2. Arab World Competitiveness Report , The World Economic Forum, Geneva, 2003.

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1 - Syllabus Econ 4999 : Poli Economy of t he Middle East Page 1 of 5 E con 4999: 004 POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE MIDDLE EAST Fall 2004 Professor Akacem Office Econ 10 No please. If you need to see me please do so during my office hours, M-W 11:00 to 12:00 Do not PRINT this syllabus until we :finalize the presentation schedule. Remember this is a critical thinking class and we need to have an idea of the presentations, areas of interest before we finalize it. Objective.of the Course: This course will deal with the overall political economy of the Middle East. This is particular critical thinking course is particularly timely given the invasion and the subsequent occupation of Iraq and the WMD issue. This is a critical thinking course and your participation is not only encouraged, but it is a MUST. The course will rely on both lectures as well as your input, discussions and presentations. The course has several objectives: First, the course will help you understand and discuss the relevant issues that are important to this region as well as its strategic importance to the West and the United States. The region is often associated with oil, Islam, the Palestinian-Israeli peace process and overall instability that occurs in different parts of the area. Through class discussion and presentations, we will try to focus on the main issues as well as use current events to highlight and emphasize topics that are important to our class. Some days, class discussions may be driven by current unfolding events. Second, the course will also help you identify the religious, historical, social, political, economic and security issues that affect the region as a whole. Again, students are encouraged to read the papers (print and via the Web) to discuss ongoing developments either for the whole region or developments that affect their particular country or countries. Third, we will also make an attempt to compare the Economic and Political developments in the region with other regions of the world. Has democracy taken hold? Why or why not? Has the region achieved sustainable economic growth and development? Why or why not? Finally, I will invite a number of outside speakers-depending on their schedule- who will speak to the class on specific topics, such as the role oflslam, politics in the region, the economic models chosen by these countries and why, and other topics by people who have lived in the region. Main Sources: 1. Arab Human Development Report 2003, United Nations Development Program, It is used to be free but it now costs $10. Order directly from the web. Address is below Arab World Competitiveness Report , The World Economic Forum, Geneva, htm 8/23/2004

2 Syllabus Econ 4999 : Pob ~al Economy of the Middle East Page 2 of 5 3. The Gulf 2000 Site: Covers the following countries: Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates found at: I gulf2000.col u mbia.ed ui 4. T he IMF and the World Bank Middle East sites: Optional from the library and for your paper projects: Peter Mansfield, A History of the Middle East H.W. Brands, Inm.. J he. Lab.yrinth: The United States and the Middle East, Ian J. Bickerton and Carla L. Klausner, A Concise History~f_the Arab-Israeli Conflict (4th edition) James F. Hoge, Jr. and Gideon Rose (editors), How Did This Happ~'? TexrQrism and the New W11_r Read the National Security Directive 54, ordering the U.S. attack on Iraq -- available from the National Security Archive: <! [if!supportlinebreaknewline]> <![endif]> u/-nsa rchiv /NSAEBU/NSAEHB2 l/06-0 l.htm I have the whole document and I can try to have you access it on the web from my site but you should read part or the whole CIA document on the 1953 as published by the New York Times: The Politics of Oil: see F. Gregory Gause, III, Oil Monarchies, chapter 3 on "Oil and Politics." Available from McGill University-Universite de Montreal lnteruniversiry Consortium on Arab Studies: Democracy in the Arab World, see Daniel Bromberg, "Liberalization versus Democracy: Understanding Arab Political Reform," You can either print these reports or just read chapter by chapter as we go along and depending on your country of interest. We may not have the time to read all of it, but these are is the FIRST authoritative reports written by Arab scholars on the region and is somewhat critical on a number of issues such as economic, social and political that we will be discussion in class. Optiop_al Text: "A political economy of the Middle East", second edition. by Alan Richards and John Waterbury, Westview Press, http: //spot. color ado. edu/~meaf/peme/syl labus/welcome.htm 8/23/2004

3 Sy l l abus Econ 4999: Pol i("' al Economy of the Middle East ~ Page 3 of 5 I will try to leave a copy on reserve but if you wish to buy a copy, you can do so. It has not been ordered so you may want to get it on-line which may be cheaper. "The Arab World Facing The Challenge of the New Millennium" by Henry T. Azzam, LB. Taurus, 2002 This Book may be put on Reserve as well as the one above. On Reserve: (if we have it) Elias H. Tuma, Economic and Political Change in the Middle East, (Palo Alto, Pacific Books, 1987) Colbert C. Held, Middle East Patterns: Places, Peoples, and Politics, 2nd edition, (Boulder, Westview Press 1994) Other Sources: You have to subscribe to (or have access to) either The,van Street J ournal, The New York Times or The Economist, The Library of Congress and the CIA's site are also good sources. Access to the New York Times is free for some parts of the paper. Access to the Economist is limited. However, The Wall Street Journal gives you access to more than one paper. Once you subscribe to it, you will have access to the European edition of the journal as well as the Asian edition in addition to Barron's and the ability to do searches. I also highly recommend that you bookmark the site for the Financial Times of London which covers the Middle East and North Africa really well. "Plan of Attack" by Bob Woodword, 2004, Simon and Schuster "Against all Enemies" by Richard A Clarke, 2004, Free press "The 9/11 Commission Report" found on the web and with a link on this home page later. We will be viewing a number of case studies, the order of which will be determined after we clear the presentation schedule and the topics from the class. 2. Norlin Library: You need to compile to a good reference list ofrecent works published on the country(ies) that you will be working on. These can be books, journals, periodicals etc... One particular source that I highly recommend is Finance and Development, published by the IMF and The World Bank. Each December issue will have a complete list of the articles published during that year. I highly recommend that you use it or try to search the data base at the library so that you can locate the articles that you need. Articles published in Finance and Development tend to be short and the to point with, at times, considerable ammout of data. 3. The World Bank's World Development Report (annual), The Intematinal Monetary Fund's International Financial Statistics some papers are in Arabic, just ignore those (some of you may be able to read Arabic but most probably won't.) 5. This is a MUST stop for your research: from this site, you can get all kinds of information on the Gulf (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar.) http ://spot.colorado. edu/~meaf / peme/syl labus/wel come. ht m ~1~ ~12004

4 Syl labus Econ 4999: Pol i, 'al Economy of the Middle East Page 4 of 5 Must sites and sources for your research: Library of Congress: here you can find country report on almost any country that you decide to study or do your paper on. There is one site out of Egypt whose address, I will have to give you later. It also carries reports on the whole region. The World Bank special page on the region: Open Database The International Monetary Fund at: and particularly Finance and Development at: imf.org/extemal/pubs/ft/fandd/2003/ J 2/index.htm where you can find report on all of the countries of the region. Just do a search under the country's name. The CIA's site for the annual fact book at: and particularly at: This will give you up to date information also. Finally The World Bank's Middle East and North Africa page at: Also search for sites that are particular to your country(ries). There are number of Research centers and institutes that specialize in the study of the Middle East and North Africa, your goal and objective is to "hunt" and find as many as you can and as a class, we will compile the best and post them on our class home page. Also, each student or groups of students will have to compile a list of important and relevant sites for the country(ies) that they are working on. This list should be part of the paper and appended at the end of the paper after the bibliography. You would need to surf the web to find other sources of interest, but I will passing some as l find them or simply attach to the syllabus. COURSE OUTLINE: This is tentative at this time until after we collect the topics for presentations form students NOTE: You are expected to come to class each day with at least one story (if you have read it and have notes on it that is enough) from a major paper such as the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The Economist Or other well knows sources. We will begin the class with a discussion of a major current event and how it relates to our class. Week One: Introduction, discussion of sources, groups and topic discussion Week Two: Library visit, lab visit if possible, web search, schedule of presentations Week Three: Overview of the main issues affecting the Middle East and North Africa, lectures and discusion Week Four: Oil, Islam and Politics in the Middle East. US and West dependence on it and what should be done? Week Five: Economic Development in the region, Global currency crisis and regional impact Week Six: Guest lectures and case studies viewed and discussed in class. Week Seven: Continue with Case Studies viewed in class Week Eigth: Discussion, presentations, current events Week Nine: Discussion, presentations, current events Week Ten: Week Eleven: Discussion, presentations, current events Week Ten: Week Twe,lve: Discussion, presentations, current events,rad~ e 0 u/~meaf/peme/syl labus/welcome. ht m 8/23/ 2004

5 .. Syllabus Econ 4999: Pol(.- -::al Economy of t he Middl e East Page 5 of 5 Week Thirteen: Discussion, presentations, current eventsweek Fourteen: Short country reports (brief) due and distributed to the class. Week Fifteen: Consultation with groups on final phase of the paper Week Sixteen: Final paper due on April 30th, Each student, or a group of students, will have to complete the following: 1. A major paper on the country(ies) or region. This project can be done in groups (2 to 3 students maximum and each student will receive the same grade.) The paper needs to emphasize the policy aspects and not dwell on the theory. It needs to address the different issues facing the given country (economic, social, religious, political, military etc... ) and produces an outlook for the future (not necessarily a forecast). Given the region under study, you may choose to do something on oil and its importance to the region and the world economy. Dependence on oil by the region is also a topic worthy of consideration. The paper will count for 50% of your grade. Remember, you need to make sure that your paper is well written, complete with references and footnotes and a bibliography. Do not merely summarize what reports already written by others. You need to have a theme, argue your case and come with policy recommendations. If you need help, consult: A Manual for Writers of Term Paners, Theses, and Dissertations, by Kate. L. Turabian, University of Chicago Press As soon as you decide on a topic, you need to talk to me. The next step is to write an outline together with an initial bibliography (news sources, sites, articles, etc... ). I will comment on it and return to you. The final paper is normally due on Friday December 13th but that is the date for an exam. Since we are not having an exam and in view of the time that it takes to grade all f of the papers, I would need them much before that date. The last day of class or before will be appropriate. Any paper turned in after that deadline will lose one letter grade for that day and so on. An A paper that is turned in one day late will receive a B. Please note that not all papers will be given an A. Normally the overall distribution is 20 to 30% A's depending on all the factors listed in this syllabus, the bulk of the class will be between B+ and B-. This course has been given twice before and we only had one occasion where a grade of C+ was given. 2. Attendance and class participation both in class will count toward the final grade. We will be discussing different current issues, news articles, cmtent events etc... It will be our virual classroom. The class participation and attendance will count for 30% of your grade, mostly on class discussion, material that you find and bring to class for discussion etc Prior to finishing your final paper, you will have to make a presentation and get feedback from the class. Based on the comments from the class and myself, you will be able to put the finishing touches on your paper. The presentation has be comprehensive. By that, I mean you are expected to present your thesis, your findings, predictions, what you learned from the project etc... I highly suggest that you bring in a detailed outline to be presented to the class, as well as encourage you to use transparencies if need be. We will work out a schedule during the first week of classes. The presentation will count for 20%. colorado.edu/~meaf/peme/syllabus/welcome. htm 8/23/2004