1. Three conflicts after 1945 were important preconditions for the creation of the state of Israel in May, 1948. What were those conflicts and what role did they each play in creating the conditions for the founding of the Israeli state?
2. Nasserism defined a generation of “radical” politics in the Middle East. What was Nasserism and how did it transform politics and international relations in the region?
3. In what ways was British policy towards its role and interests in the Middle East transformed by World War I and how did that shift in policy manifest itself in the decade after 1914?
4. The Revolution of 1979 transformed not only Iran but also the political dynamics of the entire Middle East including America’s policy in the region. Discuss.
5. Despite the hope generated by the Madrid Conference of 1991 and the Oslo accords of 1993 and 1995 for a settlement of the Palestinian- Israeli conflict, peace has remained elusive down to the present. Why?
6. One of America’s responses to al-Qaeda’s attack on the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, was the invasion of Iraq and the
toppling of the regime of Saddam Hussein. What were the ideas that informed this invasion, what were its aims, and why were those aims not achieved?
7. The rise of “political Islam” has been one of the main features of Middle Eastern history from the 1970s. Discuss the varieties of political Islam we have examined in this course, why they developed, and the impact that they had.
8. Of all the Arab-Israeli wars, it is the June War, or Six Day War, that has arguably had the greatest impact. Discuss the impacts of this war on both states and other movements in the
region as well as the role of the United States there