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Thinking Strategically About Asia

Thinking Strategically About Asia. Andrew Scobell Bush School of Government and Public Service Texas A&M University 23 January 2009. How do I cover Asian Security in the classroom?. In stimulating students to think about Asia strategically a teacher can: Apply International relations theory

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Thinking Strategically About Asia

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  1. Thinking Strategically About Asia Andrew Scobell Bush School of Government and Public Service Texas A&M University 23 January 2009

  2. How do I cover Asian Securityin the classroom? In stimulating students to think about Asia strategically a teacher can: • Apply International relations theory • Explore relevance of global security issues • Explore non-traditional security issues • Employ a U.S. policy perspective • Take a geopolitical approach

  3. A US Policy Perspective Words matter….. • Asia or Asia-Pacific? • Asia is a geographic term that excludes the US or at least makes the US peripheral. • Asia-Pacific is a more inclusive term that makes the US more relevant and involved. • The US is not an Asian Power but we are an Asia-Pacific Power. • The US now has its first Asia-Pacific President • Obama was born & grew up in the region (Hawaii and Indonesia).

  4. Geopolitics The entire Asia-Pacific region is very important to the US for many reasons BUT some countries are more important to the US than others. • Some states strategically very important to us in positive or negative ways. • We can call such states ‘pivotal states’ or ‘states of strategic significance.’

  5. Powder Keg and Linchpin States We can divide such states into ones that are ‘Power keg’ and Linchpin’: • Power keg states are “volatile countries upon which the stability of the region or subregion hinge.” • Tend to be dictatorships or weak democracies with chronic severe political, economic, and/or societal problems. There is significant potential for a national crisis, state collapse, and/or military conflict that can easily destabilize the entire (sub) region. • Linchpin states are “stable countries that ensure the peace and prosperity of the region or subregion.” • Tend to be established democracies that are “favorably disposed toward the US.”

  6. Pivotal States

  7. For more discussion on this topic see…. Andrew Scobell, “The Alliance and the Asia-Pacific Region: An American Perspective,” in McCausland et al., eds., The Other Special Relationship:The United States and Australia at the Start of the 21st Century (Strategic Studies Institute, 2007), .pp. 77-107 accessable @ www.StrategicStudiesInstitute.army.mil

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