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 material 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.

This course is delivered through a combination of classes and lectures totalling a minimum of 20 hours across Michaelmas Term. This year, some or all of this teaching will be delivered through a combination of online lectures and in-person classes/classes delivered online. Students on this course will have a reading week in Week 6, in line with departmental policy.

Students will be expected to produce 1 book review in 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 (75%, 3000 words) in the LT.
Presentation (25%) in the MT.

During the course of the seminars students will participate in a group presentation (25%) and submit a 3,000 word essay (75%) at the start of the LT.