Checking date: 29/01/2021

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Course: 2020/2021

Seminar on Current Geopolitical Issues
(17792)
Geopolitics and Strategic Studies (Plan: 387 - Estudio: 346)
EPC


Coordinating teacher: RICHARDS , ANDREW JOHN

Department assigned to the subject: Social Sciences Department

Type: Electives
ECTS Credits: 6.0 ECTS

Course: 2º
Semester: 1º



Objectives
Basic Competences CB6 To possess and understand knowledge that provides a base or opportunity for being original in the development and/or application of ideas in a research context General competences CG1 Capacity to understand the principal factors in geopolitical and strategic analysis CG3 Capacity to understand and analyse national and international conflicts that have a territorial basis and to propose strategies and political instruments able to contribute to their resolution CG5 Capacity to demonstrate a critical sense of one's own analytical arguments as well as those of others CG6 Capacity to plan and complete in an autonomous way research in the field of geopolitics and strategic studies Specific competences: CE8 Capacity to understand the principal geopolitical problems and challenges in the contemporary world and to identify the risks and threats most relevant for national and international security, as well as analysing and proposing solutions an instruments to combatting them. Learning results: Capacity to understand and analyse some of the principal current global geopolitical conflicts, problems and challenges. Capacity to seek, select and synthesize diverse and relevant sources of information about current geopolitical issues and to evaluate them critically. Capacity to present information, orally and in written form, about the geopolitical questions studied.
Description of contents: programme
The Seminar focuses on the trajectory, strategies and dilemmas of the principal protagonists of the Cold War (USA, Russia, Europe and China) in the post-Cold War era. The Seminar is framed so as to emphasize the way in which relations between these countires and regions have evolved, and continue to evolve, over the last three decades. The Seminar is structured as follows: Introduction (3 hours) Europe as an Actor in the Post Cold War world / Current Challenges of European Foreign Policy (12 hours) Russia's Strategic Dilemmas in the Post-Soviet Era (12 hours) The Rise of China / China's 21st Century Challenge to the 20th Century World Order (12 hours) Conclusions (3 hours)
Assessment System
  • % end-of-term-examination 75
  • % of continuous assessment (assigments, laboratory, practicals...) 25

Basic Bibliography
  • Charles Kupchan. The End of the American Era: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Geopolitics of the Twenty-First Century. Alfred A. Knop. 2002
  • Charles Kupchan. The End of the American Era: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Geopolitics of the Twenty-First Century. Alfred A. Knopf. 2002
  • Douglas E. Schoen and Melik Kaylan. The Russia-China Axis: The New Cold War and America's Crisis of Leadership. Encounter Books. 2014
  • Edward Daniel Jacob. Rethinking Security in the Twenty-First Century: A Reader. Palgrave Macmillan. 2017
  • Erwan Lagadec. Transatlantic Relations in the 21st Century. Europe, America and the rise of the rest. Routledge. 2013
  • John J. Mearsheimer. The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. W.W. Norton. 2014
  • Laurent Cohen-Tanugi. The Shape of the World to Come: Charting the Geopolitics of a New Century. Columbia University Press. 2009
  • Mark Beeson and Nick Bisley. Issues in 21st Century World Politics. Palgrave. 2016
  • Michael Burleigh. The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: A History of Now. Macmillan. 2017
  • Paul J. Bolt and Sharyl N. Cross. China, Russia, and Twenty-First Century Global Geopolitics. Oxford University Press. 2018
  • Robert D. Kaplan. Return of Marco Polo's World: War, Strategy, and American Interests in the Twenty-First Century. Random House. 2018
  • Salvador Santino F. Regilme and James Parisot. American Hegemony and the Rise of Emerging Powers: Cooperation or Conflict. Routledge. 2017
  • Thomas J. Wright. All Measures Short of War: The Contest for the Twenty-First Century and the Future of American Power. Yale University Press. 2017
  • Trevor Thrall and Benjamin H. Friedman. US Grand Strategy in the 21st Century: The Case for Restraint. Routledge. 2018
  • Zbigniew Brzezinski. Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power. Basic Books. 2013
Additional Bibliography
  • Aaron L. Friedberg. A Contest for Supremacy: China, America, and the Struggle for Mastery in Asia. W.W. Norton. 2012
  • Anders Corr. Great Powers, Grand Strategies: The New Game in the South China Sea. Naval Institute Press. 2017
  • Cheng Li. Chinese Politics in the Xi Jinping Era: Reassessing Collective Leadership. Brookings Institution Press. 2016
  • Christopher Alden, Daniel Lange and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira. China Returns to Africa: A Superpower and a Continent Embrace. C. Hurst and Co. Publishers. 2008
  • Dambisa Moyo. Winner Takes All: China's Race for Resources and What It Means for the World. Basic Books. 2012
  • Graham Allison. Destined for War: Can America and China escape from Thucydides's Trap?. Scribe UK. 2017
  • Ho-fung Hung. China and the Transformation of Global Capitalism. Johns Hopkins University Press. 2009
  • Ivan Tselichtchev. China Versus the West: The Global Power Shift of the 21st Century. John Wiley and Sons. 2012
  • Jacques DeListe and Avery Goldstein. China's Global Engagement: Cooperation, Competition, and Influence in the 21st Century. Brookings Institution Press. 2017
  • James R. Holmes. Chinese Naval Strategy in the 21st Century. Routledge. 2009
  • Joseph Chinyong Liow. Ambivalent Engagement: The United States and Regional Security in Southeast Asia After the Cold War. Brookings Institution Press. 2017
  • Mario Telò. The European Union and Global Governance. Routledge. 2009
  • Mary Elise Sarotte. The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe. Princeton University Press. 2014
  • Minxin Pei. China's Crony Capitalism: The Dynamics of Regime Decay . Harvard University Press. 2016
  • Nicholas V. Riasanovsky and Mark D. Steinberg. A History of Russia. Oxford University Press. 2016
  • . Country Analysis Brief: Russia. U.S. Energy Information Administration.
  • Orville Schell and John Delury. Wealth and Power: China's Long March to the Twenty-First Century. Random House Trade. 2014
  • Simon Duke. Europe as a Stronger Global Actor: Challenges and Strategic Responses. Palgrave Macmillan. 2016
  • . Recalibrating U.S. Strategy toward Russia. A New Time for Choosing. CSIS.
  • Bill Hayton. The South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia. Yale University Press. 2015
  • Terrence R. Guay. The United States and the European Union. The Political Economy of a Relationship. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. 1999
  • Wyn Rees. The US-EU Security Relationship: the Tensions Between a European and a Global Agenda. Palgrave Macmillan. 2011

The course syllabus may change due academic events or other reasons.