Political Leadership in the Middle East (syllabus)

Political Leadership in the Middle East •• Fall 2012 •• SAIS DC Prof. Martin Kramer SA.860.708 (01) Thursdays at 2:15 pm, N507 The course: Perhaps no region of the world is more identified with high-profile political leaders than the Middle East. This is partly a consequence of the prevailing systems of government in the region – from presidencies-for-life to hereditary monarchies – which have only recently been undermined by the events of the Arab Spring. It may reflect weak state institutions, and the traditionally dominant role of military men on horseback and powerful clerics in turbans. The region has also experienced a series of revolutions, and political turbulence has always opened opportunities for the emergence of perceived heroes. Whatever the reasons, the history and politics of the Middle East are difficult to decipher without an understanding of personalities. This course is devoted to political leadership in the Middle East, as an alternative approach to understanding the region and its complexities. As the syllabus indicates, the scope of the course is broadly conceived, both in space and time. We will reach back into the 19th century to trace the emergence of new and modern forms of political leadership. Case studies will take us through the early years of nation-building in the first half of the 20th century, the revolutionary transformations in its second half, and right up to the events of the Arab Spring. In geographic terms, our case studies will cover the entire breadth of the Middle East: Turkey, Iran, the Arab lands, and Israel. Here are just some of the personalities we will cover: Atatürk, Herzl, Nasser, Ben-Gurion, Sadat, Begin, Khomeini, Saddam, Bin Laden, Erdoğan, Ahmadinejad, and more. While the approach is primarily historical and political, we will also relate case studies to certain theoretical constructs: patrimonialism, charisma, narcissism, and transformational leadership. But your instructor has no theoretical commitments, and our approach to theory will be entirely eclectic and practical. The psychological motivations of leaders are only one side of the coin. We will also consider the perception of leaders by their followers. What constitutes legitimacy, especially in societies that don’t go to the ballot box? How do the leader’s qualities interact with cultural expectations? What is the function of a personality cult? (Both current and posthumous ones?) The reading is highly varied, and you will encounter a wide variety of authors, employing very different approaches. I’ve also made a special effort to locate credible documentary biographies on Youtube. Imagery is extraordinarily important in the consolidation of a leader’s authority – sometimes almost as important as words. It will receive due attention in this course. By the conclusion of this course, you should have not only a deeper understanding of the relationship between leaders and followers, and the impact of leaders on events. You will also 1 Political Leadership in the Middle East •• Fall 2012 •• SAIS DC have a far more detailed understanding of the modern history of the Middle East. You don’t necessarily have to have had much Middle Eastern history before this course (although it would certainly help). But by the end of it, you will have learned a great deal of that history, through the prism of its most fascinating personalities. Grading: • 15 percent of the grade is determined by class (and possibly on-line) participation. (I am new to Blackboard, but I have lots of experience in blogging and social media, so I will gives its features a try during the first weeks of class, to see whether it works for us.) • 20 percent of the grade is determined by a short mid-term “state of the art” paper (maximum 1,200 words), surveying the secondary and primary sources for the study of a leader, and assessing the reliability and limitations of the source materials. This is the sort of preliminary survey you would do before embarking on a major research project. This short paper will be due on Friday, October 19. • 65 percent of the grade is determined by a final paper, the topic of which you will choose in consultation with me. Calendar: You will note that there are readings for 13 sessions, and that includes the first session. The first class session will be devoted to the question of whether leaders matter. I recommend that you read the overview articles either before or immediately after the first session, as a supplement to the overview I will provide in class. I have provided URLs for the articles, but you should be able to access these items via electronic reserves. The URL is for future reference, should you want to revisit the readings after the course. I will hold an office hour immediately before class, or you may make an appointment if you have something else in that slot. Just message me through Blackboard. Readings 1. Do Leaders Matter? How Do We Know? Daniel Byman and Kenneth M. Pollack, “Let Us Now Praise Great Men: Bringing the Statesman Back In,” International Security, Vol. 25, No. 4 (Spring 2001), pp. 107-146. http:// www18.georgetown.edu/data/people/dlb32/publication-31933.pdf “The First Image Revisited,” exchange with Andrew Parasiliti on the above article: http:// www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/016228801753191187 2 Political Leadership in the Middle East •• Fall 2012 •• SAIS DC 2. Four Concepts: Patrimonialism, Charisma, Narcissism, Transformational Leadership Michael Curtis, Orientalism and Islam: European Thinkers on Oriental Despotism in the Middle East and India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), chapter: “Max Weber: Patrimonialism as a Political Type,” pp. 258-98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ CBO9780511812422.010 James A. Bill and Robert Springborg, Politics in the Middle East (Longman, 1999), pp. 136-75. Ann Ruth Willner and Dorothy Willner, “The Rise and Role of Charismatic Leaders,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 358, New Nations: The Problem of Political Development (Mar., 1965), pp. 77-88. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1036358 Robert C. Tucker, “The Theory of Charismatic Leadership,” Daedalus, Vol. 97, No. 3 (1968), pp. 731-56. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20023840 Jerrold M. Post, “Current Concepts of the Narcissistic Personality: Implications for Political Psychology,” Political Psychology, Vol. 14, No. 1 (Mar., 1993), pp. 99-121. http://www.jstor.org/ stable/3791395 Joseph S. Nye, “Transformational Leadership and American Foreign Policy,” Center for Public Leadership Working Papers, 2006, pp.160-80. http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/ 1721.1/55955/CPL_WP_06_11_Nye.pdf?sequence=1 3. The Legacies of Old A. Reza Sheikholeslami, “Patrimonial Monarchy: Nasir al-Din Shah, 1848–1896,” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Fall 1998), pp. 17-30. http:// cssaame.dukejournals.org/content/18/2/17.citation Selim Deringil, “Legitimacy Structures in the Ottoman State: The Reign of Abdülhamid II (1876–1909),” International Journal of Middle East Studies Vol. 23, No. 3 (Aug., 1991), pp. 345-59. http://www.jstor.org/stable/164486 Nikki R. Keddie, “Sayyid Jamal ad-Din ‘al-Afghani’: A Case of Posthumous Charisma?,” in Philosophers and Kings: Studies in Leadership, ed. Dankwart A. Rustow (New York: George Braziller, 1970), pp. 148-79. Israel Bartal, “Responses to Modernity: Haskalah, Orthodoxy, and Nationalism in Eastern Europe,” in Zionism and Religion, eds. S. Almog et al. (University Press of New England, 1988 ), pp. 13-24. 3 Political Leadership in the Middle East •• Fall 2012 •• SAIS DC 4. Nation-Forgers: Herzl and Atatürk Jehuda Reinharz and Shulamit Reinharz, “Leadership and Charisma: The Case of Theodor Herzl,” in Mystics, Philosophers, and Politicians, eds. Jehuda Reinharz and Daniel Swetschinski (Durham: Duke University Press, 1982), 275-313. Peter Loewenberg, “Theodor Herzl,” in Peter Loewenberg, Decoding the Past: The Psychohistorical Approach (New York: Knopf, 1985), 101-35. Jacques Kornberg, “Theodore Herzl: A Reevaluation,” The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 52, No. 2 (Jun., 1980), pp. 226-52. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1878229 “Newsreel: Herzl Reburied in Jerusalem” (newsreel, 2 min.), 1949. http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=fwv-W0bvV20 Irvin Teitel, “Theodor Herzl: A Living Portrait” (dramatization, 55 min.),1960. http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWi3pV8_XQY Dankwart A. Rustow, “Atatürk as Founder of a State,” Daedalus, Vol. 97, No. 3 (Summer, 1968), pp. 793-828. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20023842 Vamik Volkan, “Immortal Atatürk: Narcissism and creativity in a revolutionary leader,” in The Psychoanalytic Study of Society, vol. 9 (1981), eds. W. Muensterberger and L. B. Boyer, pp. 221-56. Andrew Mango, “Atatürk in His Lifetime and Today,” Sep. 24, 2000. http:// www.ataturksociety.org/speech_details.asp?id=68 Tolga Ornek, “Atatürk: A Documentary Film” (documentary, 78 min.), 1999. http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjG--1XP3J0 Walter Cronkite, The Twentieth Century, “The Incredible Turk”(documentary, 26 min.),1959. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9EkewZea3k Anitkabir (Ataturk Mausoleum) (4 min., short clip). http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=sfBUfkOkNdQ Christopher S. Wilson, “Representing National Identity and Memory in the Mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 68, No. 2 (June 2009), pp. 224-53. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/jsah.2009.68.2.224 5. Change Artists: Ben-Gurion and Nasser 4 Political Leadership in the Middle East •• Fall 2012 •• SAIS DC Joel S. Migdal, “Vision and Practice: The Leader, the State, and the Transformation of Society,” International Political Science Review / Revue internationale de science politique Vol. 9, No. 1 (Jan. 1988), pp. 23-41. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1600814 Shlomo Aronson, David Ben-Gurion and the Jewish Renaissance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010). http://www.scribd.com/doc/77271776/Shlomo-Aronson-David-BenGurion-and-the-Jewish-Renaissance-2010 Michael Keren, “Biography and Historiography: The Case of David Ben-Gurion,” Biography, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Spring 2000), pp. 332-351. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/bio/summary/ v023/23.2keren.html P.J. Vatikiotis, Nasser and His Generation (London: Croom Helm, 1978), pp. 287-324. John P. Entelis, “Nasser’s Egypt: The Failure of Charismatic Leadership,” Orbis, Vol. 18 (1974), pp. 451-64. Leland Bowie, “Charisma, Weber and Nāṣir,” Middle East Journal, Vol. 30, No. 2 (Spring, 1976), pp. 141-57. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4325482 Interview with Nasser and Ben-Gurion (and King Hussein) (interviews, 7 min.),1956. http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfsHLDTW7nw 6. The Peacemakers: Sadat and Begin Janice Gross Stein, “Leadership in Peacemaking: Fate, Will, and Fortuna in the Middle East,” International Journal, Vol. 37, No. 4, Leaders and Leadership 2 (Autumn, 1982), pp. 517-42. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40202088 PBS, “The 50 Years War: Israel and the Arabs” (documentary, min. 29 thru min. 49), 1998. http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wXebyT1kCw Rivka Yadlin, “Sadat: The Innovative Capacity of Traditionalization,” in Innovative Leaders in International Politics (SUNY Series in Leadership Studies), ed. Gabriel Sheffer (Binghamton: SUNY Press, 1993), pp. 231-42. Ibrahim A. Karawan, “Sadat and the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Revisited,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 26, No. 2 (May 1994), pp. 249-66. http://www.jstor.org/stable/164735 ABC News, “Sadat, Action Biography” (documentary, 53 min.), 1974. http://www.youtube.com/ playlist?list=PL9BAE59C2EEF5BF96 5 Political Leadership in the Middle East •• Fall 2012 •• SAIS DC Aljazeera English, “I Knew Sadat” (documentary, 23 min.), 2009. http://www.youtube.com/ playlist?list=PL2261D59BA3609016 Ofira Seliktar, “Israel’s Menachem Begin,” in Leadership and Negotiation in the Middle East, eds. Barbara Kellerman and J. Z. Rubin (New York: Praeger, 1988), pp. 30-47. Uri Avenry, “Menachem Begin: The Reality,” Worldview, June 1978, pp. 4-13. http:// worldview.carnegiecouncil.org/archive/worldview/1978/06/3048.html/_res/id=sa_File1/ v21_i006_a002.pdf Yoram Bilu and André Levy, “The Elusive Sanctification of Menachem Begin,” International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society , Vol. 7, No. 2 (Winter, 1993), pp. 297-328. http:// www.jstor.org/stable/20007139 7. From Shah to Supreme Leader BBC, “The Last Shah” (documentary, 60 min.), 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=GOmrsYArnkg Al Jazeerah English, “I Knew the Shah” (documentary, 23 min.), 2009. http://www.youtube.com/ playlist?list=PLC64C4CFEE5AC8B55&feature=plcp Abbas Milani on his book The Shah, Charlie Rose Show (interview, 26 min.), March 3, 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXbbyboJs-w Marvin Zonis, Majestic Failure: The Fall of the Shah (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), pp. 207-39. Aljazeera English, “I Knew Khomeini” (documentary, 23 min.), 2009. http://www.youtube.com/ playlist?list=PL71526F4BB8D23FA8 Ahmad Ashraf, “Theocracy and charisma: New men of power in Iran,” International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, Vol. 4, No. 1 (1990), 113-52. http://www.springerlink.com/ content/h13g3h2758027x57/ Michael Kimmel, “‘New Prophets’ and ‘Old Ideals’: Charisma and Tradition in the Iranian Revolution,” Social Compass, No. 36 (December 1989), pp. 493-510. http://scp.sagepub.com/ content/36/4/493.extract Karim Sadjadpour, Reading Khamenei: The World View of Iran’s Most Powerful Leader (Carnegie Endowment, 2009). http://www.carnegieendowment.org/files/ sadjadpour_iran_final2.pdf 6 Political Leadership in the Middle East •• Fall 2012 •• SAIS DC BBC, “Ruling Iran: A Profile of the Supreme Leader (Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei)” (documentary, 22 min.), 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmeUKh1u1lA 8. Rogues: Saddam and Qadhafi Joseph Sassoon, “The Cult of Personality in the Arab World,” 2012 Levi Della Vida Conference at UCLA: “Structures of Personalized Power in the Modern Middle East: Presidents, Prime Ministers and Party Bosses” (lecture, 29 min.), June 2012. http://www.international.ucla.edu/ cnes/podcasts/article.asp?parentid=126401 Joseph Sassoon, Saddam Hussein’s Ba‘th Party: Inside an Authoritarian Regime (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 162-92. Jerrold M. Post and Amatzia Baram, “Saddam is Iraq: Iraq is Saddam (Until Operation Iraqi Freedom),” in Know Thy Enemy: Profiles of Adversary Leaders and Their Strategic Cultures, eds. Barry R. Schneider and Jerrold M. Post (Washington: US Government Printing Office, July 2003), pp. 164-220. http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/cpc-pubs/know_thy_enemy/ postbaram2.pdf Kevin Woods, James Lacey and Williamson Murray, “Saddam’s Delusions: The View from the Inside,” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 85, No. 3 (May-Jun., 2006), pp. 2-26. http://www.jstor.org/stable/ 20031964 Aljazeera English, “I Knew Saddam” (documentary, 23 min.), 2008. http://www.youtube.com/ playlist?list=PL229A8A160A9A92A4 Raymond A Hinnebusch, “Charisma, revolution, and state formation: Qaddafi and Libya,” Third World Quarterly, Vol. 6, No. 1 (1984), pp. 59-73. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3991227 Antoine Vitkine, “Gaddafi – Our Best Villain” (documentary, 94 min.), 2011. http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=Anb6_MKyywM Aljazeera English, “Gaddafi: The Endgame” (documentary, 47 min.), 2011. http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YwenAKDDHo 9. Islamist Insurgents, from Al Qaeda to Hezbollah Bruce B. Lawrence, “The Late Shaikh Osama bin Laden: A Religious Profile of al-Qaeda’s Deceased Poster Child,” The Muslim World, Vol. 101, No. 3 (July 2011), pp. 374–89. http:// onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1478-1913.2011.01395.x/full Aljazeera English, “I Knew Bin Laden” (documentary, 90 min.), 2011. http://www.youtube.com/ playlist?list=PLA28A15255CAFDF77 7 Political Leadership in the Middle East •• Fall 2012 •• SAIS DC Martin Kramer, “The Oracle of Hizbullah: Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah,” in Spokesmen for the Despised: Fundamentalist Leaders in the Middle East (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997), pp. 83-181. http://www.martinkramer.org/sandbox/reader/archives/oracle-ofhizbullah-sayyid-muhammad-husayn-fadlallah/ Tobias Thiel, “Prophet, Saviour and Revolutionary: Manufacturing Hassan Nasrallah’s Charisma,” http://lse.academia.edu/TobiasThiel/Papers/1448374/ Prophet_Saviour_and_Revolutionary_Manufacturing_Hassan_Nasrallahs_Charisma 10. They Fall Down: Mubarak and Assad Roger Owen, The Rise and Fall of Arab Presidents for Life (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2012), pp. 23-36. Lisa Wedeen, Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 1-31). David Lesch, “Reformer to Tyrant: The Corruption of Bashar al-Asad and the Syrian System,” 2012 Levi Della Vida Conference at UCLA: “Structures of Personalized Power in the Modern Middle East: Presidents, Prime Ministers and Party Bosses” (lecture, 22 min.), June 2012. http:// www.international.ucla.edu/cnes/podcasts/article.asp?parentid=126399 Aljazeera English, “The [Mubarak] Family” (documentary, 96 min.), 2012. http:// www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8579F1E074B06C8B Eva Bellin, “The Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East,” Comparative Politics, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Jan. 2004), pp. 139-157. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4150140 Eva Bellin, “Reconsidering the Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Lessons from the Arab Spring,” Comparative Politics, vol. 44, No. 2 (Jan. 2012), pp. 127-149. http:// www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cuny/cp/2012/00000044/00000002/art00002 F. Gregory Gause III, “Why Middle East Studies Missed the Arab Spring: The Myth of Authoritarian Stability,” Foreign Affairs (July/Aug. 2011), pp. 81-90. http:// connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/61295102/why-middle-east-studies-missed-arab-spring 11. The Monarchical Exception Lisa Anderson, “Absolutism and the Resilience of Monarchy in the Middle East,” Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 106, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 1-15. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2152171 8 Political Leadership in the Middle East •• Fall 2012 •• SAIS DC Russell Lucas, “Monarchical Authoritarianism: Survival and Political Liberalization in a Middle Eastern Regime Type,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 36, No. 1 (2004), pp. 103-119. http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=242979 Ariana Keyman, “The Resilience of Arab Spring Monarchies,” E-International Relations, April 2, 2012. http://www.e-ir.info/2012/04/02/the-resilience-of-arab-monarchies-in-the-arab-spring/ Sean L. Yom, “Understanding the Resilience of Monarchy During the Arab Spring,” Foreign Policy Research Institute e-Notes, April 2012.http://www.fpri.org/enotes/ 2012/201204.yom.monarchy-arab-spring.html Ludger Kühnhardt, “The Resilience of Arab Monarchy,” Policy Review, No. 193 (June 1, 2012). http://www.hoover.org/publications/policy-review/article/118276 12. The Elected Ones: Erdoğan and Ahmadinejad Metin Heper, “Islam, Modernity, and Democracy in Contemporary Turkey: The Case of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,” The Muslim World, Vol. 93, No. 2 (2003), pp. 157-85. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1111/1478-1913.00019 M. Hakan Yavuz, Secularism and Muslim Democracy in Turkey (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 118-43. Ali Ansari, “Iran under Ahmadinejad: populism and its malcontents,” International Affairs, Vol. 84, No. 4 (July 2008), pp. 683-700. http://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/files/public/ International%20Affairs/2008/84_4ansari.pdf 13. The Leader Will See You Now, and Summation Marilyn Booth, “When I Met Saddam Hussein,” in L’Irak de la crise au chaos, ed. Kenneth Brown (Editions Ibis Press/Mediterranees, 2004), pp. 282-85. (Martin Kramer will provide.) Assaf Khoury, “Noam Chomsky in Beirut,” ZNet, July 12, 2006. http:// www.zcommunications.org/noam-chomsky-in-beirut-by-assaf-kfoury Joseph S. Nye, “Tripoli Diarist,” The New Republic, Dec. 10, 2007. http://www.tnr.com/article/ tripoli-diarist David Corn and Siddhartha Mahanta, “From Libya with Love,” Mother Jones, March 3, 2011. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/03/libya-qaddafi-monitor-group Richard W. Bulliet, “Why I Helped Invite Ahmadinejad to Columbia,” Post Global, Sep. 26, 2007. http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/needtoknow/2007/09/ 9 Political Leadership in the Middle East •• Fall 2012 •• SAIS DC why_i_helped_invite_ahmadineja.html David W. Lesch, “The Syrian President I Know,” New York Times, Mar. 29, 2011. http:// www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/opinion/30lesch.html Malcolm Potts, “Mubarak’s mistake: The Road Not Taken,” Berkeley Blog, Feb. 13, 2011. http:// blogs.berkeley.edu/2011/02/13/mubaraks-mistake-the-road-not-taken/ 10