1. Home
  2. Academics
  3. Degree Programs
  4. Master of International Affairs
  5. Middle East Studies

Middle East Studies

Purpose:

This concentration prepares students to understand the role of the Middle East in international affairs and to apply such understanding in a professional setting. More specifically, students will learn to identify and analyze the most consequential political, social, and economic currents in the contemporary Middle East; to situate these trends in historical and cultural context, to assess their global ramifications; and to evaluate the Middle East's evolving international relations (including strategic dynamics among regional actors and interactions between the region and extra-regional powers like the United States).

Description:

The Middle East has become uniquely important in international affairs—as a high-priority strategic focus for the United States and other great powers, as an arena in which some of the world's most pressing security challenges play out, and as a critical node of economic and financial globalization. As a result, sophisticated understanding of the region is essential to understanding and dealing effectively with a wide range of international security and economic challenges. The categories below are intended to signal the breadth of academic approaches to the region, and we encourage you to complete courses from at least two of the categories.

Requirements:

Students wishing to receive attestation certifying the depth of their specialization in this particular area will be required to successfully complete at least four of the courses listed below.

Please note that this list will be reviewed from time to time depending on the available course offerings at any given time. Students should check the availability of these courses with the SIA academic adviser and the individual course instructors. Students should also determine if there are prerequisites for enrolling in a particular course.

Courses:

Language, Culture and Religion

  1. Advanced Arabic Language & Culture
    1. ​ARAB 401 (3 credits)
    2. ARAB 402 (3 credits)
  2. Advanced Hebrew
    1. ​HEBR 401 (3 credits)
    2. HEBR 402 (3 credits)
  3. Literary Cultures of Islam -- CMLIT 449 (3 credits)
  4. Comparative Arab/ic Literature and Criticism -- CMLIT 524 (3 credits)
  5. Jewish Studies — JST 411 (3 credits)
  6. Archaeology of the Near East — JST 420 (3 credits)
  7. Jewish Communities: Identity, Survival, and Transformation in Unexpected Places — SOC 457 (3 credits)

History

  1. Law & Economy in the Ancient Near East -- CAMS 405 (3 credits)
  2. Languages and Cultures of the Ancient Near East -- CAMS 470 (3 credits)
  3. Jewish Histories of the Middle East -- HIST 443 (3 credits)
  4. Classical Islamic Civilization: 600 – 1258 — HIST 471Y (3 credits)
  5. The Ottoman Empire — HIST 472 (3 credits)
  6. Zionism — JST 416/HIST 416 (3 credits)
  7. Ancient Technologies and Socio-cultural History in the Ancient Levant -- JST 401 (3 credits)
  8. Antisemitisms — JST 409Y (3 credits)
  9. Jews in the Medieval World — JST 410 (3 credits)

Contemporary Security Issues

  1. Weapons of Mass Destruction and International Security — INTAF 597* (3 credits)
  2. Grand Strategies of Established and Rising Powers — INTAF 597* (3 credits)
  3. War and Peace — INTAF 816 (3 credits)
  4. Terrorism — PLSC 567 (3 credits)
  5. The Politics of Terrorism — PLSC 439 (3 credits)
  6. Internal and International Migration -- SOC 523 (3 credits)
  7. North Africa After the Arab Spring — INTAF 897* (3 credits)

Politics of the Middle East

  1. International Relations of the Middle East — PLSC 467 (3 credits)
  2. The Contemporary Middle East — JST 473/HIST 473 (3 credits)
  3. Diplomacy and Statecraft in a Changing World — INTAF 597* (3 credits)
  4. Dealing with Dictators — INTAF 597* (3 credits)
  5. North Africa After the Arab Spring — INTAF 897* (3 credits)

Energy and Economics

  1. Energy, International Security, and the Global Economy — INTAF 810 (3 credits)
  2. Dynamics of International Economic Order: Law, Politics, and Power — INTAF 815 (3 credits)
  3. Energy Policy -- GEOG 432 (3 credits)

U.S. Foreign Policy

  1. U.S. Policy in the Middle East — INTAF 814 (3 credits)
  2. U.S. National Security — INTAF 818 (3 credits)

* Frequency and availability of Special Topics courses will vary each semester.