International Relations of Southeast Asia

This class examines the international politics of Southeast Asia from a systems perspective. As secondary states geographically located in an area of great power interest, Southeast Asian countries have traditionally operated in an international system in which the rules of the game were largely written by great powers. These rules in turn, create the context within which Southeast Asian states operate. This course explores how and why Southeast Asia evolved from a region of Western colonies to Cold War dominoes and later to one of economic dynamos. It then examines the Asian Financial Crisis of 1.997 changes in the balance of power between the United States, China and Japan, and the rise of transnational challenges such as terrorism, environmental challenge and pandemic disease The course attempts to determine how these contemporary events affect the ability of Southeast Asian countries to pursue key political, economic, and security interests, both individually and collectively through regional institutions such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the ASEAN Regional forum, and the East Asian Summit