This course assesses contemporary security challenges and policy responses in East Asia. While contestation between the United States and China loom large, the security issues and challenges in that region are much broader. To understand them properly, the course will introduce a variety of different theoretical perspectives. Together, they can help us better understand and integrate the broad spectrum of security concerns and the intricate interactions between them, ranging from human security through traditional national security to regional and global security issues, in this highly complex region and properly evaluate national, regional and multilateral policy responses.

The Indo-Pacific has developed into a new arena for regional co-operation and contestation among the powers and other countries replacing the earlier notion of the Asia-Pacific. It reflects the rise of China and its Belt and Road Initiative, which aspires to weld together the Eurasian landmass and its adjacent areas in a two-pronged, transcontinental and maritime drive, as well as - more broadly - the increasing weight of non-Western powers and the centrality of Asia in global developments. This course explores the material foundations, the perspectives and strategies of the major players in this huge maritime area, the patterns of co-operation and conflict in their interactions and the arrangements - and their deficiencies - for global order. We will invite experts, practitioners and scholars from the region to present and discuss with students within the context of a number of individual sessions.

The purpose of the seminar is a) to familiarize students with the scenario methodology as a way to think about uncertain futures and the management of risk, b) to do so by having students themselves develop scenarios on “Political Risks for Germany in 2035”, and c) to link the scenario techniques to political risk analysis and strategic foresight