Nations and Nationalisms in the Modern Middle East

Course content

In spite of the contemporary strong forces at work in the direction of globalization, formation and consolidation of nations is no less significant. Nation-building is a decisive part of modernity. As such it has a longer history in Europe than in other regions in the world. In the Middle East, for example, nation building is a process that mainly got under way during the last (20th) century. Many problems facing this part of the world today –like the current political and social instability and questioned territorial boundaries – are closely related to the process of nation-state formation. During the last couple of decades the development of radical Islam has overshadowed what is happening on the level of nations and national identity formation. The aim of this course is to study this aspect of recent Middle East developments and to do so in the light of rich theoretical literature on nations and nationalism that has appeared since the collaps of the Soviet Union.