IR488 Half Unit
International Politics of Southeast Asia
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Dr Jurgen Haacke
Availability
This course is available on the MSc in International Affairs (LSE and Peking University), MSc in International Relations, MSc in International Relations (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in International Relations (Research) and MSc in Theory and History of International Relations. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process.
How to apply: All students must include a brief written statement of no more than 200 words explaining why they wish to take the course and how it will benefit their academic/career goals.
Places on capped courses cannot be guaranteed.
Deadline for application: The deadline for applications is 12:00 noon on Friday 26 September 2025.
You can expect to be informed of the outcome of your application by 12:00 noon on Monday 29 September 2025.
For questions about the academic content of a Department of International Relations course, students should contact the teacher responsible as listed in the hyperlinked course guide.
For questions about your programme regulations, please contact your programme convenor/director or your Academic Mentor.
For questions about the process of applying to a Department of International Relations course, if not already clear from the information provided, please contact ir.msc@lse.ac.uk.
Students are advised to check the MSc Course Availability Spreadsheet.xlsx for information on the remaining availability of EU4, DV4, GV4, IR4, PP4 and SO4 courses after 12:00 noon Monday 29 September.
All students are required to obtain permission from the Teacher Responsible by completing the online application form linked to course selection on LSE for You. Admission is not guaranteed.
This course has a limited number of places (it is controlled access) and demand is typically high.
Course content
This half-unit course examines the contemporary international politics of Southeast Asia. It is particularly concerned with the construction and maintenance of regional order against the backdrop of Southeast Asia’s complex and changing politics and intra-regional relations as well as the wider geopolitical shifts associated with the rise of China and the often-competitive policies of external powers towards the region. The course will thus focus both on the different contexts in which Southeast Asian governments operate and the strategies they pursue to manage the multiple challenges they confront, not least vis-à-vis the great powers. Topics covered include ASEAN’s institutional design and the nature of intra-regional political-security cooperation; the characteristics of economic regionalism; the US role in and policies toward Southeast Asia; China’s relations with and influence in Southeast Asia; Indonesia’s foreign policy; as well as the alignment and risk-management (hedging) strategies adopted by maritime and continental Southeast Asian states. The course also explores the case of political conflict and violence in Myanmar with reference to the responsibility to protect, ASEAN involvement, and wider geopolitical competition.
Teaching
10 hours of lectures and 13.5 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.
Formative assessment
Students will be expected to produce one 2,000-word essay in the WT in preparation for the e-Exam in the ST. The formative essay provides students with an opportunity to engage critically with key readings on course topics, and to receive constructive feedback to support their preparation for the summative e-Exam.
Indicative reading
- Michael Yahuda, The International Politics of the Asia-Pacific, 1945-1995 (Routledge Curzon, 4th edn, 2019)
- Amitav Acharya, The Making of Southeast Asia (Cornell University Press, 2013)
- Joseph Chinyong Liow, Ambivalent Engagement: The United States and Regional Security in Southeast Asia after the Cold War (Brookings Institution Press, 2017)
- Christopher Dent, East Asian Regionalism (Routledge, 2nd ed., 2016)
- Evelyn Goh The Struggle for Order: Hegemony, Hierarchy, and Transition in Post-Cold War East Asia (Oxford, 2015)
- Maung Aung Myoe, In the Name of Pauk-Phaw: Myanmar’s China Policy Since 1948 (ISEAS, 2011)
- David Shambaugh, Where Great Powers Meet: America & China in Southeast Asia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021)
- Thant Myint-U, The Hidden History of Burma: Race, Capitalism, and the Crisis of Democracy in the 21st Century (Atlantic Books, 2020)
- Ulla Fionna, Siwage Dharma Negara and Deasy Simandjuntak, eds, Aspirations with Limitations: Indonesia’s Foreign Affairs under Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (ISEAS, 2018)
- Weatherbee, Donald E., ASEAN’s Half Century: A Political History of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019)
Assessment
Exam (100%), duration: 120 Minutes in the Spring exam period
Key facts
Department: International Relations
Course Study Period: Winter Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: 29
Average class size 2024/25: 15
Controlled access 2024/25: NoCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
Personal development skills
- Leadership
- Team working
- Problem solving
- Application of information skills
- Communication