INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

The course provides students with basic-level knowledge in Contemporary History and History of International Relations, with an emphasis on Asian actors, events, and processes, across the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
The course examines the South and East Asia contemporary history of international relations, in the international context, according to the concepts and methods of inquiry of International and Global History. The course focuses on China, India, and Japan as a geopolitical crossroad between east and west and aims to highlight past and present processes that connect South and East Asia at the international level, as well as at the economic level, and interactions with regional and international actors (China/Japan, United States/Europe).

The course is aimed at understanding the evolution of both the Asiatic and global international scenario. Students will learn about these Asiatic countries’ economic and political development, the processes of construction of their foreign and security policies, their national identities and their role in the regional and global governance. By putting an emphasis on the historical concepts, as well as method of inquiry, the course provides students with the ability to autonomously analyze historical case-studies, events, and processes in the international domain. Moreover, the course provides students with communication skills in reference to the history of international relations.

By the end of the course, students are expected to:

1. Knowledge and understanding Skills:
a) Have a confident knowledge of the main actors, events, processes and concepts related to the history of international relations in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries;
b) Have acquired a comparative understanding of history of international relations in contemporary Asia;
c) A basic knowledge of the main methods of historical investigation;

2. Applying knowledge and understanding Skills:
a) to be able to to formulate autonomous judgments about international affairs based on adequate historical knowledge;
b) to be able to understand the contemporary economic, political and geopolitical in contemporary Asia;
c) to be able to improve their competences in the field of international history in an autonomous way;

3. Communication skills:
a) To be able to communicate their knowledge with clarity, precision and an apt historical-political language;

Basic knowledge of modern and contemporary history as from High School programs. It is useful, to have taken at least another BA-level course in contemporary history, but it is not necessary.

The course deals with the history of international relations of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. The course studies the History of International relations in contemporary Asia, through a comparative analysis of the three main Asiatic countries (China, India, and Japan).

The first part focuses on European colonization of Asia and its effects. A second part will examine the processes and transformations that resulted in deeply different political experiences in the three countries: the “hugest democracy in the world” in India, the Chinese authoritarianism and the shift from nationalism and imperialism to the complex and contradictory democratic transition in post-World War II Japan. The events under review cover for the most part the cold war period, whose implications, until the end of bipolarism, represent the analytical frame of this part of the course. In this part of the course will be analysed India across independence and the Nehruvian era, the Chinese revolution and Japan's modernization in the US's shade. The course will focus especially on the period between the end of the cold war and the present, highlighting the emergence of new hegemonies in Asia and present interaction and engagement between China, India, and Japan.

Below is an outline of the main topics that will be covered in class (the division and contents are of course indicative and may vary depending on the needs of the teacher and the class. The detailed program of the lessons will be illustrated in class and uploaded to moodle at the beginning of the course). At the start of the course, the detailed program of the lessons will be illustrated in class and uploaded to Moodle.
1. An Introduction to the history of international relations, Asian History and world history: concepts, approaches and orientations
European and Asian imperial order: Transformation and crisis of the. New Actors of international system. Colonial models in Asia: The British India.
2. Colonial models in Asia: China, from the Sino-centric system to the demise of the Qing Empire.
3. New Asian actors. Japan: from the Meiji Era to the World War One
4. World War One and its legacies in Europe and Asia. Nationalism in Asia.
5. World War Two in Asia, Japanese imperialism and Chinese Civil War
6. the Cold War and the Bipolar Order in Asia
7. Global antagonism, Decolonization and competitive coexistence. India during the Nehru Era.
8. Global containment and Cold War in Asia. China during The Mao era.
9. Global containment and Cold War in Asia. Japan: domestic, foreign and defence policies in the post-War Era
10. Global Capitalism, Tripartite Diplomacy and Détente.
11. Extra-Systemic Transformations. China: Deng Xiaoping and the Era of Reform and Opening.
12. Extra-Systemic Transformations. India: Tensions and Conflicts during The Gandhis Era
13. Revival of Bipolar conflict. USSR Crisis. End of the Cold War and Great Re-balancing. China as global actor.
14. Japan: domestic, foreign and defence policies in the post-Cold War Era
15. India in the post-Cold War Era

While the suggested reference textbook (see below) presents the relevant events in mainly chronological order, the lessons will deal with some of the same events on an essentially thematic basis (issues such as "international order", "US-Soviet relations", "decolonization"). During the lessons, specific instructions on how to deal with the autonomous study of the proposed monographic texts will be provided.

1. Mandatory sources both for attending and non-attending students: handbooks (a+b)
Handbooks
a. Antonio Fiori, Marco Milani, Andrea Passeri (2022), Asia. Storia, Istituzioni e Relazioni internazionali, Le Monnier Università, Firenze, (ONLY: Parte prima: capitoli 1, cap. 2 cap. 3 e cap. 5; parte seconda: cap. 1, cap. 2, cap. 4, cap. 5 e cap. 6; parte terza: cap.1, cap. 2, cap. 4. e cap. 6 (solo paragrafi 2 e 3); parte quarta: cap. 1, cap.2, cap. 3, cap. 6 (solo paragrafi 1 e 3); parte quinta: cap. 1 (solo paragrafi 1, 3 e 4), cap. 2, cap. 3, cap. 5 (solo paragrafi 3 e 4), cap. 6);

b. Guido Formigoni (2018), Storia della politica internazionale nell'età contemporanea, Il mulino (ONLY CHAPTERS 2,3,4,5,6,7)



2. Books for Book Review (NON-MANDATORY ACTIVITY, FOR BOTH ATTENDING AND NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS)
ONE book of student's choice from the monographs listed below

a) Adduci, Matilde. L'India contemporanea: dall'indipendenza all'era della globalizzazione. Carocci, 2009.
b) Allison G., Destinati alla guerra. Possono l'America e la Cina sfuggire alla trappola di Tucidide? Fazi, Roma, 2018;
c) Arrighi Giovanni, Beverly Silver, eds. Caos e governo del mondo. Come cambiano le egemonie e gli equilibri planetari, Milano, 2006
d) Cardini, S. Valzania, La pace mancata. La conferenza di Parigi e le sue conseguenze, Mondadori, Milano 2018;
e) Casolari M., L'Asia agli asiatici. La politica 'indiana' del regime fascista e i rapporti con il nazionalismo radicale, Le Monnier Università, Milano 2023;
f) Congiu F., B. Onnis, Fino all'ultimo Stato. La battaglia diplomatica tra la Cina e Taiwan, Carocci, Roma, 2022;
g) Del Pero Mario, Libertà e Impero. Gli Stati Uniti nel mondo, 1776-2016, Bari-Roma, Laterza, 2017
h) Di Nolfo, Ennio, Dalla fine della guerra fredda a oggi, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2016
i) Ferguson N., Impero. Come la Gran Bretagna ha fatto il mondo moderno, Mondadori, Milano, 2009;
j) Fiori A. e Stefano Bianchini, Russia e Cina nel mondo globale, Roma, 2018
k) Kennedy P., Ascesa e declino delle grandi potenze, Garzanti, Milano 2016
l) Osterhammel, N. P. Petersson, Storia della globalizzazione: dimensioni, processi, epoche. Il mulino, Bologna, 2005;
m) Prashad Vijay, The Darker Nations, A People's History of the Third World, New York, 2007
n) Westad, O. A. & C. Peddis, La Guerra fredda globale: gli Stati Uniti, l'Unione Sovietica e il mondo. Le relazioni internazionali del XX secolo. Il saggiatore, 2015;


3. Further sources to read, not included in the exam programme (Attending and non-attending students):
- Additional readings, always not included in the exam programme, will be uploaded on Moodle.

SUGGESTED READINGS:
Our interest in the past changes with time and often depends on present-day questions. Keep an eye on magazines such as Le Monde Diplomatique, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and, possibly, on at least two or three international newspapers.

A. Final Written exam (for both Attending and Non-Attending students)

Students will take a finale written test. The final written exam of around 60 minutes will verify the student’s acquisition of the knowledge and abilities associated with the course through SIX (6) MAIN open QUESTIONS.

The exam is a written test on the whole program. The test will be based on open questions aimed at stimulating the student's historical reasoning skills and investigating the acquired preparation.

B. DISCRETIONARY ACTIVITY: Written Book Review in addition to final written test

(THIS IS A totally NON-MANDATORY ACTIVITY, FOR BOTH ATTENDING AND NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS)

During the course, attending and non-attending students will have the opportunity to write and submit a book review of ONE monograph of their choice (see list in text section point 2). The book review will be evaluated.

The evaluation given by the teacher to the book review - together with the positive final mark of the final written test (at least equal or higher than 18/30) - will contribute to the student final mark (student final mark = positive final written test evaluation + positive book review evaluation). If the final written test result is insufficient, the positive book review evaluation won’t be added.

Instructions on how to write and submit the written book review will be given at the beginning of the course and uploaded on the moodle platform.

The book review is a TOTALLY NON-MANDATORY ACTIVITY.

Students who DON’T CHOOSE to write the book review will take ONLY the final written test as scheduled, NO MODIFICATION to their final written test (see point exams A) and NO PENALIZATION of their final mark.


the exam will aim at:
- Verifying the acquisition of the notions related to the general program (events, actors, processes, concepts) and the ability to communicate them with clarity and precision.
- Verifying the ability to read autonomously the questions and themes, processes, to locate its (their) contents in their proper historical framework, to make use of relevant interpretive tools as from the general program, and to express critical opinions about them.
The final mark will result from the sum of the evaluation of the six parts, and it will take range from 18 to 30/30. The test will be considered passed if the student achieves at least 18/30.
Active participation in the seminars, with presentations and repeated, meaningful interventions in the debates, will contribute to the final vote for attending students.
The written test will take place during the normal exam sessions.
Exams evaluation criteria (for both modalities: ongoing tests and final exam on the whole programme) consist of:
Ability to synthesize and explain major international historical development processes;
Ability to deepen case-studies relating to the historical processes taken into consideration

Lectures and individual study of recommended readings and of the material uploaded on moodle by the teacher. The lectures are mainly frontal lectures, with use of slides and multimedia material. Lectures aimed at introducing students to the discipline, its conceptual categories and main historical themes as theoretical premises of historical reasoning applied to the foreign policies of international actors. The focus will be on diplomacy, its articulation and its evolution, as a prevailing practice and cultural foundation of international relations. During each lecture, adequate time will be dedicated to the discussion of the topics at issue, with active participation by the students.
Whereas attendance is not mandatory, it is highly advisable.

Italian

The teacher is easily available for questions concerning the course at his office hours and by email at fabio.leone@unive.it

Students with disabilities can contact the Disability and Accessibility Office (disabilita@unive.it) to take advantage of the services available (e.g. alternative examination methods, readers, etc.)

written

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "International cooperation" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development