robert Vitalis, “The ‘New Deal’ in Egypt: The Rise of Anglo-American Rivalry,” Diplomatic History, pp. 211-239.

September 15: World War II & The Changing U.S. Role in the Region (1939-45)

Arthur L. Funk, “Negotiating the ‘Deal with Darlan’,” Journal of Contemporary History, pp. 81-117.
F. Eshragi, “Anglo-Soviet Occupation of Iran in August 1941,” Middle Eastern Studies, pp. 27-52
Klaus-Michael Malmann and Martin Cuppers, “’Elimination of the Jewish National Home in Palestine’: The Einsatzkommando of the Panzer Army Africa 1942,” Yad Vashem Studies, pp. 111-141.

September 20: The Middle East & The Origins of the Cold War (1945-1952)

Deborah Kisatsky, “Voice of America and Iran, 1949-1953: US Liberal Developmentalism, Propaganda and the Cold War,” Intelligence and National Security, pp. 160-185.
Toru Onozawa, “Formation of American Regional Policy for the Middle East, 1950–1952: The Middle East Command Concept and Its Legacy,” Diplomatic History, pp. 117-148.
Melvyn P. Leffler, “Strategy, Diplomacy, and the Cold War: The United States, Turkey, and NATO, 1945-1952,” The Journal of American History, pp. 807-825.

September 22: Beyond the Northern Tier (1945-52)

Maurice Labelle, “The Only Thorn: Early Saudi-American Relations and the Question of Palestine, 1945-1949,” Diplomatic History, pp. 257-281.
Peter L. Hahn, “Alignment by Coincidence: Israel, the United States, and the Partition of Jerusalem, 1949-1953,” The International History Review, pp. 665-689.
Martin Thomas, “Defending a Lost Cause? France and the United States Vision of Imperial Rule in French North Africa, 1946–1956,” Diplomatic History, pp. 215-247.

September 27: The Cold War and the Search for Stability in the Middle East (1953-56)

Steve Marsh, “The United States, Iran and Operation ‘Ajax’: Inverting Interpretative Orthodoxy,” Middle Eastern Studies, pp. 1-38.
Amy Staples, “Seeing Diplomacy through Banker’s Eyes: The World Bank, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Crisis, and the Aswan High Dam,” Diplomatic History, pp. 397-418.
Anthony Gorst and W. Scott Lucas, “The Other Collusion: Operation Straggle and Anglo-American Intervention in Syria, 1955-1956,” Intelligence and National Security, pp. 576-595.

September 29: No class—college closed

October 4: No class—transition day

October 6: Crisis Diplomacy (1957-60)

Irwin Wall, “The United States, Algeria, and the Fall of the Fourth French Republic,” Diplomatic History, Vol. 18, pp. 489-510.
Michael Graham Fry, “The Uses of Intelligence: The United Nations Confronts the United States in the Lebanon Crisis, 1958,” Intelligence and National Security, pp. 59-91.

October 11: John Kennedy and the Middle East (1961-3)

Zaki Shalom, “Kennedy, Ben-Gurion and the Dimona Project, 1962–1963,” Israel Studies, pp. 3-33.
April Summitt, “For a White Revolution: John F. Kennedy and the Shah of Iran,” Diplomatic History.
Barton J. Bernstein, “The Cuban Missile Crisis: Trading the Jupiters in Turkey?,” Political Science Quarterly, pp. 97-125.

October 13: LBJ & Realigning the U.S. Middle Eastern Role (1964-7)

Zach Levey, “The United States’ Skyhawk Sale to Israel, 1966: Strategic Exigencies of an Arms Deal,” Diplomatic History, Vol. 28, pp. 255-276.
Avner Cohen, “Israel and the Origins of U.S. Nonproliferation Policy: The Crucial Decade, 1958-1968,” The Nonproliferation Review, Vol. 1988, pp. 1-19.
Arlene Lazarowitz, “Different Approaches to a Regional Search for Balance: The Johnson Administration, the State Department, and the Middle East, 1964–1967,” Diplomatic History, pp. 25-54.

October 18: The United States and the Diplomacy of the 1967 War (1967-8)

Galia Golan, “The Soviet Union and the Outbreak of the June 1967 Six-Day War,” Journal of Cold War Studies, Vol. 8, pp. 3-19.
Zaki Shalom, “Lyndon Johnson’s Meeting with Abba Eban, 26 May 1967: [Introduction and Protocol],” Israel Studies, pp. 221-236.
Clea Lutz, “Strike at Samu: Jordan, Israel, the United States, and the Origins of the Six-Day War,” Diplomatic History, pp. 55-76.

October 20: Nixon, Kissinger, and Realism in the Region (1969-73)

Nigel Ashton, “Pulling the Strings: King Hussein’s Role during the Crisis of 1970 in Jordan,” International History Review, pp. 94-118.
Noam Kochavi, “Insights Abandoned, Flexibility Lost: Kissinger, Soviet Jewish Emigration, and the Demise of Détente,” Diplomatic History, pp. 503-530.
William Burr, “The October War and U.S. Policy.”

October 25: Midterm

October 27: The United States & an Unstable Middle East (1974-78)

Fiona B. Adamson, “Democratization and the Domestic Sources of Foreign Policy: Turkey in the 1974 Cyprus Crisis,” Political Science Quarterly, pp. 277-303.
Shibley Telhami, “Evaluating Bargaining Performance: The Case of Camp David,” Political Science Quarterly, pp. 629-653.

November 1: New Directions (1979-81)

Jeffrey Record, “The Rapid Deployment Force: Problems, Constraints, and Needs,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, pp. 109-120.
Mitchell Bard, “Interest Groups, the President, and Foreign Policy: How Reagan Snatched Victory from the Jaws of Defeat On AWACS,” Presidential Studies Quarterly, pp. 583-600.
Catherine Scott, “Bound for Glory: The Hostage Crisis as Captivity Narrative in Iran,” International Studies Quarterly, pp. 177-88.
“444 Days in the Dark: An Oral History of the Iran Hostage Crisis,” GQ.

November 3: Ronald Reagan & the New Middle East (1982-1986)

Theodore Draper, “The Iran-Contra Affair: An Autopsy,” New York Review of Books, December 17, 1987, pp. 67-77.
William B. Quandt, “Reagan’s Lebanon Policy: Trial and Error,” Middle East Journal, pp. 237-254.
Joyce Battle, ed., “Shaking Hands with Saddam Hussein,” read summary and document summaries ONLY.

November 8: Afghanistan, the Soviet-American Rivalry, and the End of the Cold War (1979-1989)

Joseph Collins, “The Use of Force in Soviet Foreign Policy: The Case of Afghanistan.” Conflict Quarterly, pp. 20-47.
Alan J. Kuperman, “The Stinger Missile and U.S. Intervention in Afghanistan,” Political Science Quarterly, pp. 219-263.
G.M. Hughes, “Strategy in the Reflagging and Escort of Kuwaiti Tankers,” DOD Report.

November 10: Gulf War I (1989-1993)

H. W. Brands, “George Bush and the Gulf War of 1991,” Presidential Studies Quarterly, pp. 113-131.
Lawrence Freedman & Efraim Karsh, “How Kuwait Was Won: Strategy in the Gulf War,” International Security, pp. 5-41.
Gulf War chronology.

November 15: Clinton & Peacemaking (1992-2000)

Mark Schafer and Stephen G. Walker, “Democratic Leaders and the Democratic Peace: The Operational Codes of Tony Blair and Bill Clinton,” International Studies Quarterly, pp. 561-583.
Benny Morris and Ehud Barak, “Camp David: An Exchange,” New York Review of Books, 13 June 2001.
Hussein Agha and Robert Malley, “Camp David: Tragedy of Errors,” New York Review of Books, 9 Aug. 2001.
Dennis Ross, “Camp David: An Exchange,” New York Review of Books, 20 Sept. 2001
Kosovo Timeline

November 17: The Path to 9/11 (1996-2002)

Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States:

Mel Leffler, “9/11 and American Foreign Policy,” Diplomatic History, pp. 395-414.

November 22: Iraq, Iran, and U.S. Decline? (2003-8)

Paul Pillar, “Intelligence, Policy, and the War in Iraq,” Foreign Affairs, March/April 2006
Kevin Woods, James Lacey, and Williamson Murray, “Saddam’s Delusions: The View from the Inside,” Foreign Affairs, May/June 2006.
Meltem Müftüler-Bac, “Turkey and the United States: The Impact of the War in Iraq,” International Journal, pp. 61-81.
Michael Dunne, “The United States, the United Nations and Iraq: ‘Multilateralism of a Kind’,” International Affairs, pp. 257-277.
Ronald Bruce St John, “’Libya Is Not Iraq’: Preemptive Strikes, WMD and Diplomacy,” Middle East Journal, pp. 386-402.