Geopolitics of Asia-Pacific - ZIP 2100-MON-GAPA-ZIP
One of the most influential developments in international relations since the end of the Cold War has been the predominantly peaceful rise of the Asia-Pacific as the world’s most economically dynamic region. As momentum builds for reconceptualization of the region as the Indo-Pacific, new geo-political challenges threaten the balance between hitherto complementary economic and security drivers of regional stability, especially in the realm of great power politics. This course analyses the shifting geo-politics of an emerging mega-region, with emphasis on the grand strategies of great powers and associated implications for other regional actors. It focuses especially on the competing merits of realist, liberal and constructivist explanations for the varying strategic responses to the region’s changing geo-politics. The course also evaluates which international relations theories can best explain the more general dynamics of regional order-building in a new Indo-Pacific framework—a process whose outcome has comparative implications for regional order-building elsewhere as well as global implications for the current American-led liberal world order.
Type of course
Learning outcomes
Students who pass this course will be able to:
1. Understand the major forces driving the geo-politics of the Asia-Pacific and the region’s reconceptualization as the Indo-Pacific
2. Analyse the grand strategies of the region’s major powers and the responses of other actors to the changing geo-political contours of the emerging Indo-Pacific mega-region
3. Evaluate and apply the major theoretical and conceptual tools available to understand the region’s shifting international relations
4. Critically assess the general process of regional order-building from both theoretical and policy-orientated perspectives
5. Analyse the connections between Asia-Pacific security dynamics and economic interactions
6. Enhance their research, writing and analytical skills by completing assignments on themes pertaining to the geo-politics of the Asia-Pacific
Assessment criteria
Assessment items and workload per item (% )
1) Research essay (2,500 to 3,000 words) - 70%, Due date - 24 April 2020
2) Final test - 30%, Due date - 4 May 2020
Practical placement
n/a
Bibliography
Lecture Schedule
Week 1
25 February
Lecture Introduction: Conceptualising the Asia-Pacific and its evolution as a strategically contested region
General background reading for course
Amitav Acharya, “Thinking Theoretically about Asian IR” in David L. Shambaugh and Michael B. Yahuda, eds., International Relations of Asia 2nd Ed. (2014), 62-85
Alice Lyman Miller and Richard Wich, Becoming Asia: Change and Continuity in Asian International Relations since World War II (2011)
David L. Shambaugh and Michael B. Yahuda, eds., International Relations of Asia, 2nd ed. (2014)
Odd Arne Westad, The Cold War: A World History (2017)
Michael Yahuda, International Politics of the Asia-Pacific (2011)
Week 2
3 March
Lecture From preponderance to strategic competition: The United States and its alliance system in challenging times
Suggested readings
Nicholas D. Anderson and Victor D. Cha, “The Case of the Pivot to Asia: System Effects and the Origins of Strategy”, Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 134, No. 4 (Winter 2017) 595+
Benjamin Carlson, “Why China Loves Trump: The People Love A Winner. The Leadership Loves A Dupe”, The Atlantic (March 2018), 46-50
Victor D. Cha, “Powerplay: Origins of the U.S. Alliance System in Asia”, International Security, Vol.34, No. 3 (Winter 2010), 158-196
Kurt M. Campbell and Ely Ratner, “The China Reckoning: How Beijing Defied American
Expectations”, Foreign Affairs, Vol 97, No. 2 (March/April 2018), 60+
Timothy R. Heath and William R. Thompson, “Avoiding U.S.-China Competition is Futile: Why the Best Option is to Manage Strategic Rivalry,” Asia Policy 13:2 (2018)
Andrew B. Kennedy and Darren J. Lim, “The Innovation Imperative: Technology and US-China Rivalry in the Twenty-First Century,” International Affairs 94:3 (2018).
Evan Braden Montgomery, “Contested Primacy in the Western Pacific: China’s Rise and the Future of U.S. Power Projection,” International Security 38:4 (2014): 115-149
Wang Jisi et al., “Did America Get China Wrong?” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 97, No. 2 (July/August 2018), https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2018-06-14/did-america-get-china-wrong
William Wohlforth, “Not Quite the Same as it Ever Was: Power Shifts and Contestation Over the American-Led World Order,” in Asle Toje, ed., Will China’s Rise be Peaceful? The Rise of a Great Power in Theory, History, Politics, and the Future (2018)
Week 3
10 March
Lecture The dragon in the room: China’s rise and its regional impact
Suggested readings
Amitav Acharya, “Power Shift or Paradigm Shift? China’s Rise and Asia’s Emerging Security Order,” International Studies Quarterly 58:1 (2014): 158-173
Graham Allison, Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? (2017)
Ian Buruma, “Dance with the Dragon”, The New Yorker, June 19, 2017, 61+
Isabel Hilton, “When China rules the world”, Prospect Magazine, May 14, 2108, https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/when-china-rules-the-world
Charles Glaser, “A U.S.-China Grand Bargain? The Hard Choice Between Military Competition and Accommodation,” International Security Volume 39, Issue 4 (2015): 49-90.
G. John Ikenberry, “The Rise of China and the Future of Liberal World Order”, The C. Douglas Dillon Lecture, Chatham House, 7 May 2014, https://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/files/field/field_document/20140507RiseofChina.pdf
Jack S. Levy, ‘Power Transition Theory and the Rise of China,’ in Robert S. Ross and Zhu Feng, eds., China’s Ascent: Power, Security, and the Future of International Politics (2008), 11-33
John J. Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics Updated Edition (2014), Chapter 10, “Can China Rise Peacefully”
Jonathan D. Pollack, ‘Competing Visions: China, America, and the Asia-Pacific Security Order,’ in Jacques deLisle and Avery Goldstein, eds., China’s Global Engagement: Cooperation, Competition, and Influence in the 21st Century (2017)
Robert S. Ross, “On the Fungibility of Economic Power: China’s Economic Rise and the East Asian Security Order,” European Journal of International Relations -- https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066118757854
M. Taylor Fravel, “Shifts in Warfare and Party Unity: Explaining China’s Changes in Military Strategy,” International Security 42:3 (2017/18)
Suisheng Zhao, “Rethinking the Chinese World Order: The Imperial Cycle and the Rise of China,” Journal of Contemporary China 24:96 (2015)
Week 4
17 March
Lecture In China’s shadow: Northeast Asia and its challenges
Suggested readings
Robert Ayson and Manjeet S. Pardesi, “Asia’s Diplomacy of Violence: China-US Coercion and Regional Order,” Survival Volume 59, Issue 2 (2017): 85-124
Michael Beckley, “The Emerging Military Balance in East Asia: How China’s Neighbors Can Check Chinese Naval Expansion,” International Security 42:2 (2017)
Brahma Chellaney, “Japan’s Pivotal Role in the Emerging Indo-Pacific Order”, Asia-Pacific Review, Vol. 25, No. 1 (January 2018), 38-51
Kim Sung Chull and Michael D. Cohen, eds., North Korea and Nuclear Weapons (2017)
Rosemary Foot, “Power Transitions and Great Power Management: Three Decades of China-Japan-US Relations,” The Pacific Review 30 (2017)
Bonnie S. Glaser and Oriana Skylar Mastro, “The Big Winner of the Singapore Summit: How China Ended Up Getting the Best Deal”, Foreign Affairs, June 15, 2018, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2018-06-15/big-winner-singapore-summit
Evelyn Goh, “East Asia as Regional International Society: The Problem of Great Power Management,” in Barry Buzan and Yongjin Zhang, eds., Contesting International Society in East Asia (2014)
Eric Heginbotham and Richard J. Samuels, “Active Denial: Redesigning Japan’s Response to China’s Military Challenge,” International Security 42:4 (2018)
Robert Jervis and Mira Rapp-Hopper, “Perception and Misperception on the Korean Peninsula: How Unwanted Wars Begin”, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 97 No. 3 (May-June 2018), 103-117
Patrick Morgan, “North Korea and Nuclear Weapons: Nonproliferation or Deterrence? Or Both?” in Kim Sung Chull and Michael D. Cohen, eds., North Korea and Nuclear Weapons (2017)
Robert S. Ross and Øystein Tunsjø, eds., Strategic Adjustment and the Rise of China: Power and Politics in East Asia (2017)
Yoshihide Soeya, “The Rise of China in Asia: Japan at the Nexus,” in Asle Toje, ed., Will China’s Rise be Peaceful? The Rise of a Great Power in Theory, History, Politics, and the Future (2019)
Philip Zelikow, “How Diplomacy with North Korea Can Work: A Narrow Focus on Denuclearization Is the Wrong Strategy”, Foreign Affairs, July 9, 2018,
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/north-korea/2018-07-09/how-diplomacy-north-korea-can-work?cid=int-lea&pgtype=hpg
Week 5
24 March
Lecture The Balancer: Is India really looking and acting East?
Suggested readings
Pinak Chakravarty, “India’s Changing Global Priorities and the Act East Policy”,
Indian Foreign Affairs Journal, Vol. 13, No. 1, (January-March 2018), 51-61
Sumit Ganguly, “The Nuclear Gyre in South Asia and Beyond,” Policy Brief 29, APLN CNND, February 2017, available: http://apln.org/briefings/briefings_view/Policy_Brief_29_-_The_Nuclear_Gyre_in_South_Asia_and_Beyond?ckattempt=1
C. Raja Mohan, Modi's World: Expanding India's Sphere of Influence (2015)
C. Raja Mohan, “Remapping India’s geopolitics”, Seminar, available at:
http://www.india-seminar.com/2018/701/701_c_raja_mohan.htm
Manjeet S. Pardesi, “American Global Primacy and the Rise of India,” Asia Pacific Issues 129, March 2017
Manjeet S. Pardesi, “Is India a Great Power? Understanding Great Power Status in Contemporary International Relations,” Asian Security 11:1 (2015)
T. V. Paul and Mahesh Shankar, “Status Accommodation Through Institutional Means: India’s Rise and the Global Order,” in T. V. Paul, Deborah Welch Larson, and William C. Wohlforth, eds., Status in World Politics (2014)
Xiaoyu Pu, “Ambivalent Accommodation: Status Signalling of a Rising India and China’s Response,” International Affairs 93:1 (2017)
Jakub Zajączkowski, Jivanta Schottli and Manish Thapa, eds., India in the Contemporary World: Polity, Economy and International Relations (2014)
Week 6
31 March
Lecture Southeast Asia’s contested role in Asia-Pacific geo-politics
Suggested readings
Amitav Acharya, “Doomed by Dialogue: Will ASEAN Survive Great Power Rivalry in Asia?” in Gilbert Rozman and Joseph Chinyong Liow, eds., International Relations and Asia’s Southern Tier: ASEAN, Australia, and India (2018)
Donald K. Emmerson, “Mapping ASEAN's futures”, Contemporary Southeast Asia vol.39, no. 2 (Aug. 1, 2017), 280+
Tang Siew Mun, “Is ASEAN Due for a Makeover”, Contemporary Southeast Asia, Vol. 39, No, 2 (August 2017), 239+
Kei Koga, “ASEAN’s Evolving Institutional Strategy: Managing Great Power Politics in South China Sea Disputes,” The Chinese Journal of International Politics 11:1 (2018)
R. M Marty Natalegewa, “The expansion of ASEAN and the changing dynamics of Southeast Asia”, Contemporary Southeast Asia vol.39, no. 2 (Aug. 1, 2017), 232+
David Shambaugh, “U.S.-China Rivalry in Southeast Asia: Power Shift or Competitive Coexistence,” International Security 42:4 (2018)
Robert Yates, “ASEAN as the ‘Regional Conductor’: Understanding ASEAN's role in Asia-Pacific Order”, The Pacific Review, Vol. 30, No. 4 (July 2017), 443-461
Week 7
21 April
Lecture Balancers or pawns: Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands
Suggested readings
Robert Ayson, “New Zealand’s Response,” in William T. Tow and Douglas Stuart, eds., The New US Strategy Towards Asia (2015)
Anne-Marie Brady, “New Zealand the CCP’s “Magic Weapons”,” Journal of Democracy 29: 2 (2018)
Michael J. Green, Peter J. Dean, Brendan Taylor, and Zack Cooper, “The ANZUS Alliance in an Ascending Asia,” The Centre of Gravity Series, Strategic & Defence Studies Centre, July 2015, available: http://sdsc.bellschool.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/publications/attachments/2015-12/COG_%2323_Web_4.pdf
Hugh White, “Old Friends in the New Asia: New Zealand, Australia, and the Rise of China,” in Robert G. Patman, Iati Iati, Balazs Kiglics, eds., New Zealand and the World: Past, Present and Future (2018)
Jason Young, “Seeking ontological security through the rise of China: New Zealand as a small trading nation,” The Pacific Review 30:4 (2017).
Week 8
28 April
Lecture From Asia-Pacific to Indo-Pacific: An emerging mega-region and its strategic challenges
Suggested readings
Mark Beeson and Troy Lee-Brown, “The Future of Asian Regionalism: Not What It Used to Be”, Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies, Vol. 4, No. 2 (May 2017), 195-206
David Brewster, “A Contest for Status and Legitimacy in the Indian Ocean,” in David Brewster, ed., India and China at Sea: Competition for Naval Domination in the Indian Ocean (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2018)
Kei Koga, “Redirecting Strategic Focus in the Age of the Indo-Pacific”, Comparative Connections, Vol. 20, No. 1 (May 2018), 129-137
Rohan Mukherjee, “Japan’s Strategic Outreach to India and the Prospects of a Japan-India Alliance,” International Affairs, available: https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiy030
Jeff M. Smith, “Unpacking the Free and Open Indo-Pacific”, 14 March 2018, War on the Rocks website, https://warontherocks.com/2018/03/unpacking-the-free-and-open-indo-pacific/
Michael Swaine, “Creating an Unstable Asia: the U.S. ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’ Strategy”, 2 March 2018, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace website,
http://carnegieendowment.org/2018/03/02/creating-unstable-asia-u.s.-free-and-open-indo-pacific-strategy-pub-75720
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: