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Crawford School of Public Policy · ANU College of Law, Governance and Policy
This course is available for on-campus & remote (online) learning. All students participate in interactive, real-time classes. This course examines the relationship between the United States and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Both the PRC and US are shaping – and are being shaped by – the behaviour of countries across the Indo-Pacific. This will profoundly impact Australia’s national interest for the foreseeable future. PRC-US competition pervades almost every single arena of international relations, well beyond what any individual student or scholar could possibly comprehend. So, it becomes important to assess which are the areas of greatest consequence and focus on those. In essence, this course goes beyond the headlines to work out what really matters and why. As such, this course will train the student to make judgements about (i) which areas of PRC-US relations to prioritise and to develop their own analytical frameworks for prioritisation; (ii) to develop an understanding of how countries in the region are responding to PRC-US competition; and (iii) to develop analytical and policy tools to adapt those dynamics. This course provides a history of US and China relations in the Indo-Pacific, and domestic drivers of international behaviour in both countries to lay solid empirical and historical foundations for students. Beyond those foundations, the course focuses on the most contemporary and consequential policy issues in the region. These include the evolution of BRI and US-led infrastructure building, the global narrative war, the genetic engineering revolution, AI/Semiconductor/critical mineral supply chains, the rules-based order, cyber battles and military buildups in East Asia. The level of consequentiality and future directions of any topic is open for contestation every single week in the spirit of fostering students’ capability to operate in an environment of collaborative yet contested policymaking.
Blog post (800 words)
Learning outcomes 1, 3, 5
Outline and proposal for final research project (1000 words)
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Research essay (2500 words)
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
The standard workload for a 6 unit course is 130 hours including class time and independent study.
None Preliminary Reading Suisheng Zhao (ed.), The Making of China's Foreign Policy in the 21st century: Historical Sources, Institutions/Players, and Perceptions of Power Relations (Routledge 2019) Robert Sutter, US-China Relations: Perilous Past, Uncertain Present (Rowman and Littlefield, 2018) Thomas J. Christensen, The China Challenge: Shaping the Choices of a Rising Power (New York: Norton 2016). Sulman Wasif Khan, Haunted by Chaos: China’s Grand Strategy from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping, (Harvard University Press, 2018). Guoli Liu, China Rising: Chinese Foreign Policy in a Changing World, (Palgrave 2016) Amos A. Jordan, William J. Taylor, Michael J. Meese, and Suzanne C. Nielsen, American National Security (6th edition), (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 2009). John Ikenberry, Liberal Leviathan: The Origins, Transformation and Crisis of American World Order (Princeton University Press, 2012) Victor Cha, Powerplay: The Origins of the American Alliance System in Asia, (Princeton University Press, 2016).