HON351, American Values in Global Perspective
Spring Semester 2008
Study Guide
Democracy for Iraq and the Muslim World
Reading Assignment
Ball and Dagger, chapter 10
Stephen Biddle, "Seeing Baghdad, Thinking Saigon," Foreign Affairs, Vol 85, No. 2, March/April 2006, pp. 2-14 (electronic reserves)
"Iranians Love Affair with Americans," Christian Science Monitor, January 19, 2007
Ranking of Muslim Countries by Population
Questions to consider while reading Ball and Dagger, chapter 10:
1. What are some of the core beliefs of the Islamic religion?
2. What is meant be these terms?
Islam
Qur'an
Caliph
Shar'ia
madrassa
theocracy
3. What distinguishes the Sunni and Shi'ite branches of Islam? In what countries are the Shi'ite Muslims in the majority? Which countries have Sunni majorities?
4. What does the author suggest are the "four waves" of threats to Islam that have come from the West?
5. In what ways is Western liberalism and liberal democracy potentially incompatible with the beliefs of Islamic fundamentalists?
6. What is meant by the term jihad, and more specifically greater and lesser jihad?
Questions to consider while reading the Biddle article:
1. What parallels are there between the strategies the United States has used in Vietnam and Iraq?
2. What are the key differences between conflicts in Vietnam and Iraq? In other words, what distinction does Biddle draw between a Maoist people's war (Vietnam) and a communal civil war (Iraq)?
3. What problems does Biddle see with the U.S. strategy in Iraq? Why might democracy even heighten the conflict between the conflicting groups in the country?
4. What adjustments does the author propose for the United Stataes strategy in Iraq?