This course will initially focus strongly on the relations among the region's major powers: the United States, China, Japan, India and Russia. It will also briefly cover Southeast Asia (ASEAN). Four other key issue-areas will inevitably shape the future of the Asian security environment. These include: (1) the regional ‘flash points' of the Korean peninsula, Taiwan, Kashmir and the South China Sea; (2) alliance politics; (3) the future of Asian ‘institutionalism'; and (4) the question of ‘trans-regional' or ‘human' security. A fundamental objective of the course is to assist students in acquiring the intellectual skills required to become more proficient analysts of regional security challenges. It is also designed to facilitate the application of major international relations theoretical approaches (especially realism and liberal-institutionalism) for better understanding and dealing with these trends.

• To cultivate students' appreciation for the key dynamics shaping major strategic changes in Asia-Pacific security politics and evolving regional order-building ;
• To build conceptual understandings by integrating (where appropriate) theoretical and empirical perspectives about why and how key Asia-Pacific actors (state-centric, institutional and individual) shape their regional security behaviour;
• To identify and assess those issue-areas most likely to shape or drive Asia-Pacific security politics over the next decade and beyond;
• To assess the growing importance of so-called 'non-traditional security' problems within the general Asia-Pacific security context; and
• To evaluate important factors of conflict escalation and conflict resolution as they affect the region's overall geopolitical landscape.

8 hours per week: two for seminar attendance, and six for reading and writing. Please note this is a general guide, averaged over the semester and the final hours ultimately depend on the individual's ability in reading and writing.

Delivery Mode:

Semester 1, 2009; delivered on campus, using a mix of lecture sessions, small group session, skills-training and research support workshops for 12-unit students.