Geopolitical Challenges of a Changing Middle East (micro-course; undergraduate). Fall 2020. CMU Qatar.

This course has two main purposes. One is to introduce you to the subfield of Political Science called Comparative Politics. Scholars in this subfield use comparative methods to study and compare domestic politics across countries. The second goal is to study the domestic politics in the contemporary Middle East. We will meet seven times. In the first three, we will discuss different approaches and methods used in Comparative Politics, and examine how political regimes differ, discuss why they differ and explore the consequences of such variation. In the next four sessions, we will discuss the political systems that exist in the Middle East and the changes that have occurred as a result of the Arab Spring. We will examine the region as a whole, but will also have in-depth discussions about the national politics of most of the countries.