East Asian International Politics/Øst-Asia Internasjonal Politikk

POL1008/POL2011
7.5/15 point course Time: Wednesday, 12:15-14:00
Instructor: Paul Midford Place: D136
Paul.Midford@svt.ntnu.no Review Sessions: Wed., 14:15-16:00
Office Hours: Tuesday, 10:00-12:00 Place: D136
Dragvoll, #10504 Teaching Assistants:
Magnus Rom Jensen
magnus.rom.jensen@gmail.com
Yukiko Takezawa

yt411pkdm@yahoo.co.j

Faglig innhold: Kurset fokuserer hovedsakelig på østasiatisk politikk og samfunn i

tiden etter den kalde krigen, fremveksten av tekno-økonomisk dynamikk i Øst-Asia, den
asiatiske finanskrisen i 1997-1998, fremveksten av regionale multilaterale institusjoner, Øst-
Asia under unipolaritet og krigen mot terrorisme, fremveksten av Kina og dets komplekse
forhold til Japan og USA og de østasiatiske landenes forhold til Europa.

Contents: At the dawn of the 21st century, there are three techno-economic and
strategic cores—Europe, North America and East Asia. Of these, East Asia is the fastest
growing and most dynamic. Although these three regions are of approximately equal
economic size, East Asia is thus pulling ahead. East Asia includes China, the world’s fastest
growing continental economy, Japan, the second or third largest economy, the largest source
of global capital, and a technological leader, South Korea, a technological leader, and
Southeast Asia, a rapidly developing region. East Asia is also becoming increasingly
important militarily. The world’s second and third largest military budgets are to be found in
this region. Increasingly, Asian strategic issues affect even geographically distant great power
relations, including the trans-Atlantic relationship. The issue of whether the EU lifts its arms
embargo against China has risen to the highest levels of trans-Atlantic discourse.

This course will focus on the international relations of this crucial region. It begins
by tracing the legacy of the Sino-Centric tributary system, a relatively hierarchical
international relations system quite different from the anarchical Westphalian system. Then, it
considers the impact of the arrival of Western Imperialism, the rise and fall of Japanese
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Imperialism, and the Cold War. The balance of the course focuses on the post-cold-war
decade of the 1990s, the rise of techno-economic dynamism in East Asia, the Asian Financial
Crisis of 1997-98, the rise of regional multilateral institutions, East Asia under unipolarity and
the War on Terrorism, the rise of China, its complex relations with Japan and the US, China
Japan and more generally, Asia’s, relationship with Europe. The course concludes by
considering several scenarios for Asian regional politics and this region’s place in, impact on,
the global system over the next decade.

Course Requirements: An 8 page mid-term paper (semesteroppgave), graded on a pass-fail

basis, and a written examination. You may write the oppgave and final examination in English or
Norwegian. The final exam is based upon course readings and lectures. The oppgave must use at least four
sources besides assigned readings, and at least two of these must be non-electronic/paper sources. Every
paper must contain citations and a bibliography.

POL2011 Level course: A five-minute in-class book report presentation and a 25

page research paper (semesteroppgave) written in English and oral examination.

*Warning, mid-term papers (semesteroppgaver) are returned on the last of class. Students who do
not attend this class must promptly pickup their semesteroppgaver outside of the ISS kontor,
building 9, level 5, Dragvoll. Failure to do so may have serious consequences for your ability to
receive credit (studiepoeng). I do not email grades.
*Warning: The first course presentation, which is posted on it’ Learning, contains important
information about citation and sourcing requirements for the oppgave. Citation and sourcing
problems are the leading of oppgave failure!
*Warning: It is your responsibility to know what was discussed in class, even if you are absent.

Textbooks:

Michael J. Green, Japan’s Reluctant Realism: Foreign Policy Challenges in an Era

of Uncertain Power, (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001), pp. 1-34, 77-110, 193-286.

Suisheng Zhao, ed., Chinese Foreign Policy: Pragmatism and Strategic Behavior
(M.E. Sharpe, 2004), pp. 3-90, 107-150, 179-206; 224-255, 256-275.

Textbooks available at Bokhandel, Dragvoll Campus

Recommended Reference Works:

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James P. Davis, The Rowman and Littlefield Guide to Writing with Sources (Rowman &

Littlefield, Boulder, 2004, Second Edition). Explains how to properly cite quote,

paraphrase, and use internet sources.

Jonathan Kirshner, ed., Globalization and National Security (London: Routledge,

2006).

(Paper) Kompendium:

John King Fairbank, The Chinese World Order: Traditional China’s Foreign
Relations (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968), pp. 1-19; 112-134, 257-288.

Walter Hatch, “When Strong Ties Fail: U.S.-Japanese Manufacturing Rivalry in

Asia,” in Ellis S. Krauss and T.J. Pempel, eds., Beyond Bilateralism: U.S.-Japan Relations in
the New Asia-Pacific (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004), pp. 154-175. (21 pages)

Christopher W. Hughes, “Japanese policy and the East Asian currency crisis: abject
defeat or quiet victory?” Review of International Political Economy 7, no. 2 (2000), pp. 219-
53.

Peter J. Katzenstein, A World of Regions: Asia and Europe in the American

Imperium (Cornell University Press, September 2005), pp. 104-49.

Paul Midford, “Japan’s Leadership Role in East Asian Security Multilateralism: The
Nakayama Proposal and the Logic of Reassurance,” The Pacific Review, vol. 13, no. 3 (Fall
2000), pp. 367-397. (30 pages)

Adam Segal, “Globalization Is a Double-Edged Sword: Globalization and Chinese

National Security,” Jonathan Kirshner, ed., Globalization and National Security (London:
Routledge, 2006), pp. 293-320.
Jitsuo Tsuchiyama, “From Balancing to Networking: Models of Regional Security in
Asia,” in G. John Ikenberry and Takashi Inoguchi, eds., Reinventing the Alliance: U.S.-Japan
Security Partnership in an Era of Change (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), pp. 43-59.

Suisheng Zhao, Power Competition in East Asia: From the Old Chinese World Order
to Post-Cold War Regional Multipolarity (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997), pp. 185-231.

E- Kompendium:

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Thomas Berger, “The Construction of Antagonism: The History Problem in Japan’s

Foreign Relations,” in G. John Ikenberry and Takashi Inoguchi, eds., Reinventing the
Alliance: U.S.-Japan Security Partnership in an Era of Change (New York: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2003), pp. 63-84.
Linus Hagstrøm, “Relational Power for Foreign Policy Analysis: Issues in Japan’s
China Policy,” European Journal of International Relations 11, no. 3 (2005), pp. 395-430.

Additional POL 2011 Textbooks:

Peter J. Katzenstein, A World of Regions: Asia and Europe in the American

Imperium (Cornell University Press, September 2005), pp. 1-103; 179-200.

Students taking POL2011 must read the Kompendium for both POL1008 and POL2011.

Additional POL 2011 (paper) Kompendium:

Takeshi Hamashita, “The Intra-regional System in East Asia in Modern Times,” in

Peter J. Katzenstein and Takashi Shiraishi, eds., Network Power: Japan and Asia (Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 1997), pp. 113-35.

Saori Katada, “Japan’s Counterweight Strategy: U.S.-Japan Cooperation and

Competition in International Finance,” in Ellis S. Krauss & T.J. Pempel, eds., Beyond
Bilateralism: U.S.-Japan Relations in the New Asia-Pacific (Stanford: Stanford University
Press, 2004), pp. 176-197.

Paul Midford, “China views the revised US-Japan Defense Guidelines: popping the
cork?” International Relations of the Asia-Pacific 4 (2004), pp. 113-45. (32 pages)

Galia Press-Barnathan, “The United States and Regional Security Cooperation in

Asia and Europe,” Security Studies 10, no. 2 (Winter 2000/2001), pp. 49-97.

Richard J. Samuels, “Rich Nation Strong Army” National Security and the
Technological Transformation of Japan (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994), pp. 33-78.

Peter J. Woolley, Japan’s Navy: Politics and Paradox, 1971-2000 (Boulder: Lynn W.
Rienner, 2000), pp. 23-38.

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Suisheng Zhao, “Economic Interdependence and Political Divergence: A Background

Analysis of the Taiwan Strait Crisis,” in Suisheng Zhao, ed., Across the Taiwan Strait:
Mainland China, Taiwan, and the 1995-1996 Crisis (London: Routledge, 1999), pp. 21-40.

Additional POL 2011 E-Kompendium:

Aaron L. Friedberg, “11 September and the Future of Sino-American relations,”

Survival 44, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 33-50.
Linus Hagstrom, “Quiet power: Japan’s China policy in regard to the Pinnacle
Islands,” The Pacific Review 18, no. 2 (June 2005): 159-188.
Christopher Hemmer and Peter J. Katzenstein, “Why is There No NATO in Asia?
Collective Identity, Regionalism, and the Origins of Multilateralism,” International
Organization 56, no. 3 (Summer 2002), pp. 575-607.
Martin Kenney, et. Al., “Scattering Geese: The Venture Capital Industries of East
Asia: A Report to the World Bank” (unpublished ms, June 2002)
Paul Midford, “Japan’s Response to Terror,” Asian Survey 43, no. 2 (March/April
2003), pp. 329-51.

Lecture and Reading Schedule

Week 2 (9 January) (1) Introduction: Why Study East Asia?

Week 3 (16 January) (2) The Sino-Centric Tributary System

Reading: Fairbank, pp. 1-19; 112-34;
Zhao, Chinese Foreign Policy, 128-150
POL2011 Additional Readings: Hamashita
14:15-16:00 Review Session 1: Midford presents on how to
write an oppgave and consults individually with students

Week 4 (23 January) (3) The Arrival of Western Imperialism

And the Rise of Japan
Reading: Fairbank, pp. 257-88.
14:15-16:00 Review Session 2: TAs

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Week 5 (30 January) (4) Japan’s Bid for Empire

Reading: Tsuchiyama, pp. 43-50.
14:15-16:00 Review Session 3: TAs

Week 6 (6 February) (5) Cold War East Asia

Reading: Zhao, Chinese Foreign Policy, pp. 107-127
POL2011 Additional Readings: Press-Barnathan; Hemmer
& Katzenstein (E-kompendium)
14:15-16:00 Review Session 4: TAs

Week 7 (13 February) (6) Decline of Bipolarity in East Asia

Reading: Tsuchiyama, pp. 50-59
POL 2011 Additional Readings: Katzenstein, A World of Regions,
pp. 1-75.

Week 8 (20 February) No Class

Week 9 (27 February) (7) The Post Cold War Decade of The 1990s
Reading: Zhao, Power Competition, pp. 185-210.
Zhao, Chinese Foreign Policy, pp. 140-50
POL2011 Additional Readings: Green, pp. 35-77, 111-192;
Zhao, Chinese Foreign Policy, pp. 91-106; 151-178; 207-223;
Zhao, “Economic Interdependence and Political Divergence,”
pp. 21-40.
14:15-16:00 Review Session 5: TAs

Week 10 (5 March) (8) The Rise of regional Multilateralism

Reading: Green, pp. 193-228; Zhao, Power
Competition, pp. 211-231; Midford, “Japan’s Leadership Role in
East Asian Security Multilateralism,” pp. 367-397.
POL2011 Additional Readings: Zhao, Chinese Foreign Policy,
pp. 297-308; Katzenstein, A World of Regions, pp. 76-103.
14:15-16:00 Review Session 6: TAs

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Week 11 (12 March) Reading Week

Week 12 (19 March) Easter Vacation

Week 13 (26 March) Reading Week

Week 14 (2 April) (9) The Asian Financial Crisis

Reading: Green, pp. 229-68; Hughes, pp. 219-53; Hatch, pp.
154-175; Segal, “Globalization and Chinese National
Security,” pp. 293-320.
POL2011 Additional Readings: Katada, pp. 176-197; Midford,
“Globalization and National Security,” pp. 259-92.

Week 15 (9 April) (10) Unipolarity and the War on Terrorism in East Asia

Reading: Green, pp. 11-34; Zhao, Chinese Foreign

Policy, pp. 256-275; Katzenstein, A World of Regions, pp. 104-48.
POL 2011: Midford, Response to Terror,” Asian Survey 43, no. 2,
pp. 329-51; (E-kompendium) Katzenstein, A World of Regions, pp.
149-200.
14:15-16:00 Review Session 7: TAs

Week 16 (16 April) (11) Guest Lecture: Christopher Dent, University of Leeds:

“East Asian Free Trade Areas (FTAs)”

17 April POL 1008 Semesteroppgaven Innleveringsfrist/

Midterm Paper Deadline (15:00, ISS kontor)

Week 17 (23 April) (12) Historical Memory and Regional Security

Reading: Berger (E-kompendium)

POL2011 Additional Readings: Woolley, pp. 23-38.;

14:15-16:00 Review Session 8: Midford consults individually

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with students

Week 18 (30 April) (13) East Asian models of technological Development

Reading: Suttmeir & Yao, 7-46. (E-kompendium)
POL2011 Additional Readings: Samuels, 33-78;
(E-kompendium), skim.

Week 19 (7 May) (14) East Asia over the next decade: Three Scenarios
Reading: Green, pp. 269-286, Zhao, Chinese Foreign Policy,
pp. 3-90. POL2011 Additional Readings: Zhao, Chinese Foreign
Policy, pp. 276-296.
Hand-back and discuss oppgaver

9 May POL 2011 Semesteroppgaven Innleveringsfrist/

Research Paper Deadline
(15:00, ISS kontor)
Oral Exams scheduled in late May

FINAL EXAM: May 28, 2008