ECO 726
PolEco: Middle East & N.Africa · 3 credits · Spring 2027
Requirements
Matriculated in the Master of Arts program in Economics
About this course
This course provides an introduction to the political economy of the Middle East and North Africa in the 20 th and 21 st centuries. The course is divided into three units: approaches, historical foundations, and critical themes. The first unit begins by critically assessing some of the underlying assumptions that traditionally frame the study of the region, positing political economy as an alternative to both orientalist as well as post-modern approaches. The second unit includes a discussion of the colonial era and the region?s unequal incorporation into the global capitalist economy through debt, unequal trade as well as direct colonial control. Although the class will also consider pre-colonial economic dynamics, it will focus more specifically on the legacies of colonialism in shaping state institutions, class formation as well as unequal exchange between (neo)colonial states and (formerly) colonized states. This is followed by a discussion of the anti-colonial struggles and post-independence developmentalist programs. Unit three includes the following critical themes: neoliberalism as counter-revolution, the political economy of oil, the political economy of sectarianism, the political economy of the ?security state?, imperialism and the politics of development, peasant struggles and food sovereignty, and the political economy of revolt.
No sections have been posted for this course in this term yet.