Time Schedule:
Donald C Hellmann
SISEA 490
Seattle Campus
Course content varies.
Class description
America and East Asia in a Globalized World: Transformation, Accommodation, and Confrontation
It is widely expected that East Asia, led by the explosive growth of China, will soon become the largest economic region in the world and, in due course, the Asian Century may succeed the American Century. Whatever the ultimate result, global affairs in the first half of the 21 st century will focus on the challenge of integrating Asia into the world. The global political economy will be rapidly transformed by (1) technological innovation, (2) a dramatic shift in economic power, (3) the need for new multilateral international institutions to mediate these changes, (4) new types of security threats, military and non-military, and (5) a challenge to the United States and to the universality of the democratic capitalist principles on which this country and the American Century were built. The course first focuses on the ideas and institutions that characterized the "American Century" and the unique historical circumstances on which it rested. It then focuses on the rise of Asia in the second half of the 20th century and especially on the surprising China-led resurgence of the region since the end of the cold war. Drawing on specific Asian crises in the last 15 years (e.g. the financial crises of 199798 and 2008-09 and the nuclearization of North Korea), it poses questions about the problems of transition from the American to the Asian century.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
There will be a mid-term and a final exam with a paper as a possible substitute for the final. The graduate students will write a 15-page paper and take a "short" final.
