Course List

The Middle-East (Al Qaeda, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel-Palestine) and Southwest Asia (Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan) have been the source of twenty-first century America's most difficult political, military, and security problems. This course will investigate the causes, nature, and conduct of these conflicts and wars, intensively studying who fights, why they fight, and how they fight. In doing so it will address important theoretical and practical questions about the nature of warfare, terrorism and intelligence in the twentieth-first century warfare. More broadly, it will address questions of the relationship between violence, culture, and politics in the globalized era, and the relationships between politics, development, diplomacy, and the use of force in modern politics.

The Middle East (Al Qaeda, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel-Palestine) and Southwest Asia (Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan) have been the source of 21st century America\'s most difficult political, military, and security problems. This course will investigate the causes, nature, and conduct of these conflicts and wars, intensively studying who fights, why they fight, and how they fight. In doing so it will address important theoretical and practical questions about the nature of warfare, terrorism and intelligence in 21st century warfare. More broadly, it will address questions of the relationship between violence, culture, and politics in the globalized era, and the relationships between politics, development, diplomacy, and the use of force in modern politics.