This course offers a survey of the region of the Middle East and North Africa in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, examining economic growth, crisis and structural change in relation to shifting social dynamics and political regimes. Examples from the diverse array of countries across the region illustrate the following themes: interaction with Western capitalism and the global economy; demographic shifts and class transformation; human development, employment, unemployment and the migration of labor; hydrocarbon exports and capital flows; natural resource constraints, agriculture and the environment; state-led development and the shift toward liberalization and privatization; Islamic economics; the economic impact of wars and conflict; and the material underpinnings of the “Arab Spring.”