030853 KU Global Middle East: The Legacy of WWI Treaties (2021W)

The Middle East is often merely regarded as a physical place of intrinsic and inextricable conflicts, the jolts of which have a global impact. The course proposes to zoom out for a more accurate and nuanced understanding of this complex and strategically key region of the globe.

Based on the history of international law and relations, the course will examine the post-World War I Peace Treaties and discuss how they shaped the borders of current Middle Eastern states from the splitting up of the Ottoman Empire. The course will pay particular attention to the racial and anti-Semitic narratives in the colonial context surrounding the negotiation processes. It will then engage in the Treaties' humanitarian consequences as well as their regional and global legacy, such as the emotional load that the region still carries and which impacts on current international relations. The students will be invited to discuss the legal background and development as well as a possible way forward.