Presentation

The focus of our reflection will be authoritarianism, power, and conflict, which we will examine from a mostly geopolitical angle.

We will look at this area from different analytical angles, which will enable students to gradually improve their understanding of the region: the geopolitics of territories and borders (what defines the Arab world and the Middle East? What consequences has the manufacturing of borders had in terms of conflicts and of the difficulties of States to be States for all citizens?), the geopolitics of scarcity (water, land) and abundance (how does this ‘bottom-up’ geopolitics contribute to the development of conflicts, authoritarianism but also to ‘power projects’? ), the geopolitics of ethnolinguistic and religious diversity (to what extent does ethnoreligious and linguistic diversity contribute to conflict, authoritarianism and the instrumentalization of power? ), the geopolitics of Arab mobilizations, the geopolitics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the centrality of a question.

Bibliography

• Aouattah A., Pensée et idéologie arabes, Figures, courants et thèmes au XXe siècle, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2011.
• Achcar G., Le peuple veut, Sindbad/Actes Sud, 2013.
• Barthe B., Ramallah dream, voyage au coeur du mirage palestinien, La Découverte, 2011.
• Barr J., A line in the Sand, Simon & Schuster, Londres, 2011.
• Battesti V. & Ireton F., L’Egypte au présent, Sindbad, 2011.