Political Science

This course examines the history of East Asia`s international relations and East Asia`s diplomacy towards the United States and the world at large from the 19th century to the advent of the Cold War. More specifically, this course is devoted to answering the question, "How did Korea charter her own path towards establishing a modern conception of national sovereignty throughout the long 19th and 20th centuries?" Topics include a comparison between a Confucian tributary system and a Westphalian system, Japan`s modernization and competing Chinese and Korean responses, Japanese imperialism and the coming of the First and Second World Wars, Japan`s surrender to the Allies and lingering post-colonial questions such as territorial sovereignty over Dokdo, the Korean War and the first two Indochina Wars as the opening "hot wars" of the Cold War, and finally, the future of the Northeast Asian international order after the Cold War.

There are three main objectives in this course. First, it examines how to prepare a theoretical basis to analyze East Asian international relations from the 19th century to the advent of the Cold War and paying special attention to how Korea encountered changes and vicissitudes of fortune as it chartered its own course in the world. Second, it identifies factors which stabilized and disrupted the East Asian international order and how interactions between such factors affected Korea’s responses. Finally, it explores what the future of East Asia’s international order will look like and how Korea’s diplomacy should act as a pivot between East Asia and the United States.

This course analyzes the role that religious forces play in international society today. It provides an overview of major world religions then discusses the role of religions in conflicts and peace.

This course examines the foundations of geopolitics as a discipline and the main theoretical-methodological approaches of geopolitical studies. Topics include: global geopolitical theories and systems--from imperialist to Cold War geopolitics; geopolitical issues in the contemporary world-- the post-Cold War era and the multi-polar world; geopolitical approaches to conflict-- cultures, natural resources, and the state system. 

Administration is the study of administrative operations and management. It is a very important part of government operations; government operations largely rely on administrators and the administrative system to operate stably. The course covers various theories of administration; the structure and characteristics of the administrative department; the input and output of administrative operations (such as personnel administration, financial administration, and public policy, etc.), and the relationship between the administrative department and other departments (including political with administrative relations, governance, with non-profit organizations, etc.). This course also tries to bring in relevant practical cases so that students can understand theory.

This course examines the subjects of political leadership and executive government theoretically, methodologically and comparatively. Theoretically, it covers the trajectory of the major approaches to the study of leaders and executives that includes institutionalism, feminism and rational choice theory. Methodologically, it covers different quantitative and qualitative methods that can be employed to address research questions pertaining to leaders and executives. It also looks at leaders and executives comparatively by assessing the leadership and executive experience geographically and institutionally. Additional topics to be addressed may include political communication, non-elected leaders (e.g. advisors and judges) and the executive experience at sub and supranational levels of government.