Master of International Relations and Development

This course aims to introduce students to the major developments and challenges of the political economy of Greater China from a historical perspective. The political and economic developments followed very different historical trajectories. For example, the economies of Hong Kong and Taiwan took off during 1980s along with other Tiger economies in East Asian, and Mainland China began to catch up with phenomenal growth during the past three decades and is becoming the centre of gravity in the regional economic order. Governments assume different roles in the economic development in these regions, and the situation is complicated by their different pace of political liberalization. The development experiences in different countries including the region also provide valuable insights for us to critically re-examine some of the existing perspectives on political economy. These experiences will have significant implications on the regional and global economy.
In this course, we will focus on the following questions: 1) What are the different assumption on the roles of government in the economic developments? 2) Could these different approaches be reconciled with closer economic integration? 3) How the development experiences in different Asian countries contribute to our understanding of political economy more broadly? To address these questions, the course will first introduce the basic conceptual understandings of the role of government and market in modern political economy. The course will then discuss the various development experiences and the problems encountered in different countries/regions in East Asia. The last part of the course will examine the theoretical and empirical implications of economic development and economic globalization.

Course Outline

The international relations of the modern era are governed increasingly by rules (governance regimes) and typically mediated or overseen by a vast array of international, regional and multilateral institutions. By one estimate, for example, there are currently over 4,000 international rule regimes and several hundred international institutions that govern issue areas as diverse as international trade and commerce, security, investment, clearance and financial settlements, labour practices, maritime shipping, migration, food and agriculture, telecommunications, refugees, aviation, drugs and crime, tourism, health and education. In addition, in the post-war era there has been an explosion of standards regimes, all designed to enhance the trans-border efficiencies in the movement of goods and services by reducing ‘regulatory unevenness’ and non-transferability. These include standards regimes in accounting, reporting and transparency, weights and measurements, food safety, hazardous materials and waste management, pollution, fisheries and oceans, meteorology forecasting, risk management, transfer pricing, taxation, communications, and space junk ─ among many others.
The courses introduces students to the history, evolution and practices of international institutions and international rule regimes, why and how they have emerged, the trajectories of their evolution, and their impact on states and state based policy making. Specifically, the course examines the embedded and structurally dominant nature of these regimes for international commerce, security, and finance, and the contested nature of these governance regimes in terms of the changing nature of the post-war international institutional architecture.

Course Outline

This course provides an introduction to the role and importance of cities and urbanization process in regional, national and global development. The course provides a conceptual and empirical basis from which to understand urban problems from demographic, social, economic, cultural and political perspectives and critically engage current urban policy issues, debates and solutions. Topics to be covered include global city/city-region, knowledge-based urban economic, urban social-spatial change, transport, land use and housing policy, urban politics and governance.

Course Outline

This course aims to compare and contrast major social development issues and challenges confronting most societies, and examine how state, market and civil society have interacted in response to the critical development issues. The course will be with particular reference to discuss how different economic development strategies adopted by Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan have affected social development of these societies. Students will be engaged in studying how civil society has emerged and developed in these societies, especially examining how and what major approaches/ measures that the governments have adopted to manage the growing complexity of social problems, the autonomization of society and the changing role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Course Outline

This course will focus on public health policy primarily in the developing world. We will begin with foundation knowledge on health care, health market, health financing, provision, and public health, followed by an overview of public health challenges in developing socities. After understanding the central role of the state in promoting population health, this course will then discuss in depth a series of critical public health policy issues in the develoing world, such as communicable disease control, health financing, capacity building of the provision system, health of the floating population, etc. Students will experience a variety of pedagogies in this course, including lecture, seminar, movie-screening and discussion, instructor-guided group project, and field visit.

Course Outline

Gender and development critically analyzes gender issues in the development context, examining the impact upon both men and women as a result of economic development and social transformation. The course begins with theoretical approaches to gender and development, development theory and feminist critiques. Followed by looking into topics such as gender inequalities in paid and unpaid work; feminist critiques of economics and of theoretical debates within the gender and development field on topics such as structural adjustment, feminization of the labor force, and poverty; women, health and reproductive rights; Women and education; Agriculture, Environment and gender; examination of efforts and proposals by governments, international policy-making institutions, and civil society organizations.

Course Outline

This project requires students to complete their research theses based on their proposals developed in Semester One. The topics should be relevant to the major themes and issues related to the development studies of selected a country/ countries. Students are expected to seek advice on the selection of thesis topics with their respective supervisors and to get approvals from their supervisors before working on their theses

Course Outline