East Asian International Relations
Summer 2015
Yul Sohn
Dean and Professor
Graduate School of International Studies
Underwood International College
Yonsei University
NMH #510 & 601
Office hour: Mon 1-2pm, 2:30-3:30pm
Or by appointment
Course Description:
This course is designed to discuss the complex nature of East Asian international order. There is an increased level of economic interdependence across the national economies in East Asia. Such interdependence shapes and constrains national strategies chosen for security. But the ongoing power shift best characterized by a rising China and relatively declining the United States and Japan, is destabilizing the regional security system, even affecting the economic cooperation negatively.
Besides those changes in material structure, East Asia is embedded in ideational structures that present clashes of national identity on the one hand and emerging regional identities on the other. The interpretation of the past concerning Japanese colonialism and war and Japan’s failure to respond to its neighbors’ request that Tokyo recognize and apologize for its colonial past have helped to preserve Korea’s and China’s natural aversion to Japan. Similarly, the latter’s response to the former’s anti-Japanese feelings has been emotionally charged.
This course aims to understand the nature of East Asian international relations that blend and conflate the above three layers of regional characteristics. Key theories and debates in the field of IR and IPE will be employed to examine the political, economic, and cultural contexts in which the region has evolved through the dynamics of division and integration.
Assignments and Grades:
This class is a lecture course with discussion sessions. Formal requirements include:
1. Active class participation.
2. A designated student will identify the key questions surrounding the session's topic, and present a brief that critically assesses the assigned readings, and use this as a basis for raising questions to your colleagues (template for presentation is below).
3. Two exams.
*Exams compose 70% of the course grade. The remaining 30% are earned by class participation and presentation.
Readings:
A reading packet is available for purchase in the copy store. A supplementary reading list will be available at the class homepage (yscec.yonsei.ac.kr).
Class Rules:
1. Missed Classes: You should notify the instructor before the class if, for some reason, you will not be able to attend. Otherwise missed classes three times (or the total number including “excused” absences exceeds five) are F.
2. Late Entries: The penalty of a late entry (10 minutes or more) is equivalent to 1/2 of a missed class.
3. Missed Tests: You should notify the instructor before the exam if, for some reason, you will not be able to make it. Permission will only be given in truly exceptional cases, and make-ups will be scheduled at the instructor’s convenience.
4. Plagiarism: Using someone else’s words or ideas without proper attribution constitutes an offense of plagiarism that is grounds for expulsion.
5. No cellphones/wireless: During class hours, you are neither allowed to turn on cell phones, nor wireless LAN. The penalty of violation is equivalent to that of a late entry.
Course Schedule
1. Introduction to the Course; Theoretical underpinnings of the East Asian international order (6/30, 7/1)
2. Traditional Order: Chinese World Order (7/2,6)
Required:
John Fairbank, “A Preliminary Framework,” in idem ed., Chinese World Order (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973), 1-19.
Zhang Feng. “Rethinking the ‘Tribute System’: Broadening the Conceptual Horizon of Historical East Asian Politics.” Chinese Journal of International Politics. Vol. 2 (2009), pp. 545–574.
3. Japanese Imperial Order (7/7,8)
Required:
Peter Duus, The Abacus and the Sword (Berkeley: University of California 1995), 1-25.
Peter Duus, “Japan’s Wartime Empire: Problems and Issues,” in idem et. al eds., The Japanese Wartime Empire, 1931-1945 (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1996), i-xlvii.
Jeff Kingston, “War Memory and Responsibility” Contemporary Japan: History, Politics and Social Change (2011), pp. 156-173.
4. American Cold-War Order and After (7/9)
Required:
G. John Ikenberry, “America in East Asia: Power, Markets, and Grand Strategy,” in Ellis Krauss and T.J. Pempel eds., Beyond Bilateralism (Stanford 2004), pp. 37-54.
5. The Post-Cold War: Ripe for Rivalry? (7/13)
Required:
Aaron Friedberg, “Ripe for Rivalry: Prospects for Peace in a Multipolar Asia,” International Security 18, 3 (winter 1993).
Christensen, Thomas J., "China, the US-Japan Alliance, and the Security Dilemma in East Asia" in Ikenberry and Mastanduno, International Relations Theory and the Asia Pacific (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003): 23-56.
6. Ripe for Cooperation?: Regionalization and Regionalism(7/14,15)
Required:
Richard Dent, East Asian Regionalism, pp. 39-59, 149-182.
T. J. Pempel, “Race to Connect East Asia,” Asian Economic Policy Review (2006), 236-59.
Mid-term exam (7/16)
7. Competing Regional Architectures: American and Chinese Strategies (7/20,21,22)
Required:
Hilary Clinton, “America’s Pacific Century.” Foreign Policy (2011).
Randall Schweller and Xiaoyu Pu, “After Unipolarity: China’s Vision of International Order,” International Security 36, 1(Summer 2011).
8. Secondary States’ Responses (7/23,27)
Required:
Robert Ross, “Balance of Power Politics and the Rise of China: Accommodation and Balancing in East Asia”, Security Studies 15:3 (July-September 2006), pp. 355-95.
T.J. Pempel, “Back to the Future?: Japan’s Search for a Meaningful Role in the Asia-Pacific,” Asian Perspective (Summer 2015).
9. Does Identity Matter? (7/28,29)
Required:
Yoshiko Nozaki and Mark Seldon, “Textbook Controversy, Nationalism and Historical Memory,” The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus (http://japanfocus.org/-mark-selden/3173)
Acharya, Amitav, “How Ideas Spread: Whose Norms Matter? Norm Localization and Institutional Change in Asian Regionalism” International Organization 58, 2 (spring 2004): 239-275.
10. Contested Economic Order and Wrap-up (8/30, 8/3,4)
Required:
John Ravenhill. 2010. "The 'new East Asian regionalism': A political domino effect." Review of International Political Economy 17(2): 178-209.
Takashi Terada, “The US Struggles in APEC’s Trade Politics: Coalition-Building and Regional Integration in the Asia-Pacific” International Negotiation(2014), 18-1.
Yul Sohn, “The Abe Effect on Korea’s Trade Policy,” Asian Perspective (Summer 2015)
*Template for Presentation
Each student critically summarizes the readings for the class and lead off the subsequent discussion. Presentation should take no more than 15 minutes total.Presenter:
-Go directly to the heart of the analysis and succinctly state the author's questions(or problem consciousness), key arguments, supporting evidence and findings. Do not summarize all the details(!!!).
-Begin your presentation by introducing the topic and tell us why the topic is important(or is not), i.e., practical and theoretical relevance.
-Find factors that explain the outcome and discuss the paper's internal logic and the use of evidence.
-Give us your evaluation(i.e, do you support the author's position?); strengths and weakness; alternatives.
-Close your presentation with a set of questions aiming at the discussion going.
*PPs, OHPs or handouts are useful in helping highlight main points and focus attention on areas for debate.
*If you need more readings for the assigned topic, please let me know.
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