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EVENTS & PROGRAMS
November 2009 Events
November 23, 2009
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM, Room 1636 International Institute, 1080 South University
Description:
Speaker: Sherman Jackson, University of Michigan, Department of Near Eastern Studies
CMENAS Fall 2009 Colloquium theme: War and Warfare in the Middle/Near East: Past and Present.
The region of the Middle/Near East and North Africa has witnessed numerous
wars and armed conflicts since ancient times up to the present. Some were a
result of territorial expansion by imperial states or nomadic invasions;
others were triggered by local competition for resources between two or more
countries of the region. Still others were intended or unintended outcomes
of broader geopolitical confrontations, such as WWI and WWII and, later on,
the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the Western world. Military
technology evolved from the first use of camels and chariots to gunpowder
and canon, more recently, also to chemical weapons. Slave armies and feudal
military have been replaced by the mass conscripted armies of modern nation
states. On the ideological plane, wars and military conflicts have been
justified by reference to a wide variety of causes, from the "liberation" of
the Holy Land from an "infidel" enemy to Europe's "civilizing mission"; from
establishing the homeland for a people that did not have one to stopping the
proliferation of WMD, to the spread of nationalism, Socialism, Islamism,
democracy, and so on.
November 30, 2009
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM, Room 1636 International Institute, 1080 South University
Mugged by Reality: Obama and the Arab-Israel Dispute
Description:
Speaker: Ambassador Mel Levitsky (retired), University of Michigan, Public Policy
CMENAS Fall 2009 Colloquium theme: War and Warfare in the Middle/Near East: Past and Present.
The region of the Middle/Near East and North Africa has witnessed numerous
wars and armed conflicts since ancient times up to the present. Some were a
result of territorial expansion by imperial states or nomadic invasions;
others were triggered by local competition for resources between two or more
countries of the region. Still others were intended or unintended outcomes
of broader geopolitical confrontations, such as WWI and WWII and, later on,
the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the Western world. Military
technology evolved from the first use of camels and chariots to gunpowder
and canon, more recently, also to chemical weapons. Slave armies and feudal
military have been replaced by the mass conscripted armies of modern nation
states. On the ideological plane, wars and military conflicts have been
justified by reference to a wide variety of causes, from the "liberation" of
the Holy Land from an "infidel" enemy to Europe's "civilizing mission"; from
establishing the homeland for a people that did not have one to stopping the
proliferation of WMD, to the spread of nationalism, Socialism, Islamism,
democracy, and so on.
December 07, 2009
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM, Room 1636 International Institute, 1080 South University
The Rise of the Middle East in the Time of the Crusades
Description:
Speaker: Stefan Heidemann, Visiting Professor, Islamic Artistic & Material Culture, Bard College
CMENAS Fall 2009 Colloquium theme: War and Warfare in the Middle/Near East: Past and Present.
The region of the Middle/Near East and North Africa has witnessed numerous
wars and armed conflicts since ancient times up to the present. Some were a
result of territorial expansion by imperial states or nomadic invasions;
others were triggered by local competition for resources between two or more
countries of the region. Still others were intended or unintended outcomes
of broader geopolitical confrontations, such as WWI and WWII and, later on,
the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the Western world. Military
technology evolved from the first use of camels and chariots to gunpowder
and canon, more recently, also to chemical weapons. Slave armies and feudal
military have been replaced by the mass conscripted armies of modern nation
states. On the ideological plane, wars and military conflicts have been
justified by reference to a wide variety of causes, from the "liberation" of
the Holy Land from an "infidel" enemy to Europe's "civilizing mission"; from
establishing the homeland for a people that did not have one to stopping the
proliferation of WMD, to the spread of nationalism, Socialism, Islamism,
democracy, and so on.
