Anna Kuteleva

POSSIBLE TOPICS FOR 2020-2021

• China's relations with petrotates (e.g. Saudi Arabia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Venezuela)
• China's national oil companies and China's international image 
• Popular culture as a political medium: East Asian international relations in popular culture 

• China's Belt and Road Initiative: New geopolitical narratives

• China's Belt and Road Initiative and Arctic Policy 

• Perceptions of renewable energy resources in East Asia (comparative analysis)

2020-2021

State and Society in East Asia

This is a required course for Politics and Economics in Asia, the HSE-KIC double degree program.

This advanced undergraduate course provides a comprehensive introduction to East Asian politics. The first part (Module I) highlights East Asia as a region, focusing on shared historical memories, cultural values, and patterns of state-building. The second section (Module II) examines institutional arrangements, political development, and state-society relations in China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.

The emphasis in this course pivots on understanding of conceptual issues that are anchored in politics of China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan but that are generally relevant to comparative politics. Specifically, we will explore these and related questions:

• How do nation-states form, and how are they held together?
• What is development?
• What would be the optimal way to design institutions in a democracy?
• How do authoritarian regimes survive?
• How can political institutions and policies shift deeply held cultural attitudes in society?

While comparative in nature, the course will also emphasize paired comparisons of recent country-level developments (i.e., South and North Korea, China and Taiwan).

East Asian International Relations

This is a required course for Politics and Economics in Asia, the HSE-KIC double degree program.

This course examines contemporary developments in international relations in the East Asia. With four great powers, three nuclear weapons states and two of the world's largest economies, East Asia is one of the most dynamic and consequential regions in world politics. In the post-Cold War era, the region has been an engine of the global economy while undergoing a major shift in the balance power whose trajectory and outcome remain uncertain. This course will examine the sources of conflict and cooperation in East Asia, assessing competing explanations for key events in East Asia's international relations.

The course is divided into two parts. The first part of the course (Module I) focuses on developing a general “toolkit” which we will further use to explain the dynamic and complexity of East Asian politics. We will critically engage with the major IR theories and debates. In the second part (Module II), the focus shifts to historical and contemporary patterns of relations among East Asian nations, histories of war and the politics of history and historical memory related to them, security alliances in East Asia, China’s rise, regional nuclear and missile diplomacy, territorial disputes, regional multilateral institutions, environmental challenges and energy security, and human rights.

For the purposes of this course, East Asia is defined as the region encompassing China, Japan, and Korea. We will also discuss the role of the United States and Russia in the region, since both countries have been extensively involved in the region since the 1850s. We may make occasional reference to India and Southeast Asian countries, but the subcontinent and the larger Asia Pacific region are not a primary focus of this course.

Global Agenda

This is a required course for Economics, politics and business in Asia, the HSE-KIC double degree MA program.

The end of the Cold War and the galloping developments in communication and transportation virtually removed the ideological and physical barriers that had separated the nations and societies. It may appear that the much touted ‘global village’ has finally come around, but this community still faces several problems, old and new.

This course introduces the students to the most salient issues facing the global community. Starting with the time‐old problems of security and economic well‐being, this course explores new issues related to globalization. It pays particular attention to three types of issues: (1) the trans‐boundary problems deriving from cross-border movements of culture, capital, labor, and people; (2) the common property problem such as management of water resources or climate change (3) problems that rapidly spill over from one region to another, including recession, inflation, food security, and global public health.

We will consider answers to these and related questions:

• What are the contending definitions of globalization?
• Why is everyone arguing about trade agreements?
• What is neoliberalism, what is modern, and what is traditional?
• What does it mean to be a world citizen?
• What is the political impact of global epidemics?
• How has globalization changed gender roles?