HI4306 Britain, the Near East and the Second World War: Diplomacy and Strategy towards Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan during the Second World War

Module Organiser: Professor Eunan O'Halpin
Duration: Hilary term
Contact hours: 2 hours per week
Weighting: 10 ECTS
Assessment: 20% Essay; 80% Examination

This module explores the strategic, geopolitical and security dilemmas facing Britain in the Near East during the Second World War. It pays particular attention to her dealings with five weak, new, neutral and overwhelmingly Muslim states adjoining her own colonial and imperial territories. Each of these states were also courted and threatened by the Axis powers, which attempted to manipulate Islamic as well as on anti-British sentiment, while the Soviet Union took a marked and, before June 1941, in British eyes a deeply unwelcome interest in the region generally and particularly in her immediate neighbours Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan.

The module will draw extensively on primary sources including selections of British and American records, and published diaries and memoirs.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

• Analyse British policy towards Near Eastern neutral states within the wider framework of Britain’s wartime political and strategic concerns and aims
• Discuss the dynamics of Britain’s wartime relations with at least one of the five states under discussion
• Assess the impact of growing American involvement in the area on British calculations
• Identify and search for relevant secondary literature identify
• Interrogate key primary archival and oral history sources available via the Web
• Make critical use of records, images, records and other evidence provided as module materials from British, American and other foreign archives
• Engage with issues arising in the utilization as historical sources of diaries, journals and memoirs
• Engage with and critique the dominant scholarly works in the areas covered by the module.