Teaching

Integration and the Making of a Global World (masters course at Lund University Graduate School)

This course focuses on the historical origins of the global, international state system in order to better understand challenges facing the world today. We will consider a range of different processes tied to the emergence of the global world in the long nineteenth century and beyond, including, but not limited to, economic, military, legal, cultural, institutional and linguistic practices. The deep approach to international history and politics offered in this course will help students understand why the world looks the way it does and provide them with the tools to analyze it.

The History of International Thought

Where do we get our ideas about the rights and duties of states, sovereignty, empire, diplomacy, war, trade, global justice and the ‘international’ writ large? In this course, we will explore how these concepts have been differently understood and appropriated by actors across time and space from the Ancient Greeks and Chinese philosophers, to Islamic theologians, early modern European lawyers and African anticolonial thinkers. Students will consider the writings of past theorists in their own historical contexts, as well as how their thinking might inform present-day debates.

Non-Western International Relations

How are international affairs experienced by countries outside of “the West” and who are not great powers? In a world where there are many competing narratives on the same events including the Cold War, the War on Terror and economic development, this course provides students with analytical tools for examining international politics from the viewpoint of countries on the “periphery” and considers what IR theory has to gain from truly global perspectives.

Indo-Pacific Security

This course examines how the Indo-Pacific has emerged as a region of critical importance to international security. In an era of increased connectivity between the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean, students will engage with theoretical, historical and policy approaches for assessing the prospects of conflict and cooperation in the contemporary Indo-Pacific region. After considering the extent to which the concept of the Indo-Pacific constitutes a coherent strategic and economic system, students will grapple with its implications for the security interests of key regional powers, including China, India, Japan, Indonesia, the United States and Australia.

Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan

Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan represent four of the most controversial and sensitive issues in contemporary Chinese politics. This course will examine how these far-flung peripheries of “Greater China” have come to occupy central roles in China’s national identity at home and abroad. Students will develop their own understandings of what these diverse regions can tell us about the future of China itself.

China and the Global South

China is widely regarded as both a developing country and a global power. How does this dual- identity impact its relations with the Global South? In this course, we will examine several phases of China’s relations with the Global South from the Bandung Conference in 1955 to the Belt and Road Initiative today. Students will consider how academic discussions of norms diffusion, socialization, threat perception and peaceful rise can offer insight into the impact of China’s economic and political model on its relations with the Global South.