GOVT 57 International Relations of East Asia
East Asian international relations have an important impact on global stability and on the security of the United States. North Korea poses a growing nuclear threat and an ongoing risk of political instability. China’s rise is transforming the regional balance of power, and may challenge the post-World War II liberal order created by the United States and its partners. Territorial disputes threaten regional instability and dangerous escalation. This course has three goals: (1) to introduce students to salient issues in East Asian international politics; (2) to situate current events within a historical context, and (3) to provide students with analytic tools to analyze contemporary issues. We begin with an examination of the regional balance of power: what is power, who has it, and how is the balance of power shifting? We then focus on the military relations between key countries, assessing the conventional and nuclear balance of power, and the prospects for stable deterrence. We next move to the realm of ideas, where we explore how history and national identities affect the security strategies of states, and how they affect regional relations. We will then consider the prospects for a “liberal peace” in the region, made possible through increasing economic interdependence and through democratization. The course incorporates a crisis simulation in which students are tasked with representing a country in a significant multinational regional dispute.
Instructor
Lind