Empires - Imperialism - Decolonisation - Nationalism - Nation states –Politics and Religion – European Union Foreign Policy - Migration – Human Rights .
The course is focused on the modern and contemporary history of the Middle East and North Africa from the French invasion of Egypt (1798) to the end of the twentieth century. Local and regional events will be situated within the global context. The main topics to be dealt with are 'defensive developmentalism' and imperialism, national movements and the process of nation-state building, political ideologies such as pan-Arabism, Islamism, socialism, etc.
James L. Gelvin, The Modern Middle East. A History, New York-Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2011 (3rd edition).