Which social forces in North Africa and Southwest Asia modify the power of religion?

Discuss how people in this region have affected world diets (including especially the Americas), first through the domestication of plants and animals and then through trade.

To what extent is the present-day map of North Africa and Southwest Asia related to the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire after World War I?

Considering the various factors that encourage relatively high fertility in this region, design themes for a public education program that would effectively encourage lower birth rates. Which population groups would you target? How would you incorporate cultural sensitivity into your project?

Consider the new forces that are affecting urban landscapes: immigration and globalization. Identify some of the expected effects on ordinary people of these abrupt changes to traditional living spaces.

Compare and contrast the public debate over the proper role of religion in public life in your country and in one country in this region (for example, Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, or Saudi Arabia). Contrast the roles of religious fundamentalists in the debates in your country and in the country chosen.

Gender is a complex subject in this region. Choose a rural location and an urban location and make a list of the forces in each that would affect the future of a 20-year-old woman. Describe those hypothetical futures objectively, that is, without using any judgmental terminology.

Why is it important to know that in some countries of this region agriculture may produce only a small amount of the GDP yet employ 40 percent or more of the people? What are some of the things such a relationship would indicate about the state of development in that country? What public policies would be appropriate in these circumstances—for example, should agriculture be deemphasized? How might this deemphasis affect food security?

Describe the circumstances that led to support in Europe and the United States for the formation of the state of Israel. Why did the West overlook the Palestinian people in this political undertaking?

Discuss the possibilities that scarcity of water is or will become a cause of violence in the region. What is the evidence against this happening?