14128

SoSe 22: East Asia in World Politics

Daniela Claus-Kim

Comments

The primary objective of this course is to provide students with critical perspectives of various issues related to international relations of East Asia. Geographically, this course explores international relations of three East Asian countries, China, Japan, and Korea. Topics include national security, foreign policy, regional economic governance, civilizational/modernity politics, nuclear North Korea, Japan's recent military build-up, and power transition of the U.S. and China. Examining these various topics, the central thematic focus of this course is on explicating the question of how these East Asian countries have coped with the West (Western values, power, economy, and so on) since the European expansion in the nineteenth century that broke apart China-centered East Asian world order: they aspired to be like the West; they negated the West; and they challenged the West. And this issue of how to deal with the West still continues and will continue into the foreseeable future. In so doing, this course is historically oriented as reflective of a Chinese proverb, “By searching the old, learn the new.” We would understand contemporary issues much better when we are able to historically contextualize them. As such, contemporary issues will be interdisciplinarily analyzed with historical sensitivities. close