This class was an incredible waste of time, and the professor was the worst I've ever had at Columbia.
First of all, he started the course by admitting that the syllabus was SEVERAL YEARS out of date. That's probably when I should've taken a hint and left. He always reminds the class that the emphasis of the course is on current events and the near future, it is NOT about the past. Despite this, at least 75% of the readings are about the DISTANT past. It simply amazes me that as a class which supposedly deals with current events, we barely even mentioned the Arab Spring in class and it wasn't in any of the readings. For a lot of the countries, we didn't even talk about how they changed post 9/11.
The class is broken down into studies of individual countries in the region and their past allies and rivals, resources, geographical features, domestic political system, etc. However, it is almost entirely historical. We did an entire unit on Egypt without mentioning the revolution. Half of the reading we did on Egypt was written before 9/11!!!
Instead of an take-home essay or paper like you would expect for this course level, there is an in-class exam which includes obscure multiple-choice questions from random readings that are designed to trip you up. You really have to read EVERYTHING if you want an A on the exams. And there is a lot of reading.
Despite all the reading, lectures are incredibly boring. Professor Freilich almost never engaged with students, except to shoot them down when anyone's hand popped up. His condescension was overwhelming.
Prof. Freilich seemed to be familiar with the subject, but the way he talked in class was just rambling and pontificating. He was making the kind of assertions that you can get from 24-hours news pundits for free. I could have learned about as much from watching non-stop Fareed Zakaria for a week as I did in this class, maybe more.
The Prof. had literally no idea what was going on in the class concerning tests, papers, deadlines, etc. The TAs made all of the tests. The problem was, the TAs didn't pay attention in class. They were in the back on Facebook so come exam time they just pulled obscure things from the readings, leading to a huge disconnect between what we were "taught" and what we were expected to now.
When asked for tips on the paper, one of the TAs said "Well this is a current events-oriented class, so make it more about current events. It's not a history class, so don't be too historical. Make it more focused towards now."
This was probably the most useless, frustrating class I have ever taken in 3 years at Columbia.