POL 337: ASIA IN WORLD AFFAIRS

The University of Mississippi
Fall 2009, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 13:00 - 14:15, 105 (Tupelo Room) Barnard Observatory
Instructor: Dr. Gang Guo * Office: 128 Deupree Hall * Telephone: (662) 915-5419 * e-mail: gg at olemiss dot edu
Office hours: by appointment

Course Overview

Course Schedule

On-line Resources

BlackBoard

Map of Asia

COURSE OVERVIEW

This course is a general survey of the politics and other aspects of Asia, with an emphasis on the contemporary Pacific Asia. Starting with the general environment of Asia, this course covers the history, politics, and international relations of major Asian powers and discusses the main economic and security issues that concern Asian countries today. By the end of the semester, students are expected

to be familiarized with the international and domestic politics of Asia;
to gain a better understanding of the historical and current developments of Asian countries;
and to apply the concepts and theories to the study of Asia.

All the required readings and lecture notes of this course are available on the Internet through links on this web page or through BlackBoard. Links to the readings and notes will be updated on this web page throughout the semester, and so students are required to visit the course web site regularly.

It is essential for students to read the required materials before class and attend all class sessions. Class participation accounts for 15% of the course grade. Each student is also required to make a brief (about 10 minutes) in-class presentation of a most recent news on Asian politics. The presentation accounts for 10% of the course grade. The presenter should not only tell the class what happened, but also provide some background information to help understand the news story better. After each presentation there will be a short period in which the presenter responds to questions or comments from the audience. For the preparation of the presentation, there are many English-language websites that cover news on Asia. Some of those are linked from the online resources section on this web page.

There will be one writing assignment and two exams for this course. The writing assignment, due on BlackBoard at noon on September 15th, will account for 10% of the course grade. The midterm exam in class on Thursday, October 8, will account for 30% of the course grade. The final exam will start at 16:00 on Tuesday, December 8, as stipulated by the Registrar's Office. It accounts for 35% of the grade.

Notes:

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COURSE SCHEDULE

Month	Date	Day	Asia News Report		Lecture Notes	Required Readings
Month	Date	Day	Presenter	Topic	Lecture Notes	Required Readings
	Part I: Introduction and Context
August	25	Tuesday			Course overview
August	27	Thursday			Physical environment	Borthwick, Mark. 1998. Pacific Century: The Emergence of Modern Pacific Asia, 2nd Edition. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. Pages 1-15.
September	1	Tuesday			Asian people and culture	Major, John S. "Asia Through a Glass Darkly: Stereotypes of Asians in Western Literature", in Focus on Asian Studies, Spring 1986, Volume V, Number 3, Contemporary Literature, pages 4-8. Berling, Judith A. "Confucianism", in Focus on Asian Studies, Fall 1982, Volume II, Number 1, Asian Religions, pages 5-7. Landry, Lionel. "The Migrations of Buddhism", in Focus on Asian Studies, Fall 1982, Volume II, Number 1, Asian Religions, page 20. Lee O-Young. "The Dawn of the Asian Century", in Japan Echo, February 2001, Volume 28, Issue 1, pages 23-28. Chong, Terence. 2002. "Asian Values and Confucian Ethics: Malay Singaporeans' Dilemma", in Journal of Contemporary Asia, Volume 32, Number 3, pages 394-406.
	3	Thursday	Mark Wyatt	South Korea	Asian history	The Tributary System Zheng He and His Voyages The Meiji Restoration and Modernization, in Contemporary Japan: A Teaching Workbook. Columbia University, East Asian Curriculum Project.
	8	Tuesday	Will Pearson	Japan	America in Asia	video
	Part II: Major Powers in Asia
	10	Thursday	Bill Rosenblatt	Taiwan	Major power comparisons	CIA World Factbook
	15	Tuesday	Steven Wolf	China	Japan: postwar history	Japan's Modern History: An Outline of the Period The American Occupation of Japan, 1945-1952. Article 9 and the U.S. Japan Security Treaty.
	17	Thursday	Collin Steele	Taiwan	Japan: politics	See BlackBoard.
	22	Tuesday	Richard Whitehouse	Japan	Korea: postwar history	Eckert, Carter J. 1990. Korea's Economic Development in Historical Perspective, 1945-1990.
	24	Thursday			Korea: politics	Executive Branch, Legislature, and Foreign Direct Investment, from Korean Government Homepage.
	29	Tuesday	Jim Miller	Japan	China: postwar history	Background Note: China
October	1	Thursday	Ben Couch	South Korea	China: politics	Background Note: China
	6	Tuesday	Greg Mckie	North Korea	Taiwan & Hong Kong	The ROC in Brief, Sun Yat-sen (Founding Father), Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang Ching-kuo, Lee Teng-hui, from the ROC President's Office in Taiwan. ROC Government Organization, from the ROC President's Office in Taiwan. Chan, Ming K. 2003. "Different Roads to Home: The Retrocession of Hong Kong and Macau to Chinese Sovereignty". Journal of Contemporary China, Volume 12, Number 36, August, pages 493-518.
	8	Thursday			Midterm Exam	All of the above.
	13	Tuesday	Benton Musgrove	Russia & China	Chinese overseas	Cheung, Gordon C.K. "Involuntary Migrants, Political Revolutionaries and Economic Energisers: a history of the image of overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia", in Journal of Contemporary China, Volume 14, Number 42, February 2005, pages 55-66. Wang, Gungwu. "Greater China and the Chinese Overseas", in The China Quarterly, Number 136, December 1993, pages 926-948.
	15	Thursday	Shane Bennett	North Korea	Southeast Asia: postwar history	Borthwick, Mark. 1998. Pacific Century: The Emergence of Modern Pacific Asia, 2nd Edition. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. Pages 323-350. Timeline of Postwar Southeast Asia, by Gang Guo.
	20	Tuesday	Cooper Reves	China	Southeast Asia: politics	Beeson, Mark. "Southeast Asia and the Politics of Vulnerability", in Third World Quarterly, Volume 23, Number 3, June 2002, pages 549-564.
	22	Thursday	Jessica Moeller	China	Indian politics	Wide Angle series: 1-800-India.
	Part III: Economy and Security
	27	Tuesday	Brendan McEneaney	Tibet	Economic "miracles"	Krugman, Paul. "The Myth of Asia's Miracle" and Letters to the Editor, in Foreign Affairs, November/December 1994, pages 62-78, and March/April 1995, pages 170-177.
	29	Thursday	Jay Patrick Marlar	ASEAN	Asian financial crisis	Rigg, Jonathan. "Of miracles and crises: (re-)interpretation of growth and decline in East and Southeast Asia", in Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Volume 43, Number 2, August 2002.
November	3	Tuesday	Kim Hardin	Afghanistan	US-China relations	U.S. Department of State. "US-China Relations."
	5	Thursday	Candace Mays	Malaysia	US-China economic issues	Caren Bohan, Paul Eckert, and Simon Rabinovitch. 2009. "Obama plays China card, but who holds the ace?" Reuters, November 4.
	10	Tuesday			PRC-Japan relationship	Zhao Quansheng. "China and Major Power Relations in East Asia," in Journal of Contemporary China, November 2001, Volume 10, Issue 29, pages 663-681.
	12	Thursday	Jason Vuchinich	Japan	US-Southeast Asia relations	Jamil Maidan Flores and Jun Abad. 1998. The Founding of ASEAN. Chapter 1 in ASEAN at 30.
	17	Tuesday	Jonathan Weaver		APEC	APEC Secretariat. "About APEC" and "History." McKay, John. "APEC: Successes, Weaknesses, and Future Prospects", in Southeast Asian Affairs, 2002, pages 42-53.
	19	Thursday	John Lowery		security environment in Pacific Asia	Scobell, Andrew and Larry M. Wortzel. The Asia-Pacific in the U.S. National Security Calculus for a New Millennium, March 2000. Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College.
December	1	Tuesday	Kelsey Campbell		democratization in Asia	Root, Hilton L. "What Democracy Can Do for East Asia", in Journal of Democracy, Volume 13, Number 1, January 2002, pages 113-126.
	3	Thursday	Bentley Nolan		Asia's political future	James C. Hsiung, "Pacific Asia in the Twenty-first Century World Order", in Asian Affairs, an American Review, Summer 2002, Volume 29, Issue 2, pages 99-115.
					Final Exam	All of the above since the Midterm Exam.

On-line Resources

Reuters
CNN Asia
BBC Asia-Pacific
The Economist
Fox News
Financial Times
New York Times-Asia Pacific news
Asia Wall Street Journal
South China Morning Post
Asia Source
People's Daily
China Internet Information Center
China Radio International
The Japan Times online
Asahi Shinbun
Korean Government Homepage
Embassy of the People's Republic of China, in Washington D.C.
Embassy of Japan, in Washington D.C.
Embassy of the Republic of Korea, in Washington D.C.
Embassy of India, in Washington D.C.
Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, U.S. Department of State.
Embassy of the United States of America, in Beijing.
Embassy of the United States of America, in Tokyo.
Embassy of the United States of America, in Seoul.
Embassy of the United States of America, in New Delhi.