Undergraduate teaching
1st-Year: Introduction to Problems of World History in the Twentieth Century - A one-semester introduction to global history from 1914 to 2014, organized around ideas of "power", "stability", and "ideology".
Sample Questions:
- Was the outbreak of World War I inevitable?
- Assess the strengths and weaknesses of the attempts to restore "order" in the settlements after World War I.
- "World War I and World War II was one war with a 20-year pause." Assess with respect to political, economic, and military developments between 1918 and 1939
- "Paradoxically, the 'Cold War' finally brought international order." Discuss.
- "Between 1961 and 1981, the international system was on the verge of collapse." Discuss.
- Did history end in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union?
- "9-11 was no more than one dramatic day in the pattern of international conflict." Discuss.
- "The story of the 21st century is the story of the loss of American power." Discuss.
2nd-Year: The US and the Middle East Through Politics and Film --- A new approach to the interaction between “America” and the Middle East, using US film from the 1920s to the present to examine how the relationship was formed and presented within and beyond the US. Films include: The Sheik, Casablanca, Exodus, Black Sunday, Three Kings, Team America, Syriana, and Argo
Sample Questions:
- What is the relationship between film, culture, and politics in the construction and projection of US foreign policy in the Middle East?
- How does film portray the ideas of American "neutrality" and "engagement" with the world, using the Middle East and North Africa as location?
- How did American film construct the notion of "Israel"?
- How has American film constructed "terrorism" and the "Other"?
- Can film resist the image of a dominant "America"?
- "The projection of US and the Middle East is bound up with the projection of gender and masculinity." Discuss.
Final Year: Approaches to US Foreign Policy Since 1945 --- A one-semester critique of US foreign policy by considering dimensions from geopolitics to economics to culture and ideology, shedding light on the “contemporary” by considering the “historical”.
Sample Questions:
- “The more things change, the more they remain the same.” Discuss the concept of a “continuity” or “break” in US foreign policy between 1945 and 1991.
- To what extent is US foreign policy shaped by ideology?
- Was US foreign policy in the Truman Administration a policy of “containment” or “liberation”?
- “US foreign policy towards Vietnam was flawed in execution, rather than concept.” Discuss.
- Is the Obama Administration merely a new version of the Bush Administration's approach to “War on Terror”?
- Discuss the issues surround US "intervention" and "smart power" in the 21st century.
Final Year: The CIA, US Foreign Policy and International Relations since 1945 --- A one-semester consideration of the influence of the US intelligence services in the formation and implementation of American foreign policy from the end of World War II to the present
EA WORLDVIEW (www.eaworldview.com): "Those Who Know, Know EA"