middle east
Section I -- Answer any two of the following Questions:
1. After watching the video on the Suez Crisis, what are your thoughts? Specifically, how important do you think that this crisis was? Is there a legacy from it? Was the U.S. justified in convincing the British to leave? There are those who state that Eisenhower regretted not backing up Britain. If you had been President, what would you have done?
2. The Arab Spring was a hopeful time where it seemed that oppressive regimes were being overthrown for more democratic institutions. The promise has not been fulfilled. Since 2011, when Egypt, Libya, Tunisia all had a regime change, there has been a backlash in Egypt (the army took over), civil war in Syria, ongoing conflict in Yemen with Saudi Arabian involvement, and the rise of ISIS/ISIL in Syria and Iraq. What do you see as the biggest issue in the Middle East and why? How does this issue affect the world currently and what do you think are the issues that will carry over to other parts of the world or the future? How important is this issue? How do you propose the world/U.N./NATO/U.S. (choose one) should approach this issue?
3. Countries such as Egypt and Pakistan get a varied amount of aid from the U.S. Per a deal from 2009, Pakistan should get about 1.5 billion per year (which they apparently just got this year), but many years they have gotten less. It has become fashionable to criticize spending on foreign aid, so my challenge to you is to justify either spending money on aid or not spending the money. HOWEVER, regardless of which option you choose, you must weigh the spending versus what you are accomplishing. This is a critical thinking exercise and you only get full credit if you actually can justify your answer. Be sure to consider the following -- the cost to the U.S. (how much is it in terms of our spending relative to our GDP and our budget? Hint: Find out how much the U.S. spends on foreign aid relative to our budget or GDP); What does the U.S. get out of giving money? What does the U.S. EXPECT to get out of spending money? Is it a good deal? -- In other words, do we get our money's worth? You must consider these types of critical thinking questions and refer to them in your answer. Answering solely on ideological or a polemic basis will not get full credit. For this instance I mentioned Pakistan, but it can apply to Egypt, Israel or any foreign aid, so if you need to refer to other countries that we assist to back up your response, that is fine.
Now that you have pretty much finished the course, I've got more general questions (and a few specific ones too) for you and I'd like the general questions to be based on all of the reading and research that you've done. If your research paper has made you an expert in a particular area, feel free to use that information. However, so as not to overwhelm you, and also to give me a chance to catch up on all of these discussion boards, you do not have to answer all of these questions (although you are always free to if you choose).
Section II -- Answer one of the following three questions (your choice):
1. I wrote in one of the early modules that there was a strain of history that focused on dependency theory, which basically argued that the wealthy, successful countries have an incentive to keep poor countries poor. Now that you have read about a relatively large number of countries/governments/economies, what do you think about that concept? Is it true? Is it false? Is there room in the world for all countries to be economically successful? If not, why not? If so, are wealthy countries to blame for poor countries, or are countries responsible for themselves?
2. What do you think is the biggest challenge that the U.S. faces in the next 20 to 50 years? How about the rest of the world? What is the biggest challenge for the world as a whole?
3. We have seen several countries, notably Japan, Korea and China who have moved from various economic states to become very powerful economies. In all three cases, it took about 50 years to modernize and become an economic or world power. What do you think makes the difference? Is economic success a cultural phenomenon or a governmental phenomenon?
Section III -- Answer ALL of the following three questions (but they do not have to be long answers):
1. What were the three most important things that you feel you learned by writing your research project and why? If you could have done one thing differently, what would it be?
2. What were the three most important things that you feel you learned in this class and why? List at least one thing that you learned in this class that could apply outside of this class or to your major/career. (This does not have to be academics focused).
3. What was the most interesting thing that you learned by listening to the other presentations? (Note: if you present after this discussion board due date, then please leave this blank until after your presentation and then edit your response or reply to your response.)
FINALLY -- Provide a discussion question