Department of Government, The University of West Indies at Mona

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GT37M

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GT37M - Contemporary Issues in
International Relations

Course Outline & Schedule

Module 1: Terrorism

“One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.”

“‘Terrorist’ is a useful name for anyone you don’t like.”

Though in 2004 the immediate, or at least mainstream connotation of a terrorist is according to a US-defined notion of a fundamentalist Islamic jihadist, whether in the form of Al Qaeda, Iraqi anti-occupation fighters, or Palestinian anti-Israel militants, the term “terrorist” has been used for centuries to describe any premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents. We will consider both the historical and the contemporary mainstream dimensions of tourism in this module. More specifically, we will cover:

General overview of the topic – definition of terms, historical bases, possible theoretical frameworks.
The US-led War on Terror.
FILM “The Terrorist”
How the issue relates to the Caribbean – Jamaica’s anti-terrorism legislation, Patriot Act. Guest lecture to be confirmed.

Module 2: China

Is China the next world superpower? What would a world with a Chinese hegemon be like? More than 50 years of American dominance in Asia is subtly but unmistakably eroding as Asian countries look toward China as the increasingly vital regional power. China 's churning economic engine, along with trade deals and friendly diplomacy in the region, a broad public diplomacy thrust as witnessed by the staging of events such as the Olympics and even the Miss World beauty pageant, and a subtle but potentially inflammatory rivalry with Taiwan in the developing world, are transforming its international relations. In this module we will cover:

Relevant theoretical issues including determinants of power in the international system, an overview of Chinese history, military expenditure, trade, economic growth.
Contemporary Chinese issues in mainstream IR.
FILM “To Live”
China and the Caribbean; Taiwan-China struggle for recognition. Guest lecture to be confirmed.

Module 3: The Environment

Hurricane Ivan in September 2004 reminded the Caribbean of the region’s susceptibility to environmental disasters. However, similar environmental threats are present throughout the world, particularly if the predictions of global warming are to be taken seriously. This module will review environmental and natural resource depletion problems facing international society. It will trace the emergence of environmental issues in international politics and examine international responses to global environmental problems, within the structures and processes of the international system. We will cover:

Theory and history of the environment as an international relations issue.
Contemporary international environmental politics and issues, including Kyoto, and the debate over global warming.
Environmental issues in Jamaica and the Caribbean (Guest lecture by Diana McCaulay of the Jamaica Environmental Trust)

Module 4: HIV/AIDS

Just as the Bubonic Plague in the 1300s started in China and spread to western Asia and Europe via trading ships and subsequently set Europe’s development back hundreds of years, and the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed 20 and 40 million people—more people than World War I—the potential for disease to wreak havoc on the global system has a historical record. In an ever-more interconnected global environment many developing countries’ greatest threat to security is not a military invasion from a rival state, but the internal devastation wrought by the spread of HIV/AIDS. Is HIV/AIDS the Bubonic Plague of the 21 st century? We will attempt to answer this question, and othersin this module by covering:

A historical overview of epidemics and their effect on international relations; locating HIV/AIDS in the contemporary international political economy.
Issues specific to developing countries and HIV/AIDS.
AIDS and Caribbean security.

Lecture Schedule

*WEEK*	DATE	LECTURE TOPIC	READINGS & ASSIGNMENTS
1	21 Jan	Introduction to the course
2	28 Jan	Terrorism - overview and main concepts	Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, 3 rd ed. By Cindy C. Combs, Prentice Hall, 2003. Chs. 1 & 2. Gregory R. Copley, Defining Terrorism. Defense & Foreign Affairs' Strategic Policy, October, 2001, Pg. 4. Online: “Terrorism”. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism
3	4 Feb	Terrorism in the 21 st century	Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, chs. 4, 6, 8 & 14. Samuel P. Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations?” Foreign Affairs 1993, Summer, 22. Are military means the best way to defeat terrorism? In Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in World Politics edited by John T. Rourke. 11 th ed., McGraw-Hill/Dushkin, 2004, pp. 200-215. In Gregory M. Scott et al, eds. 21 Debated: Issues in World Politics, 2 nd ed. Prentice Hall, 2004. David Tucker. Responding to Terrorism. Stephen L. Pomerantz. The Best Defense. Ali A. Mazrui. Islamic and Western Values David G. Kibble. Islamic Fundamentalism: A Transitory Threat? Roger Cohen, An Obsession the World Doesn't Share. New York Times December 5, 2004. Lorraine Adams, Harbor. New York, N.Y.: Knopf/Random House, 2004.
4	11 Feb	FILM The Terrorist. Dir. Santosh Sivan 95 min. 1999.	‘The Terrorist’. Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169302/ Origins of Terrorism: Psychologies, ideologies, theologies, states of mind, edited by Walter Reich, Woodrow Wilson/Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990. Chs. 1 & 2. Miranda Kennedy and Matthew Power, The Buddha's Teardrop. In These Times June 23, 2003. Rashna Writer, Sri Lanka Takes the Cautious First Steps Toward Ending the War. Defense & Foreign Affairs' Strategic Policy June/July 1996. Robert W. Gregg, Understanding International Relations: The Role of Film. Ch. 1 of International Relations on Film. Lynne Rienner, 1998. (Especially pp. 1-15.)
5	18 Feb	Terrorism – the Caribbean context ( guest lecture – Rear Admiral Hartley Lewin, Jamaica Defence Force to be confirmed )	In Ivelaw Griffith, ed. Caribbean Security in the Age of Terror : Challenge and Change , Ian Randle Press, 2004. Coping with 9-11: State and Civil Society Responses. - Isabel Jaramillo Edwards The Anti-terrorism Capacity of Caribbean Security Forces. Colvin Bishop and Oral Khan Hemispheric Responses to Terrorism: A Call to Action. John Cope and Janie Hulse. The Caribbean on the World Scene: Security Regimes, Instruments, Actions. W. Andy Knight
6	25 Feb	China – overview and main concepts	China: Defining its Role in the Global Community. Brian Ripley. Ch. 6 in Foreign Policy in Comparative Perspective: Domestic and International Influences on State Behavior by Ryan K. Beasley, Juliet Kaarbo, Jeffrey S. Lantis, Michael T. Snarr, CQ Press, 2001. East Asia : Tradition and Transformation , rev. ed., John K. Fairbank, Edwin O. Reischauer, Albert M. Craig, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1989. Chs. 21, 24 & 25 (skim chs. 2-9, 19-20) for pre-20th c. history) Graham Hutchings, Modern China: A Guide to a Century of Change. Harvard University Press, 2003. See ‘Chronology’ p. 499.
7	4 Mar	FILM To Live Dir. Yimou Zhang. 125 mins. 1994	‘To Live’ Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110081/ East Asia: Tradition and Transformation, ch. 28. Jung Chang, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991.
8	11 Mar	China as a rising world power	Avery Goldstein, Great Expectations: Interpreting China’s Arrival. Ch. 1 in The Rise of China: An International Security Reader, edited by Michael E. Brown et al. MIT Press, 2000. Do China’s armaments and intentions pose a long-term threat? In Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in World Politics edited by John T. Rourke. 11 th ed., McGraw-Hill/Dushkin, 2004, pp. 72-95. Evan S. Medeiros and M. Taylor Fravel, China 's New Diplomacy. Foreign Affairs November/December 2003. David Hale and Lyric Hughes Hale, China Takes Off. Foreign Affairs November/December 2003. Morton Abramowitz and Stephen Bosworth, Adjusting to the New Asia . Foreign Affairs July/August 2003.
9	18 Mar	China in the Caribbean ( Chinese ambassador to Jamaica to be confirmed )	Sabita Manian, Between the Devil(s) and the Deep Blue Caribbean Sea, 2004. Mimeo. Gerald Segal, China and Africa. Annals of the AmericanAcademy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 519, Jan. 1992, 115-126. Collection of newspaper articles. On reserve and at Docu-Spot.
10	8 Apr	Environment – overview and main concepts	Ronnie D. Lipschutz, Global Environmental Politics: Power, Perspectives and Practice , CQ Press, 2004. Chs. 1 & 6. Skim rest. Joshua Goldstein, International Relations , 4 th ed. Longman, 2001. Ch. 11, The Environment. Anna Dickson, Development and International Relations: A Critical Introduction. Polity Press, 1997. Ch. 5, The Environment and Development. In Michael T. Snarr and D. Neil Snarr, eds. Introducing Global Issues, 2 nd ed. Lynne Rienner, 2002. Protection of the Atmosphere—M. Seis. Cooperation and Conflict over Natural Resources—K. Scapple. Protecting the Global Commons: Sustainable Development in the Twenty-First Century—M.A.L. Miller.
25 March and 1 April Easter Holiday
11	15 Apr	Contemporary international environmental politics	The Global Environment: Institutions, Law and Policy edited by Norman J. Vig and Regina S. Axelrod. CQ Books, 1999. Chs. 1 & 2. John Browne, Beyond Kyoto, Foreign Affairs , July - August 2004, p.20. Do environmentalists overstate their case? In Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in World Politics edited by John T. Rourke. 11 th ed., McGraw-Hill/Dushkin, 2004, pp. 305-320. Thomas C. Schelling, The Cost of Global Warming, in Gregory M. Scott et al, eds. 21 Debated: Issues in World Politics, 2 nd ed. Prentice Hall, 2004. Jonathan H. Adler, Hot Air, in Gregory M. Scott et al, eds. 21 Debated: Issues in World Politics, 2 nd ed. Prentice Hall, 2004. Peter Schwartz and Doug Randall, An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security. A report commissioned by the U.S. Defense Department, October 2003. Robert Newman, The Fountain at the Centre of the World. Brooklyn , N.Y. : Soft Skull Press, 2004.
12	22 Apr	Caribbean environmental politics in the international context: guest lecture by Diana Macaulay (confirmed)	Duncan McGregor, The Environment and Ecology. In Understanding the Contemporary Caribbean, edited by Richard Hillman and Thomas D’Agostino. Lynne Rienner/Ian Randle, 2003. Sally Lloyd Evans, Duncan F.M. McGregor and David Barker, Sustainable Development and the Caribbean : Geographical Perspectives. In Resource Sustainability and Caribbean Development, edited by D. McGregor, D. Barker and S.L. Evans. The Press, University of the West Indies , 1998.
13	29 Apr	HIV/AIDS in a global context (definition of terms, historical bases, theoretical framework—how diseases in the past have affected world history (the plague; the Black Death)	Tony Barnett & Alan Whiteside, AIDS in the Twenty-First Century: Disease and Globalization, Palgrave Macmillan, 2nd ed, 2003. Introduction and chapters on AIDS, development and economic growth; Government and governance; and Globalisation, inequality and HIV/AIDS. International Relations , Joshua Goldstein, 4 th ed. Longman, 2001, pp. 518-521. In Gregory M. Scott et al, eds. 21 Debated: Issues in World Politics, 2 nd ed. Prentice Hall, 2004. The Economist, A Global Disaster. United States General Accounting Office, HIV/AIDS: U.S. Aid and UN Response to the Epidemic in the Developing World. Holly Burkhalter, The Politics of AIDS. Foreign Affairs, Jan/Feb 2004, Pg. 8.
14	6 May	HIV/AIDS in the Third World	Richard Fredland. 1998, AIDS and Development: An Inverse Correlation? Journal of Modern African Studies, 36 (4), 547-568. Steven Radelet, Bush and Foreign Aid. Foreign Affairs, Sept/Oct 2003, Pg. 104. Nicholas Eberstadt, The Future of AIDS. Foreign Affairs, November/December 2002. Kevin A. O'Brien , Headlines Over the Horizon: AIDS and African Armies, The Atlantic Monthly , July/August 2003. Are patents on HIV/AIDS drugs unfair to poor countries? In Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in World Politics edited by John T. Rourke. 11 th ed., McGraw-Hill/Dushkin, 2004, pp. 164-182. Michael Specter, India 's Plague.The New Yorker December 17, 2001, Pg. 74.
15	13 May	HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean ( Professor Brendon Bain to be confirmed)	Caroline Allen, Roger Mclean and Keith Nurse, The Caribbean , HIV/AIDS, and Security .” In Ivelaw Griffith, ed. Caribbean Security in the Age of Terror : Challenge and Change , Ian Randle Press, 2004. My Brother – Jamaica Kincaid. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997.

D. Thorburn

January 2005