The course answers the key question: how Islam is interpreted by IR scholars in West, and vice versa. It has been the proponent’s quest to feasibly and scholarly present Islam as non-alien in the Western discourse of the IR field.

The aims of this course are to show juxtaposed positions of mutual perceptions or diverse perspectives between Islam and IR based on conceived notions of contested conceptions, to eliminate deplorable and pejorative (mis)conceptions of IR scholars towards Islam and vice versa, and to add Islam to the epitome of global discourse of international relations as a major causal factor that affects the behaviours of actors (states, sub-state system, individuals, international and regional organizations, and multinational corporations) in the international community, particularly those who have an interest in and peculiar relations to the Muslim world. The process of constructing this initiative involves selecting perspectives and categories to bring to bear on the research idea.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this course:

1. At the end of the course, students are expected to have basic understating of discursive friction between mainstream IR scholarship and Islam
2. Able to view the contemporary International Politics from an Islamic perspective   

Assessment Criteria

1. Attendance and Class Participation: 10 % (75% of attendance would be mandatory to take the final term exams.)
2. Presentation and Assignments: 8%
3. Quiz: 2%
4. Mid Term Examination: 30%
5. Final Term Examination: 50%

Class Days and Timings 

• Tuesday (9:30-11:00)
• Wednesday (12:30 – 2:00)

Key Readings: There is no core textbook for the course. But the following books provide useful background knowledge and/or analytical frameworks of relevance for the study of Islam and Politics and more precisely Islam and IR: Reinhard Schulze, A Modern History of the Islamic World (New York: New York University Press, 2002). Dale F. Eickelman and James Piscatori, Muslim Politics (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004). Olivier Roy, Globalised Islam: The Search for a New Ummah (London: C. Hurst, 2004). Akbar Ahmed, The Thistle and the Drone: How America's War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2013). Fawaz A. Gerges, ISIS: A History (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016)