Sample Syllabus
PSCI 4396: Contemporary Security Issues in Asia
Spring 2013 @ University of Texas at Dallas (UTD)
Course Objectives:
This course examines a wide range of key Asian security issues, specifically East and Southeast Asia. Asia (comprising China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia for purposes of this course) is a distinctive region that is deeply divided. It is beset with internal ethno-religious pressures, exacerbated by cross border threats and challenges of a military and non-military nature. The conflicts between North and South Korea; between China and Taiwan have brought these countries to ................
PSCI 4321: Media and Politics
Summer 2012 @ University of Texas at Dallas (UTD)
Course Objectives:
Media and Politics considers the degree to which Americans’ political opinions and actions are influenced by the mass media, particularly television, as well as the determinants of the mass media’s content. Topics to be covered include the history of the mass media, recent trends in the news media, theories of attitude formation and change, the nature of news, the role of sources in the construction of the news, the economics of news production and consumption, the ways in which ...............
PSCI 3350: Comparative Politics
Spring 2012, 2013, 2014 @ University of Texas at Dallas (UTD)
Course Objectives:
Comparative politics is both a subject and a method for understanding politics. As a subject, comparative politics is the study of different political systems and their major components. As a method, it is a way of trying to establish and test general suppositions about certain political phenomena. In this undergraduate course, students will be introduced to historical contexts, governance arrangements, political parties, and various types of political behavior across various democratic countries......
GOVT 157: Democracy and Dictatorship: Politics in the Contemporary World
Fall 2014 @ Wesleyan University
Course Objectives:
In this introduction to politics in industrialized capitalist, state socialist, and developing countries, we explore the meaning of central concepts like democracy and socialism, the strengths and weaknesses of different kinds of political institutions (e.g., presidentialism vs. parliamentarianism in liberal democratic countries), the causes and consequences of shifts between types of political systems (e.g., transitions from authoritarian rule), and the relations among social, economic, and political changes (e.g., among social justice, economic growth, and political democracy in developing countries).
GOVT 299: Politics and Security in Asia
Fall 2014 @ Wesleyan University
Course Objectives:
Are the countries of East and Southeast Asia headed toward greater cooperation or toward increased conflict? This course assesses political and security conflict and cooperation in the post-Cold War era in China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. The first part of the course introduces the theoretical issues at stake and reviews the historical backgrounds of the countries involved. The second part analyzes contemporary political and security issues, including territorial disputes over islands in the South China Sea, tensions between China and Taiwan, Japan's security policy, conflict on the Korean peninsula, arms control, international organizations, and bilateral and multilateral relations. The last part of the course outlines potential future scenarios for security and cooperation within Asia and between the countries of Asia and the rest of the world.
