East Asia and the International
System
East Asia and the International System
• The aim of this module is to understand the rise of the East
Asian region through analysing the interconnections between
development and geopolitics. The module adopts a political
economy approach beginning with an examination of the
legacies of European and Japanese imperialism and the
subsequent role of post-war US hegemony and Cold War
politics in shaping development across the region. It also
examines the nature of the post-Cold War era for East Asia.
The module also critically examines various theoretical
frameworks and debates concerning late development,
including realist IR theory, neoclassical development theory,
state institutionalism, and theories of imperialism. The
module thereby provides a unique means with which to
examine contemporary shifts in the distribution of global
power.
Seminars 1-3
• Week 1 – Introduction. What were the legacies of the 19th century
meeting of East and West? How did the experience of Japanese
imperialism shape subsequent post-war developments?
• Week 2 – The Cold War and the Rise of US hegemony in East Asia. This
seminar explores the global conjuncture at the end of the Second World
War. It provides an overview of the origins of East Asian capitalism and
the immediate role of the US in shaping the post-war East Asian order.
• Week 3 –Northeast Asian National Developmentalism. This seminar
involves a critical examination of dominant explanations of East Asian
industrialisation. This will involve an examination of the distinctive
institutions of the Japanese, Taiwanese and South Korean states, such as
the state-bank-business nexus, within the context of the Cold War.
Seminars 4-7
•
Week 4 – Southeast Asia’s Dependent Development. From a comparative
perspective, to what extent does the experience of Malaysia, Thailand and
Indonesia resemble that of the Northeast Asian? What are the legacies of British
colonialism as opposed to Japanese? What are the implications for the
development-geopolitics nexus?
•
Week 5 – Chinese ‘Market Socialism.’ This seminar provides an overview of
China’s post-1978 development. To what extent does China resemble the East
Asian ‘miracle’ states? This seminar will also examine the effect that China’s
development has on the East Asian regional system.
•
Week 6 – Tutorial Week
•
Week 7 – Labour and Capital in East Asia. To what extent have workers been
affected by wider geopolitical and developmental experiences, and how in turn
have they shaped them? What is the relationship between political
authoritarianism and late development?
Seminars 8-10
•
Week 8 – The East Asian Financial Crisis. Was the East Asian crisis caused by
factors internal to the East Asian countries, i.e. crony capitalism and the “highdebt” model? Or was the crisis a consequence of “globalisation” and particularly
of financial liberalisation? Furthermore, in the context of the global spread of
neoliberalism, have East Asian states seen a process of convergence towards
neoliberal forms or does considerable diversity still exist in the region?
•
Week 9 – Market Socialism in Vietnam and North Korea. In this session, we
compare the experiences of transition in Vietnam and North Korea and try to
understand their divergence in terms of their differing geopolitical contexts. We
will also situate their reform experiences in the context of their distinctive patterns
of state –society relations.
•
Week 10 – East Asian Regionalism. In the first decade of the 21st century, does the
proliferation of regional institutions in East Asia signify an attempt to marginalise
the political influence of the US? What are the barriers to EU-style regional
community?
Seminars 11 & 12
• Week 11 – Dissertation Supervision
• Week 12 – China, the US, and the Future of Global
Hegemony. What are the implications of the current global
financial crisis for China’s rise? To what extent can China’s
engagement with the developing world can be seen as a case
of ‘south-south’ solidarity or does China’s global search for
resources represent a ‘new imperialism’? Is a ‘Beijing
Consensus’ emerging and to what extent does China’s rise
provide a new alterative to the neoliberal Washington
Consensus. Does the crisis signify the decline of US global
power and an opportunity for China to exercise
leadership/hegemony globally?
• By the end of the course, a successful student should be able to:
– Identify core themes and various approaches to understanding East
Asian IR/IPE.
– Relate empirical practices to theoretical accounts of IR and
development.
– Conduct a theoretically and empirically informed study of a theme in
East Asia.
• Seminars will be based on a combination of short lectures by the
seminar leader and student-centred discussion..
• The module is assessed by a 5000 word term paper on a topic of
the student’s choice, though this must relate to the themes covered
in the seminars.