Take Home

Basic requirements: Pen an elegant, yet concise, 7-8 page typewritten response to one of the exciting questions from each section below. Answers should: (a) present a compelling argument; (b) use at least three or four specific historical examples; and (c) cite material from the readings and/or the presentations, as relevant.

Due, via email to me, by 15 June. If you need more time, just let me know.

Section One. Choose one of two:

1.) In a recent interview with Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, Barack Obama asserted that the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict “infect[s] all of our foreign policy” in the region. Leaving aside the word choice, to what extent do you agree with Obama’s analysis? Can and should historians view U.S. relations with the Middle East since 1967 as dominated by the effects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

2.) How much did the Cold War affect the U.S. approach to the Middle East? Discuss by comparing U.S. policy toward the region during either the first twenty (1947-1967) or the last twenty (1967-1987) years of the Cold War with U.S. policy toward the region since the end of the Cold War (since 1989, in other words).

Section Two. Choose one of two:

1.) Revisionist scholars speak frequently of the legacy of “Western imperialism” affecting the Middle East. To what extent should the United States be viewed as a “Western” power—i.e., to what extent have U.S. interests and policies toward the region since 1800 coincided with those of Britain, France, or other European powers? Be sure to include material from both before and after 1930 in your response.

2.) Frank Ninkovich, one of the country’s leading diplomatic historians, has described the 20^th century as the “Wilsonian Century.” To what extent is his approach correct? Define Wilsonian ideals as they applied to the Middle East, and then analyze the issue by discussing U.S. policy toward the region in the 20^th century. Be sure to include material from both before and after World War II in your response.