Pardee School Offers its First MOOC: War in the Greater Middle East
The first MOOC – massive open online course – offered by the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies launches tomorrow (September 24, 2014). Taught by Pardee School professor emeritus Andrew Bacevich the course, called “War for the Greater Middle East,” hopes to make students rethink the history of the 20th century so as to be better prepared for the 21st.
“What we understand as history, the story that history tells, is inadequate,” he says. The American version of 20th-century history is of triumph over evil, from the Nazis to the Soviets, but citizens of the Islamic world have a very different version, Bacevich says. Starting in 1980, when President Jimmy Carter declared the Persian Gulf a vital American interest because of its oil, the past 34 years have been a history of US military involvement in the Middle East—the war of his course title—that has failed to produce stability or democracy, he says.
Where does that leave us in the fight against ISIS? “The threat it poses to the United States is not great—probably less than the Ebola virus,” Bacevich says. “Both cases call for an identical response: erect effective defenses.” While ISIS is a greater threat to key Middle Eastern nations such as Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, “those nations are far better positioned to deal with that threat directly.” Bacevich suggests we assist them with “intelligence, arms, perhaps advice and training, all based on the capacity and willingness of the recipient to make effective use of what we offer.”
More than 9,500 students have already enrolled for this MOOC on “War for the Greater Middle East,” offered through the online platform edX. BU’s MOOCs are available, for free and without credit, to students globally, who can do the course work at their own pace and convenience. They can opt either to audit the class or to pursue a completion certificate. Bacevich calls himself “agnostic” on the idea of the MOOCS: “It’s an experiment worth trying… Let’s wait and see what results we get.”
Based on story in BUToday (September 23, 2014).