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.