Professor Chris Alden CBG.9.04

This course is available on the BSc in International Relations, BSc in International Relations and Chinese, BSc in International Relations and History and BSc in Politics and International Relations. This course is not available as an outside option. This course is available with permission to General Course students.

Foreign Policy Analysis (IR202)

This course focuses on the substantive role that China plays in the Global South where its preponderance of mterial power and putative developing country status confers upon it a dominant position in bilateral and regional political economies.  China's economic position, coupled to an astute use of finances flowing from its mercantilist policies, has enabled it to become the leading trading partner and a significant investor in the developing world.  Moreover, the Global South is increasingly figuring in Beijing's expanding security interests and soft power provisions.  Interpretations embedded in prevailing academic discourses like socialisation, threat and peaceful rise take on new meaning when studied through the lens of ties with developing countries.  Understanding how dynamics in this relationship are impacting upon a host of global and contemporary issues (BRICs, multilateralism, peacekeeping, the environment) is crucial to the shape of the 21st century.

10 hours of lectures and 15 hours of classes in the MT.

In line with departmental policy, students on the course will have a reading week in Week 6.

Students will be expected to produce 1 essay and 1 other piece of coursework in the MT.

Chris Alden and Chris R Hughes, 'Harmony, Discord and Learning in China's Foreign Policy', China Quarterly, Special Issue (No.9 December 2009), pp.13-34

Chris Alden, 'China and Africa - The Relationship Matures', Strategic Analysis (36:5 2012), pp.701-707

Kevin Gallagher, The China Triangle: Latin America's China Boom and the Fate of the Washington Consensus (OUP: 2016)

David Shambaugh, China Goes Global: The Partial Power (OUP: 2014)

Carol Wise and Margaret Myers (eds), The Political Economy of China-Latin American Relations in the New Millennium: Brave New World (Routledge: 2016)

Essay (80%, 3000 words) in the LT.
Presentation (20%) in the MT.

During the course of the seminars students will participate in a group presentation (20%) and submit a 3,000 word essay (80%) at the start of the LT.