3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

This course examines the evolution of armed conflict in the Middle East over the past three decades and why the United States' conventional military dominance has not led to lasting strategic victory. Attention will be paid to how both states and non-state actors in the region have adjusted to America (and Israel)'s overwhelming conventional military superiority through deterrent strategies, asymmetric tactics (i.e. insurgency, terrorism, tunnel warfare), and exploitation of advanced commercial technologies (i.e. improvised explosive devices, UAVs, cyberwarfare, information operations) in lethal and/or strategic operations. Students will utilize "rationalist" and cultural frameworks to critically analyze these innovations across multiple conflicts/operations, including: Operations Iraqi Freedom and Inherent Resolve; various iterations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the civil wars in Syria and Yemen; and strategic conflict between Iran and the United States (and Israel) . The course's objective is to provide a better understanding of the relationship between military technological capability and strategic success in modern conflict, and of the challenges U.S. policymakers may face in future conflicts both in the Middle East and globally against other great powers.