Aims

To help students understand the complexity of the Arab world, including its Maghreb and Middle Eastern variants, and to familiarise them with the key concepts that will enable them to understand the reality of the Arab world.

Main themes

The course is organised under the following headings:
A historical overview: The blossoming of Arab-Islamic civilisation (7th-15th centuries) and the issue of the Arab Renaissance (19th-20th centuries).
The nation-state dialectic: The concepts of the "Ouma" and the nation-state, the construction of the state, the system of the Arab League, and regional integration.
The issues: Demography, democracy, migrations, immigration and human rights.
Conflicts: The Arab-Israeli conflict, the Gulf War, the war in the Sahara, and the war in Lebanon.
International relations: Euro-Arab relations, and relations between the Arab world and other powers.

Content and teaching methods

The course will be given in the form of talks followed up by discussions. Students will be able to use the library.
- A long-term analysis: A historical, cultural, political and economic survey of the 19th and 20th centuries.
- Studies of particular themes: Mainly conflicts, internal migration, resource management, human development, regional decomposition, the identity of the Islamic revival, and external relations (particularly Euro-Arab relations).
- Studies of countries: An analysis of two or three countries presented by invited speakers.
Methodology
Professorial lectures, but with an important role for debate with the students on the basis of a reading portfolio.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Assessment: This will focus on a corpus of reading linked to the content of the course.

Other credits in programs