Location
Streatham Campus, Exeter
This well established and popular programme examines key issues in domestic and regional politics in the Middle East. The programme, the oldest Masters degree in Middle East politics in Britain, reflects the research strengths of teaching staff in both the Department of Politics and the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies.
Members of staff in the Department and the Institute have extensive experience outside the University including work with the BBC's external service, international NGOs and development agencies, in various government positions and senior management posts, as diplomats and as consultants for business, government and international organisations.
The core curriculum examines key issues in the study of domestic politics in the Middle East, exploring both theoretical and empirical questions that are central to the field. It aims to provide a critical understanding of the patterns of state-society interaction in the region, the processes of state formation and the constitution of social and political forces, as well as an awareness of the different perspectives and debates within the field of Middle East politics.
It also examines the meaning of democracy within an Arabo-Islamic setting. It locates the discussion within the framework of discourses and counter-discourses about Orientalism, Occidentalism, Islamism, secularism, civil society, etc, also looking at case studies from the Arab Maghrib and Mashriq to apply the concepts and methodologies discussed to concrete situations. It will give you a critical awareness of the different debates about democracy and as well as the strategies and dynamics of political liberalisation in the Arab world.
In recent years, graduates of the programme have found employment in government, particularly in the diplomatic service; in academic institutions, where many are running their own Middle East Politics programmes in different parts of the world; in the media; in business and in organisations responsible for humanitarian assistance in the region.
The University is a member of a SOCRATES-supported European Network for Studies on the Middle East enabling you to potentially follow some of the specially arranged courses within this project in various parts of Europe.
