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NSW Curriculum
NSW Education Standards Authority

11–12Modern History 11–12 Syllabus

Record of changes
Implementation from 2027
Expand for detailed implementation advice

Content

Year 12

Peace and conflict

Students investigate key features of the history of ONE of the following options in Peace and conflict.

The historical concepts and skills content is to be integrated as appropriate.

  • Conflict in Europe 1935–1945
  • Conflict in the Pacific 1937–1951
  • The Cold War 1945–1991
  • The Arab–Israeli conflict 1948–2000
  • Conflict in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos 1954–1976
  • Conflict in the Gulf 1980–2017
Conflict in the Gulf 1980–2017
Context
  • The regime of Saddam Hussein

  • Reasons for the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990

The First Gulf War and its consequences
  • The reaction of neighbouring Gulf states, the United States and the United Nations to the invasion

  • Operation Desert Shield, Operation Desert Storm, and the liberation of Kuwait: the nature of warfare, strategies and tactics

  • The 1991 uprisings in Iraq and developments in Iraqi Kurdistan

  • The aims and outcomes of sanctions against Iraq

The road to war
  • The 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration, the doctrine of ‘pre-emptive’ military action, weapons of mass destruction and the role of oil

  • Opposition to, and support for, the war, including in Australia

From war to ‘insurgency’
  • Operation Iraqi Freedom: combat operations and the establishment of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA)

  • The impact of Operation Iraqi Freedom on civilians

  • The impact of regionalism, sectarianism and tribalism on nation-building

  • Operation New Dawn and US troop withdrawal

  • The rise and fall of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Iraq

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