You have three choices. Choose only ONE of the following three
Choices 1 and 2: Analyze and chronicle the sources of decline, followed by reform and modernism in 1) Egypt OR 2) Lebanon, from the beginning of the 20th century to the present.
To do so, just answer the following questions and ITEMIZE YOUR ANSWERS:
Causes of the deterioration–
a) demography, economy (currency crises), security (wars and more wars) etc.
b) The role of the European colonial empires.
b) The influence of Western political and social currents.
d). Dictatorship (in Egypt); ethnic strife born to inflexible ethnic-based politics (in Lebanon)
Causes for reform and change
a). Introduction of mass media and the state of literacy
b) Roll of recent globalization of information and news/views via the internet.
c) The triggers of the recent Arab Spring.
d) Roll of the US and the West in this change, and what are the Westerners looking for from the results of the change?
Choice 3: Chronicle the process of creation of Saudi Arabian state, from Saud I, to present. To do so, answer the following and ITEMIZE YOUR ANSWERS:
a) Emergence of the puritanical Wahhabi branch of Islam
b) Merger of convenience between Wahhabism and the House of Saud, the reasons and the benefits
c) First Saudi State, demise and exile (the causes)
d) Abdul Aziz and the creation of second Saudi State
e) Evolution of the Saudi state from the death of Abdul Aziz to present
f) Security and economic/social concerns in Saudi Arabia today
g) Why Saudi Arabia is not being swept by the Arab Spring?
