Russia Multi-Perspective Simulation

Group Option Preparation Sheet

Senators Option Preparation Sheet 

What's that you say?

A few of you may be interested in these links:

Drum roll, please . . .

Dmitry Rybolovlev | Inside his ANNA Yacht | SuperYachtFan

Another interesting story, with links to our recent video: 

Bloomberg Billionaires Index

In the paper just days ago, regarding British sanctions.

Chelsea are back in fashion – but Roman Abramovich is out in the cold

Contemporary Russia

Directions: Analyze using at least four lens of international relations (e.g., realism, liberalism, English rationalism, social constructivism).  For those absent, we stopped at 55:29 on Friday. 

Student Questions About Russia

Current Events: FRONTLINE MBS

Media literacy: The goal here is to be a savvy and discerning reader, "watcher," and thinker.  No single source will illuminate the whole picture. You should interrogate your sources as you read and watch.  Think about what you learned and also what you didn't learn, who sponsored the source, and who specifically was interviewed in the souce and their credentials and perspectives. 

Watch as much of this documentary (30 minutes, 45 minutes, etc) and try out this method.  Catalog the identities of those interviewed by the investigative reporter?  What different sections of global society does that represent? What sense do you get about what the average citizen thinks about Vision 2030, ARAMCO, reforms concerning women, etc.? 

Media Perspective

Media literacy: The goal here is to be a savvy and discerning reader, "watcher," and thinker.  No single source will illuminate the whole picture. You should interrogate your sources as you read and watch.  Think about what you learned and also what you didn't learn, who sponsored the source, and who specifically was interviewed in the souce and their credentials and perspectives.

How can you then begin to write diplomatically about the perspectives 

you locate in source materials? What do you notice as you begin to do this?

HANDOUT

Contemporary Saudia Arabia: ARAMCO, Vision 2030, MBS

Current Events: Saudi Arabia and Feminism

Watch the videos below. Think about the international relations lens of feminism. What questions would you need to ASK in order to understand how the Saudi royal family envisions the role of women in achieving Vision 2030 (MBS' plan of social and economic reforms)? 

For example, which rights would Saudi women prioritize?  How might women prioritize different rights? 

Saudi Arabia is Changing Fast (WSJ, 11/4/19)

Let's go backwards in time . . . 

WSJ, 2012, Saudi Arabia, Islam & Women 

Princess Ameerah 

2016, National Geographic Article, the Changing face of Saudi Arabian Women

NYTimes documentary: Ladies First: Saudi Arabia's Female Candidates

News at the United Nations

Current Events: Saudi Arabia ARAMCO and Vision 2030

Road to 2030 (Arab News)

(Arab News is Saudi Arabia's first English-language newspaper)

(1984 Aramco documentary) 

Wallace Stegner's 1950s book (or not his book) on Aramco

Saudi Arabia: Open for Tourism 

VERY LONG: FRONTLINE

https://www.pbs.org/video/crown-prince-saudi-arabia-1jt2ey/

Weighing US Policy on China: Creating Your Own Option

US policy on China 

Options 1 and 2 more popular than three. Option 4 very unpopular.  Make sure you address resistance to Option 4 in your own option.  I know you think I know why this was unpopular, but you do need to explain the rationale as to why it is not workable. Is it a knee-jerk response? 

Homework to be completed for Wednesday is to create your own option. The above results only inform your argument and counter-argument, NOT your option viewpoint. You are free to create the viewpoint you believe the best approach. 

Below I summarize everyone’s viewpoint from today’s deliberative discussion. Consider these questions while formulating your option: 

1. To what extent do you want to help at-risk people in China from a human rights Len? 
2. To what extent do you want to help other countries? Is help really to protect human rights or US strategic interests? 
3. What does a future China look like ideologically speaking?How can the U.S. capitalize on a constant changing China? Where is it unstable internally? How would an unstable China affect internal or external affairs? 
4. How can the US create relationships with other countries so as to rely less on the US-China relationship?
5. How do you protect against unfair labor or intellectual property practices that make US less competitive or are wrong?  How do you benefit the lives of people in the US? 
6. How to illuminate the COSTS of China’s own internal policies?
7. How will women transform the future China as fortunes rise?
8. Has it ever worked to force US values on other countries? 
9. Instead of democratic values, what if US policies instead emphasized civil liberties or human rights instead? Is the type of the government important or is it the behaviors? 
10. Given that containment didn’t work in the Cold War, how can we use history to construct a future that will work? (E.g., open door)
11. How to promote the individual interests of individuals and groups (e.g., business community) in the US on China?
12. How to promote the security interests of the US government’s duty to protect its citizenry? Using a structural realist lens, how can the U.S. protect against a potentially aggressive China? 
13. How to protect other countries and our own citizens from the growing authoritarianism China seen to spread? 
14. How to ensure the prosperity of both the US and China? 
15. Could the US create a Marshall Plan for the 21st century? 
16. Could the US rely on outside partnerships and allies to construct a better global trade policy? 
17. If human rights are an important consideration, are we failing an obligation to Chinese citizens by trading (or not trading) with China? 
18. Using a social constructivist lens, how can good shared experience between China and US change its history?

Monday's Deliberative Discussion

HOMEWORK: For option groups, finish completing your "Graphic Organizer" and on the "Focusing Your Thoughts" graphic organizer, complete the section entitled "Ranking the Options" and "Beliefs." For the foreign relations senators, complete the "Evaluation Form" in lieu of the "Graphic Organizer" and the same work on the "Focusing Your Thoughts" handout. EVERYONE will complete the section "Creating Your Own Option" only after Monday's deliberative discussion. 

WEEK TEN (Nov 4-Nov 8) 
CLASS ONE: How will we decide speaking order? How would the deliberative model suggest we proceed?  We will deliberate the merits and trade-offs of the alternatives presented; explore shared values concerns as well as conflicting values, interests and priorities; and develop your own views.  We will debrief the Choices digital curriculum and make some decisions as to how to use it in the future. HOMEWORK: Create your own original option, personal to you, based on the prompt on your "Focusing Your Thoughts" handout.  

China on the World Stage: Weighing the U.S. Response

PBS Newshour Series on China: Power & Prosperity

Taking Stock of China's Growing Power and Prosperity 

Belt & Road Initiative

How President Xi Jinping 

Impact of US-China trade war felt in both countries 

China's high-tech eyes 

"Smart cities"

Pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong

Student-Generated Blueprint

SAUDI ARABIA

Sample "New Silk Road" Blueprint - Chapter entitled the Roads to Rivalry - India

SLIDES FROM CLASS AVAILABLE HERE, IF YOU ARE STUDYING

Student Assessment of Unit Goals

UNANSWERED DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Continue to read chapter entitled "The Roads to Rivalry" (my copy pages 169-193). Why is the U.S. betting on India? How does U.S./Iran relations complicate that relationship with India? Is the U.S. at risk of an American isolationism that is against US national interests?  How may the multiple perspectives of I.R. (lens) help us understand this first chapter better?

On the chapter entitled The Roads to the Future, (my copy pages 195-214). (Stop at "A case in point comes with Pakistan). How have nearly all major countries in Asia developed "blueprints" for the future, while the United States and EU have not? How may the multiple perspectives of I.R. (lens) help us understand this first chapter better?

On the chapter entitled The Roads to the Future (my copy pages pages 214-234). (Stop at "The rapid development of new technologies.") What happens when the "blueprints" where "interests do not overlap?" In other words, what happens when "increasing connections, greater cooperation and widening collaboration" are beset by "rivalry, competition and tensions?" What do you think about his question, is it "right [for the U.K. to leave the E.U.] at a time of such profound geopolitical and economic fragility?"

On the chapter The Roads to the Future (my copy pages 235-253). And how does technological innovation further complicate the picture? Using the lens of I.R., what could be possible responses of the U.S. to the coming future described in this chapter look like?  How shall we rebuild our State Department?

QUESTIONS TO DEEPEN 

On the chapter entitled "The Roads to the East" (my copy pages 17-44).  What have the last 25 years transformed the world's subsystems?

On the chapter entitled "The Roads to Beijing" (my copy pages 118-148).  Why do many remain "unconvinced" and some even grow "anxious" regarding the Initative?  How do tensions between China and the United States complicate matters for each and other countries?

Read chapter entitled "The Roads to Rivalry" (my copy pages 149-169). How has the rivalry between the United States and China developed? How has it accelerated with the policies of this administration? 

Student Recommended Reads

It's All About the Money

On the Unspoken Rules of Doing Business

How Singapore Stands to Gain

NBA Defends Freedom of Speech for Employees as China Moves to Block Games 

Adam Silver Walks Back Statement?

Hong Kong video re: business  

The Qatar-ification of Global Sports Is Just Beginning

Globalization of Jobs

America's Most Important Export: Commercial Entertainment

How Life Became an Endless, Terrible Competition

Thursday, October 10 Amazing Opportunity

On the evening of October 10, the Brookings Institute, together with the Charles Koch Institute, will host a debate on the future of America’s relationship with Europe and Russia at the Gleacher Center of the University of Chicago. I wanted you to be aware of this event as I thought some of your students who study history, Europe, or world politics (or any members of a debate club) might be interested in attending a rigorous debate about this topic. It features former senior Obama administration officials such as Victoria Nuland, former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, and a number of prominent Europe experts debating geopolitical trends in trade and security affecting America’s relationship with Europe and Russia. Our moderator is Edward Luce of The Financial Times.

Here is a website with information about the event (including free registration): https://charleskochinstitute.swoogo.com/transatlantic-relations. There will be an opportunity for students to mingle with the debate speakers and moderator before and after the event, and of course to ask questions.

GirlUp: Women's Rights Law

"GirlUp will be hosting prof. Claudia Flores from the Uchicago Law school on Friday, Nov. 1st. Prof. Flores has worked extensively on issues pertaining to human rights, particularly women's rights, including working on an anti-trafficking initiative in indonesia with USAID, as well as being a legal advisor for UN Women and for the United Nations development initiative in East Timor and Zimbabwe. She has also worked at the ACLU and the international women's rights clinic at the City University of New York Law School.  She will be coming to Lab November 1st, during lunch in room 116 to talk about her work around women's rights law, as well as her experiences working with international development initiatives, and her current work surrounding Migrant's rights and the conditions at the U.S border. 

Students' Constitutional Rights Seminar

STUDENTS' CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS SEMINAR (DEADLINE EXTENDED): Students who have completed their first-tier history course are invited to consider enrolling in a seminar on students' constitutional rights in conjunction with the University Law School and UC Woodlawn Charter School. Applications are due by the end of the day on Friday (10/4). More information and the application form can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LNChf8yM-RQRGcKTyi6z8oS-P6ZfTOlzGwpmPsUWHCM/edit?usp=sharing

Unit 2 International Systems, Globalization & China begins

SLIDES FROM CLASS HYPERLINK AVAILABLE HERE

Please make sure you buy the The New Silk Roads book (available used for $7.59 on Amazon) or reserve and have sent to your branch of the public library (this only takes a few days).  Don't confuse this book with the Silk Roads: A New History of the World (Frankopan's first book).

Eight "Lens" of International Relations

IDEA OF THEORY AS LENS 

LENS #1  Structural Realism 

LENS #2   Liberalism 

LENS #3 Economic Structuralism  

 

LENS #4 English School "Rationalists"

http://www.lse.ac.uk/internationalrelations/video/IR438-TIS-video.aspx

LENS #5 Constructivism  

Securisation theory (sub-branch of constructivism) 

Russia's National Research University

LENS #6 Feminism 

Russia's National Research University

LENS #7 Critical Theory/Postmodern 

https://pt.coursera.org/lecture/international-relations-theory/postmodernism-in-ir-W92eT

LENS #8 Network Theory 

Network Theory: Transnational Advocacy Networks 

Unit 1 Course Materials

GERST UNIT 1 WHITEBOARD CLASS DISCUSSION

Student Survey Preferences for Scope and Sequence

OPTION A: TOP THREE
China IIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Russia IIIIIIIIII
India IIIIIIIIIII
Law of War IIIIIII (January)
Iran IIIIIII
Law of Space IIII (March)
Turkey IIII
Brazil IIII
Nigeria III
Law of Sea II (Junior Term)
Mexico I (Junior Term)

OPTION B: TOP FIVE
China IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Russia IIIIIIIIIIIIII
India IIIIIIIIIIIIII
Iran IIIIIIIIIIIII
Law of War IIIIIIIIIIII (January)
Brazil IIIIIIII
Turkey IIIIIII
Nigeria IIIIIII
Mexico IIIIIII
Law of Space IIIIII (Junior Term)
Law of Sea IIIIII (Junior Term)

Welcome to the 2019-2020 School Year!

The Present and Future

The Textbook

Choices Curriculum from Brown University