BERGAMO
Overview
Date/time interval
Syllabus
Course Objectives
By the end of the course, students will be able to understand the main historical legacies of colonialism and decolonisation in Africa and Asia; analyse the relationship between state formation, conflict, and political institutions in selected contexts; interpret the role of Islam in contemporary political processes without reducing it to a single explanatory factor; connect local crises, regional dynamics, and transformations of the international order; and critically discuss sources, international reports, and scholarly literature relating to Afro-Asian contexts.
Course Prerequisites
Teaching Methods
Teaching will mainly consist of lectures, integrated with guided discussion, the analysis of geopolitical maps, and the critical reading of documents, international reports, and short supplementary materials in English. Students will be encouraged to participate actively in class, formulate questions, and draw connections between the topics discussed and current international affairs.
Additional themes beyond the main nuclei of the course will be addressed as focused explorations through supplementary readings, Moodle materials, or seminars with experts in history, geopolitics, diplomacy, and international relations. These supplementary materials do not replace the required readings; rather, they are intended to guide study and develop students’ capacity for critical analysis.
Assessment Methods
The examination is oral and assesses the knowledge and competences acquired through discussion of the required texts, course materials, and the main issues addressed in class. The oral examination will normally consist of three or four questions covering the entire programme. It is designed to assess: knowledge of the main historical and institutional processes; the ability to place the contexts studied within their regional and international framework; appropriate use of the course’s analytical categories; and the ability to argue clearly, critically, and in an interdisciplinary manner.
Grades will be awarded on a scale of 30. The assessment will take into account: 1) mastery of historical, political, and institutional content; 2) capacity for critical analysis and for connecting different themes; 3) clarity of exposition and terminological precision; 4) ability to discuss sources, texts, and interpretative problems; and 5) active and constructive participation in class, where this can be assessed.
If the number of students attending the examination session is particularly high, the oral examination may be replaced by a written test consisting of five open-ended questions. Each answer will be marked up to a maximum of 6/30. In the written test as well, particular importance will be attached to clarity of exposition, argumentative capacity, critical analysis, and the ability to connect the different aspects of the discipline.
Contents
1. Historical and Conceptual Frameworks. The course will introduce the main analytical tools: colonialism, decolonisation, the construction of postcolonial states, institutional legacies, borders, development, inequalities, and ethno-religious pluralism. It will also refer to selected international indicators, including data from the Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), as a means of interpreting socio-economic differences among areas and countries.
2. Islam, Politics, and Institutions. The course will analyse the emergence, development, and spread of Islam as a historical, cultural, and political factor across a range of Afro-Asian contexts. Particular attention will be devoted to the relationship between religion and the state, reformism, radicalism, Islamic-inspired political movements, and the political use of religious tradition, while avoiding monocausal readings of conflict and instability.
3. The Contemporary Middle East. After reconstructing the political and state formation of the post-Ottoman Middle East, the course will examine the Middle Eastern arc of crisis through a number of particularly significant turning points. Special attention will be paid to Iraq and Syria as historical laboratories of state crisis, conflict, external intervention, and the redefinition of regional balances; to Iran from the 1979 Revolution to the present; and to the main implications for regional and collective security, including the most recent Middle Eastern conflicts.
4. Afghanistan, International Intervention, and the Crisis of State-Building. Afghanistan will be examined as a long-term observatory for understanding the relationship between internal conflict, international intervention, institutional fragility, armed movements, and the difficulties of state-building processes.
5. Sub-Saharan Africa, the Sahel, and Institutional Fragility. The course will examine the causes of African civil wars, the weakness of certain postcolonial state apparatuses, dynamics of radicalisation, and violent extremism in the Sahel. It will discuss the nexus between security, development, borders, identity, and international intervention, as well as the political, economic, and social consequences of the Chinese presence on the African continent.
Contemporary crises will be interpreted as the outcome of long-term historical processes: the colonial construction of borders, the formation of postcolonial states, competition among elites, religious transformations, external interventions, and changes in the international order. Within the overall framework of the course, continuous reference will be made to human rights violations, international cooperation policies, and democratisation processes promoted by both domestic and external actors.
Online Resources
More information
Thesis Supervision
Students may agree with the professor on a thesis topic concerning the historical, political, social, economic and/or geostrategic issues of a country in the area, or one of the regional or sub-regional systems that make up the African or Asian continents, with particular attention to states and issues relating to Sub-Saharan Africa, the Near and Middle East, or the Far East.
Alternatively, thesis topics may address doctrinal aspects of Islam, Islamic radicalism or reformism; international terrorism; regional instability; human rights violations in specific Asian or African geographical contexts; nation-building in post-war situations; or the re-establishment of the rule of law in countries that may be described as rogue states or failing/failed states.
Students may also develop theses on contemporary topics such as the propaganda of the so-called Islamic State (IS), with particular reference to its main magazines (Dabiq and Rumiyah in English, Dar al-Islam in French, ИСТОК in Russian, or other Arabic-language publications to be agreed upon with the professor); the propaganda of terrorist groups; the institutional and bureaucratic-administrative systems of IS; documentary analysis relating to al-Qaeda and other non-state armed organisations.
Please note: when writing the thesis, students are required to follow scrupulously the formatting and editing guidelines published on the professor’s webpage (Thesis Style Guidelines).
Notice to Graduating Students
Students are required to submit the final chapters of their thesis to the professor for final correction at least one month before the deadline set by the Student Office for thesis submission. Failure to do so will result in postponement of the thesis defence to the following session.
Note for Erasmus Students
The instructor is available to discuss with Erasmus students the correspondence between the programme presented here and their Learning Agreement, so that the learning path may, where appropriate, be individualised and facilitated, ensuring effective recognition of the credits acquired.