Comparative & Middle East Politics and Society (CMEPS) at University of Tübingen

About

All students will take the core courses in Middle East Politics and Societies, Regime Change and Democratisation, Comparative Politics of the Middle East, and Development Politics and International Cooperation. Middle East Politics and Societies: This course provides an in-depth examination of the nature and dynamics of the politics of the Middle East. It explores some of the region's key political and social structural traits, as it aims at generating an understanding of the fundamentals of the modern Middle East. The course will focus on state formation, national identities, leadership, elites and the impact of the West. Regime Change and Democratisation: This course addresses the academic debate on authoritarianism, regime change, and democratisation from a theoretical and empirical perspective. It provides knowledge about key concepts and theoretical approaches to analyse processes of systemic political change, such as political regime analysis, theories of democratic transition and consolidation. Hybrid regimes are a further topic of analysis. While the focus of this module is on concepts and explanatory approaches as well as on international factors in regime change, empirical cases chosen from different continents allow students to apply concepts to real-world cases. Comparative Politics of the Middle East: Polity, economy, and society are considered to be interconnected areas for research in comparative politics. In this course, the debate about theory in the politics of the Middle East is explored in relation to comparative work on other areas. It examines key concepts and questions of comparative politics with the help of cases taken from the Middle East and North Africa, chiefly covering questions of state-society relations, political regimes, civil society, statehood, and political economy. In doing so, it gives an overview of the region's key characteristics on an advanced level of studies. Development Politics and International Cooperation: This course examines the main features of the politics of development and international development cooperation, including but not limited to conceptual issues such as the changing understandings of "development" itself as well as theoretical approaches to explain development or its absence; key bilateral and multilateral as well as state and non-state actors in development cooperation; prominent challenges for development cooperation actors (climate change, poverty, good governance, etc.) and key trends of practical development cooperation.Â In addition to the political science core modules, each student at the AUC will take courses on the foundations of political science during his or her first year of study, while students at the University of TÃ¼bingen will, depending on their first degrees, attend courses on the foundations of political science or basic Arabic language training. Students will take Arabic and German language classes, respectively. Elective courses in addition to these compulsory courses, students will have the possibility to specialise in a certain field. At the AUC and at the University of TÃ¼bingen, they can choose from a variety of elective courses that are listed under "Course organisation" (subject to availability).

Requirements

Entry Requirements

The selection of students is based on academic capabilities, personal qualification and motivation. You are eligible to study in the CMEPS programme if you: hold a BA degree or equivalent a) in political science or a related social science or b) in Middle Eastern studies, Islamic studies or a related discipline (only at the University of TÃ¼bingen) provide evidence of your proficiency in English (see below) At the University of TÃ¼bingen, applicants' Bachelor's grades must be 2.5 or better (on the German grading scale); at AUC, a GPA of at least 3.2 is required. At the University of TÃ¼bingen, required documents for application comprise the following: high school diploma, BA certificate / transcripts of records, CV, a letter of motivation (up to two pages), proof of English language requirements. Optional documents are as follows: evidence of other achievements (internships, work experience, etc.), contact details of an academic referee (if desired â€“ to be noted in CV). At the American University in Cairo: Make sure to select "Graduate Admissions" and the correct entry date as well as the concentration for the MA in Comparative & Middle East Politics and Society (CMEPS) on the application form.