Great Power Politics in the Asia-Pacific Region in the 21st Century

2021/2022

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

3

ECTS credits

Delivered at:

School of Asian Studies

Course type:

Elective course

When:

2 year, 2 module

Instructor

Kozyrev, Vitaly

Course Syllabus

Abstract

This course explores the re-emergence of great power competition in the Asia-Pacific region in the 21 century. It provides the historical and political science perspectives of interactions among the great powers in Asia focusing on great power realignment in the region, the rise of China, and on the great powers' strategies to secure their predominance in regional affairs. Students will have the opportunity to analyze the changing nature of power, examine interactions between the great powers from different theoretical perspectives, and assess the models of great power management in the new condition of multipolarity. Special focus is placed on the prospect of power polarization in the region, and the factors that might further instigate great power rivalry and conflict, or, alternatively, secure stability by means of a new, Asian 'concert of great powers'.

Learning Objectives

• The course deepens students’ understanding of the complex processes in the international system caused by power shifts, strategic rivalry in the age of interdependence, the formation of the new institutional, political, and normative “operational context” of great power politics. Given the new parameters of power and leadership, students familiarize themselves with the ways the major powers in the Asia-Pacific address the challenges of de-globalization and strategic rivalry and secure their influence in a new global order. A comprehensive study of different hegemonic practices and changes in the capitalist system, as well as some political, economic, and historical background of power relations in the Asia-Pacific, will enable students to assess the prospect of U.S.-China rivalry, the role of the other great powers, their strategic choices, and the probability of a new great power concert in the 21st century.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Analyze the repercussions of U.S.-China competition for regional hegemony for the regional and global order.
• Assess the cause and major drivers of the current US-China rivalry and the return of the “geometry” figures and multipolarity in world politics
• Be able to characterize the major traits of the post-Cold War international order and the parameters of the U.S.’s “exit from hegemony,” including its implications for the Asia-Pacific.
• Conduct analytic research, review relevant literature and formulate policy recommendations on the broad range of strategic and political issues related to great power politics.
• Describe the essence of the “soft geopolitics” strategy in the post-liberal era, which is related to the new reality of “de-globalization.”
• Develop awareness of specific great power strategies, which are global in their scope, and critical for the evolution of the international system.
• Evaluate the conflict potential within the international system and some possibilities to mitigate confrontation between the great powers in the Asia-Pacific region.
• Evaluate the recent trends of regionalism, trans-regionalism, and the rise of “civilizational geopolitics.”
• Examine the implications of “economization” of politics on the capacity of the great powers to compete, in the Asia-Pacific region in particular.
• Understand the nature of power and power relations in the era of global power realignment and the rise of Asia, in its theoretical and practical aspects.

Course Contents

• International System, Power, and Leadership in the 21st Century; Crisis of Capitalism and Liberal Hegemony
• Polarity and [Post-Hegemonic] Global Order
• Great Power’s Strategic Choice: Values vs. Interests
• Contending Approaches: The Realist Argument
• Is China a Revisionist Power? Multilateralism and Multipolarity
• A New Concert of the Great Powers?

Assessment Elements

• Class attendance
  0,2 of the final grade
• In-class activity &seminar discussion/contribution
  0,2 of the final grade
• Quizzes@4
  0.2 of the final grade
• Two Essays
  0.4 of the final grade

Interim Assessment

• 2021/2022 2nd module
  0.2 * Quizzes@4 + 0.2 * In-class activity &seminar discussion/contribution + 0.4 * Two Essays + 0.2 * Class attendance

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Acharya, A. V. (DE-588)135575753, (DE-627)567074897, (DE-576)165464003, aut. (2017). After liberal hegemony the advent of a multiplex world order Amitav Acharya.
• Brooks, S. G., & Wohlforth, W. C. (2015). The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers in the Twenty-first Century. International Security, 40(3), 7–53. https://doi.org/10.1162/ISEC_a_00225
• IKENBERRY, G. J. (2018). The end of liberal international order? International Affairs, 94(1), 7–23. https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iix241
• Makarychev, A., & Morozov, V. (2011). Multilateralism, Multipolarity, and Beyond: A Menu of Russia’s Policy Strategies. Global Governance, 17(3), 353–373. https://doi.org/10.1163/19426720-01703006
• Xinbo, W. (2018). China in search of a liberal partnership international order. International Affairs, 94(5), 995–1018. https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiy141
• Yan Xuetong. (2018). Chinese Values vs. Liberalism: What Ideology Will Shape the International Normative Order? Chinese Journal of International Politics, 11(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1093/cjip/poy001

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• China’s rising strategic ambitions in Asia East Asia strategic review editor M.S. Prathibha ; IDSA - Institute for Defence Studies & Analysis. (2018).
• He, B. (2012). A Concert of Powers and Hybrid Regionalism in Asia. Australian Journal of Political Science, 47(4), 677–690. https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2012.732208