ICoE Course Outline (Environmental Safeguards in Asia)

Environmental Safeguards in Asia by Dr. Jean Aden

December 9, 2013 to January 17, 2014

Course description

     This course concerns the environmental and social safeguards, which the international financial institutions (IFIs) created to address environmental and social risk in development projects in the 1980s and 90s, and have introduced throughout the developing world over the last twenty-five years. Given that the IFIs were the source of over 50 percent of the financial capital flowing into developing countries during the 1980s and 90s, their safeguards commanded respect as powerful tools for predicting, preventing and/or mitigating environmental and social damage in development projects.

     In more recent years, the balance of public versus private funds flowing into developing countries has shifted, and the annual contribution of the IFI has fallen to 10-20 percent of all foreign capital flows into these countries. Given the tremendous pressure on natural resources in many Asian countries, the fact that private and private-public investors now provide well over 50 percent of financial capital flows into some of Asian fastest growing countries, and that many of these investors do not use safeguards, we may wonder whether the safeguards introduced in the 1980s-90s have become less effective tools for addressing environmental and social risk in this fast-growing region.

     The course begins with a close look at the use of environmental and social safeguards in IFI lending to several Asian countries, including Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia; the uneven use of safeguards at national and local levels in China; the challenge of using safeguards in large dam projects; and the added value of safeguards when used together with the independent recourse mechanisms of the IFIs. Weighing these experiences together, the course will examine the conditions under which environmental and social safeguards can be effective when used at the national level in Asian countries, and to what extent developing national-level safeguards could or should be a priority for Asian countries.

Course Requirement

Read all required reading assignment

Attend all lectures

Participate in tutorial sections

Participate in dam role-play

Final examination

·       Introduction: What are Safeguards

·       Environmental Assessment

·       More Environmental Assessment : Film “A River Change Course”

·       Involuntary Resettlement

·       China

·       Dams (Film “Choropampa: The Price of Gold”)

·       Indigenous People (Film: “Making Money Business: Building Company-Community Dialogue”)

·       Recourse, Transparency and Independent Accountability Mechanisms

·       Stakeholder Analysis / Role Plays

·       Final Class

ICoE Course Outline (Introduction to International Relations)

Introduction to International Relations by Karl Jackson

December 2013 – January 2014

Overview

          Events of the last two years have brought Southeast Asian back into the spotlight of international relations for the first time in twenty years. The American “pivot” to Asia, the diplomatic and economic opening of Myanmar, disunity within ASEAN, and the possibility of conflict over islets and shoals in the South China ( or West Philippine) Sea have altered the status quo and raised questions about the long-term intentions of the United States, China, and the Southeast Asian nations. Why have all major actors taken stances in Southeast Asian that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago?

          All of the data on international behavior are constantly in motion and students of all ages remain frustrated by their inability to make sense of the ever-expending array of events, actors, and interpretations. In Southeast Asia, as elsewhere, international controversies and day-to-day policies ( not to mention the changing statements of political leaders and political parties) present an almost bewilderingly series of factors, any combination of which might (or might not) account for a country or a regional organization’s behaviors. The trick of the first-rate analyst (in a government, bank, or an NGO) is to find a method for determining ‘Why Do Nations Do What They Do?’

          This course uses Asia as a laboratory for answering this question at multiple levels of individual nation states, the regional organization (ASEAN) and in the context of international political system as a whole. Hence, this course stressed general analytic skills rather than just ‘facts’ about Southeast Asia. The purpose is to impart a method that will retain value even after all of the ‘facts’ have changed and even if you find your eventual professional focus far from Southeast Asia.

Course Outline

Course description

          Alternative theories of international relations. Can theories of the international system predict the foreign policy behaviors of nations? What is the role of relative balances of power and capabilities in predicting the actual behaviors of nations, small and large? What is the role of perception and misperception in the behavior of nations? What about the influence of the domestic politics in the formulation of foreign policy? How important are individual leaders? Are the foreign policies of ASEAN as a group or as separate nations merely an artifact of an international arena dominated by large outside powers?

Realism, Liberal Internationalism, and Constructivism

Events, Policies, and National interests

Actors: Individual Leaders; Elite and Mass Public Opinion

Rationality Vs Irrationality (economic rationalism Vs nationalist irrationality)

From nation building to regionalist breakthrough and back to primacy of perceived national interests.

1945-75: Nationalism and nation state building. Nationalism in command. “Go to Hell with your aid!”

1975-1993: Cambodia: International conflict and the triumph of regionalism and internationalism over nationalism.

1993-2012: Nation state primacy and the decline of regionalism.

ASEAN and ARF morph into ASEAN+3 and the East Asian Summit? TPP?

Islands of contention between ASEAN and China.

Domestic sources of national interest in Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia.

How leaders, elites, and mass movements define national interests and produce foreign policy outcomes. How can small, relatively powerless nations survive and/or assert themselves in the international arena?

The role of the external powers.

US: Regional Pivot. New assertiveness or declining hegemon?

China: Emerging Mega state: Status quo or revisionist?

Japan Paradox: Constant power but declining status.

Australia: Small state poised between its European past and an Asian future.

India: Second mega nation emerging?

ICoE Cours Outline (Introduction to Comparative Politics)

Introduction to Comparative Politics

Professor Meredith Weiss

Mweiss27@jhu.edu

December/January 2013/2014

          This course will introduce you to the concepts, methods, and a number of key theories and frameworks in the study of Comparative Politics. We will focus not on specific cases, but on ways of describing, comparing, and assessing a range of cases. By the end of the course, student should be able to classify and evaluate a given country in light of key taxonomies (classification schemes) and metrics in the subfield, to sketch a plan for comparative, and to research, and to understand and compare different regime types, modes of participation, and broad development strategies.

          The course will be run largely as a seminar. While the professor will lecture for part of each class, student participation is expected. Come to class prepared with questions and comments: details you did not understand, angles you found interesting, etc. frequent, short, in-class exercises, completed individually or in teams, will have allow you to test, apply, and extend your knowledge – so completing the assigned reading for each class, before that class session, is essential. In addition, there will be an in-class midterm exam and a final team project (details to come). Students are required to attend 2 tutorial sessions for this class per week, in line with the overall program guidelines.

          For the final project, each team will pick a different country. As a team, sketch the key attributes of that state, in terms of the parameters we are studying in this course: its institutional framework, the depth and scope of civil society, its economic model and status, etc. Each team member will then pick one angle and think comparatively about how that state might reconfigure or improve that dimension. For instance, if a team selects Thailand as its country, the team as a whole will describe that status quo, then one member might discuss a plan for more equitable economic development, in light of what other countries have tried and Thailand’s specific character; one might suggest a way to reconfigure the legislature for greater stability; one might focus on ways to foster a stronger political party system; and one might consider ways to cultivate sustainable, constructive popular engagement, beyond mass protests. Offer a balanced argument: note likely obstacles and tradeoffs, as well as benefits.

          Each segment of the final project – the collaborative introduction plus each individual paper – should be approximately 1000 words. Each team will present its findings in the final class; presentations should be on more than 20 minutes total.

          There is one textbook for the course: Timothy Lim, Doing Comparative Politics: An Introduction to Approaches and Issues, 2^nd ed. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2010.

All supplemental readings will be provided.

Ø Introduction

Ø What is comparative politics?

Ø Comparative methods

Ø Theory in comparative politics

Ø Democracy, authoritarianism, and regime changes

Ø Institutional options

Ø The “menu of manipulation”: Fraud and other problems

Ø Explaining underdevelopment

Ø Explaining economic growth

Ø Explaining collective mobilization

Ø Student presentations on final projects