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50541. Teaching international relations in Southeast Asia: historical memory, academic context, and politics – an introduction

Author:
Alan Chong and Natasha Hamilton-Hart
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Institution:
Japan Association of International Relations
Abstract:
The teaching of international relations (IR) at universities in Southeast Asia plays a role in the production of knowledge about the IR of Southeast Asia. As a complement to the scrutiny of published research output, a focus on teaching offers one pathway toward comprehending the constitution of meaning in both the IR of Southeast Asia and the broader IR discipline. This introduction to a collection of essays on the teaching of IR in Southeast Asia also discusses the potential ways by which attention to teaching may uncover the socializing role of pedagogy. An inquiry into the discipline as it is taught in the region throws light on how particular national legitimating myths are reproduced, the transmission of collective historical memories, the dominance of certain schools of international thought, and the role of civil society in Southeast Asian knowledge production.
Topic:
International Relations
Political Geography:
Asia

50542. Teaching international relations in Singapore 1956 – 2008: from supporting development to global city aspirations?

Author:
Alan Chong and See Seng Tan
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Institution:
Japan Association of International Relations
Abstract:
This preliminary survey of international relations (IR) teaching in Singapore argues that while the hegemonic goals of the nation-state have been pervasive since 1956, the influences upon IR teaching have become more complex and subtle in tandem with Singapore's transition from pristine developmentalism to an aspiring global city. Today, IR teaching has acquired characteristics of a division of labor among the main universities, research institutes, and business-oriented schools. Nonetheless, the dialectics of whether the future lies in open-ended knowledge inquiry or hewing to some version of state-associated pragmatism remains unresolved.
Topic:
International Relations

50543. International relations in Indonesia: historical legacy, political intrusion, and commercialization

Author:
Bob S. Hadiwinata
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Institution:
Japan Association of International Relations
Abstract:
This paper is about the development of international relations (IR) as a field of study in Indonesian universities. It argues that IR as a discipline has been encountering a paradox. On the one hand, while the discipline has been increasingly held in high esteem by students, marked by an increasing number of applicants to IR departments across the country; on the other hand, IR scholars show too little commitment to research and publication for the development of the discipline; and if they do publish, the quality of writing is generally poor. This article indicates that the paradox of teaching IR in Indonesia has much to do with historical legacies and political intrusion, as well as an economic environment in which universities are increasingly driven toward commercial activities. All these factors shape the current development of social science in general, and IR in particular.
Topic:
International Relations
Political Geography:
Asia

50544. Teaching international relations in Thailand: status and prospects

Author:
Kitti Prasirtsuk
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Institution:
Japan Association of International Relations
Abstract:
International relations (IR) as it is taught in Thailand possesses developmental characteristics that have curbed its growth in the past. Through a combination of institutional and trend analyses, it will be argued that IR teaching in Thailand is at a turning point where externally driven developments are compelling a certain level of professionalization and engagement with global debates.
Topic:
International Relations
Political Geography:
Thailand

50545. International relations in Malaysia: theories, history, memory, perception, and context

Author:
K.S. Balakrishnan
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Institution:
Japan Association of International Relations
Abstract:
The article makes a preliminary survey of the teaching of international relations (IR) in Malaysia. It starts by describing the origins of the field, and the emergence of an IR epistemic community joining both academia and government. This account is necessarily derived from the experiences of the four most established Malaysian universities distinguished by length of existence and official favor. Subsequently, the survey would describe course content and influences going into their design. The penultimate sections would attempt to place the evolution of Malaysian IR teaching within a historical context. This survey nonetheless concludes that nationalist aspirations continue to remain a secondary influence when compared with intellectual dependence upon the West in the design of IR education in Malaysia.
Topic:
International Relations
Political Geography:
Malaysia

50546. Teaching international relations in Vietnam: chances and challenges

Author:
Pham Quang Minh
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Institution:
Japan Association of International Relations
Abstract:
This paper traces the evolution of the teaching of international relations (IR) in Vietnam, from the establishment of the first Institute of International Relations in 1959 to the proliferation of departments of IR or international studies from the 1990s. It notes the limitations facing teachers of IR and efforts to develop and standardize the curriculum in recent years. It also examines the way national history is portrayed in the teaching of Vietnam\'s foreign policy and regional relations in Southeast Asia, with increasing attention paid to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations from the 1990s. On July 27, 1995 the ceremony to admit Vietnam into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) took place in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. This event had multiple meanings for both Vietnam and ASEAN. It marked a new page in the history of Vietnam–ASEAN relations, transforming suspicion and distrust to cooperation (Vu, 2007, p. 316). For Vietnam, this ended a long confrontation with ASEAN that had started in 1978, as Vietnam was involved in the Cambodian conflict. Looking back to these years, a senior Vietnamese diplomat asked whether Vietnam had been vigilant enough during that time, and he continued his survey of Vietnam\'s regional relations through the lens of its three decades-long struggle and the Cold war between two superpowers, the Soviet Union and the US (Trinh, 2007, p. 19). For ASEAN, this ended an obsession about the \'Vietnamese threat\'. In this context of regional and international relations (IR) of Vietnam, the teaching of IR, in general, and the IR of Southeast Asia, in particular, was much influenced by the environment of the Cold war.
Topic:
International Relations and Cold War
Political Geography:
United States, Asia, and Vietnam

50547. The balance of great-power influence in contemporary Southeast Asia

Author:
John David Ciorciari
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Institution:
Japan Association of International Relations
Abstract:
This article reviews and critiques recent scholarly work on Southeast Asian relations with the great powers, examining the strategies that ASEAN governments have used and the effects of those strategies. The author argues that Southeast Asian governments have generally steered away from traditional balance of power politics to promote a more complex 'balance of influence' comprising military, economic, institutional, and ideational dimensions. A key feature of this balance of influence strategy has been its inclusiveness. Southeast Asian governments have invited competing great powers to participate in the region\'s economic and diplomatic affairs so that they develop stakes in the region's peace and prosperity. The author contends that Southeast Asian efforts have been relatively successful to date, contributing to a multi-dimensional balance that is relatively resilient and places significant constraints on any external power's ability to exercise unwanted dominance in the region.
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
Southeast Asia

50548. Embattled Garrisons: Comparative Base Politics and American Globalism

Author:
Takafumi Ohtomo
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Institution:
Japan Association of International Relations
Abstract:
The issue of overseas military presence is of crucial importance for the United States. Yet, despite the fact that American military strategy is heavily dependent on the US global posture, this topic has received rather limited scholarly attention to date. In Embattled Garrisons, Kent Calder offers an important first step in analyzing different types of politics that involve host nations and basing nations, countries that deploy forces overseas.
Political Geography:
America

50549. Power and Security in Northeast Asia: Shifting Strategies

Author:
Yumi Hiwatari
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Institution:
Japan Association of International Relations
Abstract:
This book highlights the shifting power structure of Northeast Asia. In the introduction, the editor considers a variety of issues in perspective, and power transition, economic interdependence, and democratization are viewed as key concepts in analyzing the radical transformation of the region. The impact of rising China on the power balance of the region is substantial, and the dynamic growth of the economy and the resulting growth of interdependence are the distinguishing characteristics of the region. The region is witnessing an ongoing process of democratization, possibly inviting an unpredictable future. While realistic predictions tell us that these dynamic changes will bring about armed conflicts among nations, the authors however conclude that power politics in Northeast Asia indicates 'an uneasy but resilient “equilibrium” of spatially and temporally asymmetric power relations' (p. 279). This equilibrium is termed uneasy because two elements of revisionism stand out, one being the Korean Peninsular and the other being Sino-Taiwan relations. The players involved all have unilateral revisionist incentives, but the likelihood of small crises escalating into major armed conflicts is remote, and their 'hedged engagement' strategy should control tensions and not allow them to spiral.
Topic:
Security and Democratization
Political Geography:
China, Taiwan, and Northeast Asia

50550. Governing Finance: East Asia's Adoption of International Standards

Author:
Saori N. Katada
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Institution:
Japan Association of International Relations
Abstract:
More than a decade has passed since the East Asian economies were marred by the massive financial crisis, which some assessed as the best thing that could have happened to the region (Kristopf and WuDunn, 2000). This 'blessing in disguise' allegedly comes from the fact that the governments of the crisis-hit countries 'responded by launching one of the most ambitious governance reform projects in living memory' (p. 1). Such reform is implemented by the East Asian governments' active compliance to international standards of transparency, finance, and corporate governance. The influence of this so-called 'regulatory neoliberalism' has been credited as the source of convergence of East Asian economies to international norms.
Topic:
Government and Governance
Political Geography:
East Asia