Dr. Lars Berger
Dr. Lars Berger
Lecturer in Politics and Contemporary History of the Middle East
Crescent House 200d
T +44 (0)161 295 6795
F +44 (0)161 295 5077
Lars received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the Friedrich-Schiller University where he also taught before joining Salford University in September 2007. In 2006-07 he was a British Academy Fellow at the Department of Politics at Newcastle University. He has studied, travelled and researched widely in the Middle East, including a one-year study stay at the American University in Cairo, as well as further research trips to Egypt, the Moshe Dayan Centre for Middle Eastern and African Studies in Tel Aviv/Israel, and the King Faisal Centre for Islamic Research and Studies in Riyadh/Saudi Arabia. In 2002-03, he was one of two Germans to join the American Political Science Association's Congressional Fellowship Program which provided him with unique insights into the foreign-policy making process in the United States. In 2007, the German Middle East Studies Association (DAVO) recognized Lars's research with an award for the best Ph.D. dissertation of the year. Lars' current research interest focuses on images of the West and Western policies in Arab public debate (read more about his project "National Identity and Foreign Policy" here). He has been a frequent commentator on BBC TV and Radio on the Arab-Israeli Conflict and the Arab Spring.
Supervision
Lars is interested in supervising dissertations on US foreign policy and its domestic determinants, Islamist terrorism, Islamist thinking, democracy and human rights in the Arab world and international relations of the Middle East.
Modules Convened
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The Middle East and Terrorism (Masters level)
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The Middle East and Terrorism (Masters level - Distance Learning)
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The Politics of Islamism (Undergraduate level 3)
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The Arab-Israeli Conflict (Undergraduate level 2)
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International History II (Level 1)
Modules at previous universities included:
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Theoretical Dimensions and Current Developments of International Terrorism
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Regional Conflicts and Foreign-Policy Making in the Middle East
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Introduction to U.S. Foreign Policy
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Politics, processes, and procedure: U.S. Presidential and Congressional Elections
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Introduction to International Relations Theory
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Regional Security Organizations
Administrative Posts
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Programme Leader BA Politics with Criminology/Criminology with Politics
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Programme Leader MA Terrorism and Security (http://www.salford.ac.uk/courses/terrorism-and-security?mode=ov). Like us on Facebook.
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Politics and Contemporary History (PCH) Erasmus Coordinator
Selected Publications
Berger, L. 2012. Guns, Butter, and Human Rights - The Congressional Politics of U.S. Aid to Egypt, American Politics Research.
Berger, L. 2011. The Missing Link? U.S. Policy and the International Dimensions of the Failed Democratic Transitions in the Arab World, Political Studies, 59 (1)
Berger, L. 2011. Breaking the Wave - the War in Iraq, US-Egyptian Relations and the Bush Adminstration's 'Democratic Tsunami', in Jane Harring/Hamed El-Said (eds.), Globalisation, Democratisation and Radicalisation in the Arab World, (Basingstoke: Palgrave Maxmillan).
Berger, L. 2011. Der 11. September 2011 aus Sicht der oeffentlichen und veroeffentlichten Meinung in der arabischen Welt, in Thomas Jaeger (ed.), Die Welt nach 9/11, (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag fuer Sozialwissenschaften).
Berger, L. 2009.The Challenge of Talking about Terrorism – The EU and the Arab Debate on the Causes of Islamist Terrorism, Terrorism and Political Violence 21(4).
Berger, L. 2009. Between New Hopes and Old Realities – The Obama Administration and the Middle East. Orient 2.
Berger, L. 2008. Peace and Democracy? The post-Cold War Debate on U.S. Middle East Policies, in Lori Maguire (ed.), Political Discourse in the United Kingdom and the United States Since 1992: Foreign Relations (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press).
Berger, L. 2007. The United States and Islamist Terrorism: Challenges in the Middle East. (Schoeningh: Paderborn).
For more information please see my SEEK page.
External responsibilities
External Examiner, Staffordshire University
Peer reviewer for Oxford University Press, Routledge, Ashgate, United Nations University Press, Political Research Quarterly, Parliamentary Affairs and Journal of Contemporary European Research