Geostrategic Comp in Pacific

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Competition for strategic influence in Oceania is becoming as crowded and complex as it was in the 19th and 20th centuries. While the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and France remain the dominant regional powers, China has poured in aid and investment dollars in recent years—and Russia, Indonesia, Japan, and India also increasingly seek to advance their interests among Pacific Island countries (PICs). The rivalry produces “strategic anxiety” even as it empowers PICs with greater choice of partners to help them meet pressing demographic, economic, environmental, and regional security concerns. Through a mixture of readings, guest lectures, and seminar discussions, this course explores the drivers behind international security politics in the Pacific from both extra- and intra-regional perspectives, including assessments of the extent to which traditional concepts, legacy agreements, and historical relationships remain useful for both PICs and external powers.