POLITICS OF AUTHORITARIAN STATES*

概要

In this seminar course we will explore the development of relations between Russia and the West (and the "liberal international order" led by Western states) since the end of the Cold War. At the end of the Cold War, an optimistic vision of future international relations swept Western countries stating that liberalism has won the great ideological battles of the 20C, and that it would henceforth spread around the world, bringing about an era of peace, prosperity, and freedom. Russia would democratize and join the West, and democracy and market economy will prevail from Vladivostok to Vancouver. 35 years hence, the world today looks very different from that vision. How should we understand the situation? Was the liberal optimism just an illusion? Was democracy bound to fail in Russia? Would it have been possible for the West to avoid military confrontation with Russia by adopting a different policy? What kind of policy have Western states, led by the US, pursued in relation to Russia? What factors have driven Russia's foreign policy? Will Putin's departure change the picture? Is the West somehow responsible for the Russia-Ukraine War? How will the war end, and what will be its aftermath? By reading about discussing these issues, we will learn about the current state of international relations, about Russian politics, about the relationship between the West and emerging non-Western powers, and about the "liberal international order." At the end of the semester, students are asked to write a The sequence of topics as well as the the evaluation rubric are provisional. A detailed syllabus will be distributed in the first class session, and will be posted on Moodle. Please make sure to refer to the detailed syllabus when it is available.

目標

Students successfully completing this course will 1) be able to explain the key developments in Russia-West relations since the end of the Cold War 2) be able to interpret those developments in the light of various theories of international relations 3) understand the key features of the "liberal international order" of the Cold-War and post-Cold War era 4) understand the key drivers of contemporary Russian foreign policy

授業外の学習

Apart from attending classes, students are given various assignments, including reading assignments, video assignments, etc. According to the standard set by the Japanese Ministry of Education (MEXT), students are expected to spend a total of about 190 minutes in preparing for each class and in reviewing what you have learned. Use common sense in deciding how much time to devote to class preparation as opposed to reviewing after class. That should be sufficient for my purposes here. But MEXT, whose purpose includes "developing creative human resources with a rich sense of humanity," now requires professors to indicate in their syllabi how many of those 190 minutes they expect students to devote to various specific tasks in preparing for and reviewing the classes. So I consider it my solemn duty to declare the following, pursuant to Section 2, Article 21 of the Standards for Establishment of Universities, as revised according to Art. 1 of the MEXT Ministerial Ordinance No. 34, issued on September 30, the 4th year of the Reiwa era (2022): A large portion of that time (120-150 minutes) should be spent for preparing for class sessions (through doing reading assignments, watching assigned videos, etc.). The rest of your time should be spent for reviewing the classes. A more consolidated chunk of study time is required for the writing of mid-term and final papers.

所要時間: 190 minutes.