Description
This course takes the students on a journey to explore the dynamics that make the Asia-Pacific region tick. Specifically, the aim of this course is to provide students with a Masters level knowledge of the contemporary political, security and trade issues in the Asia Pacific region. First, this module module will cover key processes and factors such as the interests and role of the US; the sources of bilateral and intra-regional conflict; the impact of the legacy of colonialism and external intervention; patterns of regionalism, regionalisation and regional institutions in the Asia-Pacific region; and the rise of China. Next, the course covers principal dynamics of the Asia-Pacific security and trade region from the Cold War to the present, by focusing in particular upon three interconnected and cumulative processes which are approximately congruent with three overlapping historical periods: decolonisation, bipolarisation and globalisation; and questions of the imposition of Western norms of political and economic organisation within state-building projects and across the region and specifically in South-East Asia. Third, throughout the course, methods and conceptual tools in the study of International Relations, International Political Economy and International Security will be utilised in order to understand the complexities of the politics of the region.