Southwest Mississippi Community College - GEO 1113

1)What countries constitute the Middle East and North Africa?

2. What economic resources do the least and most populous countries have?

3. What are the major climatic patterns of the Middle East?

4. Where are the principal mountains, deserts, rivers, and areas of high rainfall?

5. Why can this region be described as a culture hearth?

6. What major ideas, commodities, and cultures originated there?

7. What is an Arab?

8. A Jew?

9. A Turk?

10. A Kurd?

11. A Persian?

12. A Muslim?

13. What are the principal beliefs of Jews, Christians, and Muslims?

14. What traditions and beliefs do they share?

15. What is the difference between Shi’ite and Sunni Islam?

16. Who are jihadists?

17. What are Hizbullah, Hamas, al-Qa’ida and ISIS, and what are they seeking and doing?

18. Where is oil concentrated in this region?

19. What precipitated the various conflicts between Israel and its Arab neighbor

20. How did each of these conflicts rearrange the political map?

21. Who controls the Gaza Strip and the West Bank?

22. What are the pros and cons of Egypt’s Aswan High Dam?

23. What were essential elements of the Arab Spring, especially in Egypt?

24. What country evolved as the most successful after its Arab Spring uprising?

25. What is the ethnic composition of Iraq?

26. Why did the U.S. invade Iraq in 2003?

27. Where do Kurds live, and what are their prospects for autonomy or independence?

28. In what ways is Turkey an “in-between” country, and how is Turkey’s role in the region and in the international arena changing?