PROGRAM COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course aims to introduce first-year DIS students to the basic concepts of International Relations. First, the course introduces students to the role and influence of the state in international politics. The second part of the course explores how non-state actors such as religious organizations, nationalist movements, multinational corporations, rebel groups, terrorist groups, and Non-Governmental Organizations, exercise their role and influence in world politics. The third part of the course introduces the role and influence of Inter-Governmental Organizations (IGOs) such as the League of Nations, the United Nations, the European Union, and ASEAN, in global and regional contexts. Finally, the course introduces students to major regional and global challenges and issues such as climate change, weapons of mass destruction, humanitarian crises, as well as the North-South divide.

This course is designed for first-year DIS students to advance their vocabulary, reading, and thinking skills. By offering a brief overview of the most critical issues facing the world today, the course also provides students with the opportunity to practice their speaking skills in groups and as a class. This course offers a brief introduction to social, economic, and political events that have shaped the modern world since the Second World War. International issues and conflicts are placed in their geographical contexts with descriptive maps. Beyond advancing language skills, this course offers students historical and political backgrounds to better understand the issues and institutions that are shaping today’s world as reported on international newscasts.

ASEAN Studies aims at offering students the glimpse of modern history of countries in Southeast Asia, which supplements the understanding of socio-cultural, political-security, and particularly economic issues raised by recent ASEAN’s institutional developments. Another objective is to raise students’ awareness of ASEAN and the three communities which have profound implications and impacts on their lives. The course will also enable students to capture the overall picture of the expected costs and opportunities generated by the three ASEAN Communities.

Modern technology yields large amounts of data which can be well understood with the help of statistics. The main objective of this subject is to provide an accessible introduction to statistics. It starts with the concept of data; what it is and how it can be collected and summarized. There is a brief review of the basic concepts of probability. Students will study important statistical tools and understand their use by solving specific applied problems.

This course aims to develop students’ understanding about East and Southeast Asia, a culturally rich and diverse region of the world. At the outset, the course introduces students to the nature of tradition and modernity, and change to family and religion in East and Southeast Asia. Next, the course guides students to explore the role of colonialism and nationalism in political change, national building, and economic development in the region. Finally, the course provides students with opportunities to examine major regional challenges and issues such as democracy, human rights, globalization, and superpowers’ relations.

World History and Civilization is the story of great human adventures, their cultural development and their achievements in human history. World History and Civilization provides a variety of knowledge to students from religious ideas to scientific achievements. This course focuses on the development of academic English to understand major world civilizations chronologically. It starts from the development of Egypt Civilization, Sumerian Civilization, Indus Civilization, Chinese Civilization, and the Mayan Civilization, which are considered to be the predecessors of later development. This course also emphasizes the building of these major civilizations as well as their achievements in the fields of religion, literature, science and technology.

The aim of this subject is to increase students’ understanding of Cambodia’s unique national identity through its history, which is one of the oldest in Southeast Asia and of the development of the histories of other countries in the region through interaction with outsiders, political tendencies and acculturation as well as cultural transformation. Students will examine, discuss and analyze the roles of two great civilized countries in Asia, India and China, in influencing the region in ancient times; how certain countries in the region emerged and developed their ancient and modern states before and after the emergence of Western Superpower; and the rise in nationalism in Southeast Asia during and after World War II.

Khmer Civilization is concerned with Khmer culture and how it has been influenced by foreign cultures since ancient time. Its themes include the relationships between Cambodian and foreign cultures, religions, architecture, arts, beliefs, and ritual ceremonies. It aims at helping students to appreciate Cambodian cultural identity and distinguish it from foreign cultural identities. In addition, students will learn how to spread Cambodian culture in the global context appropriately and know how to link it to some world and regional cultures. The course book is a collection of texts from various sources including Cambodian Culture and History and Cambodian and Indian Cultures.

These courses are designed to develop DIS students’ academic writing skills by having them engage in various academic writing activities such as writing paragraphs and essays, citing sources, quoting, referencing, paraphrasing, and summarizing. The course is primarily aimed to provide students with practical information about the essential conventions of academic writing and to improve students’ academic writing skills through frequent practice. The course places high emphasis on how to avoid plagiarism and how to write unified, cohesive, coherent, and adequately developed paragraphs and essays.

This course seeks to give students a clear understanding of an area fundamentally important in global governance by introducing students to the frameworks of the UN, the supreme Inter-Governmental Organization, and its subordinate agencies, which have significantly influenced the international relations of the states, organizations, and individuals. The course will expose students to the fundamental knowledge concerning the UN and its agencies.

This course is an introduction to the fundamentals of microeconomic analysis. Topics covered include the study of the forces of supply and demand that determine prices and the allocations of resources in markets, as well as the behavior of individuals and businesses in response to those market forces. This introduction course provides all the basic knowledge required to understand other Economics courses that follow.

International Relations I provides a basic illustration of what International Relations is mainly about. Essential concepts, theories, ideologies, debates, and controversies over international politics and economy (among other prime national and international factors) will be presented throughout the course. In addition, students will be exposed to different discussions over the relativity of IR theory and practice in the real world, through the analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of specific theories when applied to different case scenarios/case studies.

This course explores contemporary dynamic politics of the eleven countries in Southeast Asia in a new international era following the end of the Cold War. Despite heavy load of region’s sensational headlines and stereotypical images, the current Southeast Asia populated by more than 600 million people has currently been experiencing unprecedented and dynamic political and socio-economic changes. Neo-paradigm of wealth and poverty; conflict over rights, identity, social justice, and particularly power; emergence of new actors advocating against the governments; centrality of ASEAN in the region and the world at large; and the like are emerging across the countries in Southeast Asia. Therefore, the interconnectedness between institutions and social groups, state-society relations and democracy, economy and development, and foreign relations of those eleven countries transforming the entire Southeast Asia has become a primary focus of international attention and thus has been recently subjected to careful scrutiny.

Given the critical importance of effective communication to enhance performance and productivity, both personally and professionally, this course aims to introduce students to fundamental principles of communication, and effective applications of communication. The principles to be discussed include, inter alia, communication cycles and barriers, six rules of effective message, communication by objective, and communication through technology. Subsequently, the course shifts to practical applications at workplace, namely job search skills, presentation skills and writing skills of memos, reports and proposals. Apart from literature, exercises and case studies are also integral parts of this course.

This course is an introduction to the study of the aggregate national economy. It introduces basic models of macroeconomics. It explores issues such as the determinants of economic growth, and how monetary and fiscal policies affect output, employment, unemployment, interest rates, and inflation.

A continuation from International Relation I, International Relation II emphasizes the complexity of interconnectedness among prominent actors—be them government, civil society, or individuals—who have certain levels of influence over political and economic decisions. Not only so, International Relations II provides students with a more comprehensive look at how conflicts and instability arise in the face of globalization, technological advancement, and intellectual development, and how they are handled through various means. Contemporary global issues, including the environment, healthcare, and human rights, discussed in this course will serve as a great opportunity for students to see how IR theories are at work in today’s challenging world arena.

The Model ASEAN Summit is one of the most unique classes because it is an academic simulation of the annual meeting held by ASEAN in relation to (1) politics and security, (2) economic integration, (3) social welfare and development, (4) ASEAN free trade agreement, (5) transnational crime and international terrorism, and (6) other external relations amongst its 10 member countries and its dialogue partners—China, Japan, and South Korea.

This course is designed to improve students’ critical thinking and analytical skills by looking at global, regional and local affairs. To this end, the course includes several special features aiming at equipping students with necessary skills and knowledge such as critical thinking, logical fallacies, reasoning methods, rational judgment and more.

ASEAN in Regional and Global Contexts looks at the situation in Southeast Asia during the Cold War period and the emergence of regionalization leading to the formation of ASEAN. It discusses the roles and functions of ASEAN, the impact of ASEAN in regional politics and economy, ASEAN’s norms and practice and the transformation of ASEAN in response to international, regional and sub-regional changes. Also, the engagement of ASEAN with the world’s major powers, regional groupings such as EU, and international institutions like UN will be discussed.

Political theory can be considered a tradition of discourse or a mode of thinking about the significance of political events that can pave ways to a better understanding of our contemporary societies, but is politics necessarily driven purely by sub-rational motives such as material interests or can ideas make a difference? This course is designed to introduce and explore the history, nature, and evolution of political theory—a realm of intellectual inquiry where we examine our most basic concepts and definitions, engage in normative judgment of our existing systems of government, and articulate and defend a vision of the system of political organization we envision to be ideal. It is meant to offer critical insight into the different ways in which political thinkers have responded to the challenges and divisive issues in the complexity of our contemporary political world. By studying the evolving constructs of political theory mainly in the past several centuries, students will gain insight into different approaches that leaders use to solve complex problems of governance and maintenance of social order and that which revolutionizes the ways we come to understand democracy, justice, rights and politics in a broader sense mainly from the 18th Century, if not ancient time.

The course is also designed to provide advanced undergraduates with an opportunity to engage contemporary political theory at a high intellectual level as well as an occasion for theoretical reflection on their own political commitments. It is to demonstrate the ways in which political theory provides us with not only the foundations of our political system, but guidance in understanding, evaluating, and coping with on-going navigation of difference in deeply pluralistic and interdependent societies. Common themes seen in contemporary political thought include governance, property ownership and redistribution, free enterprise, individual liberty, justice, and responsibility for the common welfare. 

The course aims to equip students with broad critical thinking on the current knowledge of the global political economy through the discussions of different theories, approaches, and definitions. This course will look into specific practical applications of economic and political theories at regional and global levels. It helps students understand the current issues surrounding development and financial system.

This course is intended to provide students with basic, essential research concepts of and how-to approaches to research that can be applied to most social settings, especially in International Studies. This course will be very helpful for conducting small-scale projects and for writing the senior project in the final year. In addition, the concepts in the course will help students critically read and deal with various research findings they may encounter in the future.

International Law has an important role in contemporary international society. Understanding its principles, at least at an introductory level, is compulsory for students of International Studies. The course begins with an introduction to central elements of public international law. The areas introduced will cover examples of how international law works in specific fields and will enable students to identify legal issues in current international affairs.

This course considers the content of good governance and the question of why it has been widely promoted. Issues such as the politics of development and the roles of civil society will be analyzed. The course will also look into implications of promoting accountable and transparent government and public sector reforms and will then briefly discuss issues relating to global governance.

Model United Nations is another unique class because it is an academic simulation of the United Nations that aims to educate participants about civics, effective communication, globalization and multilateral diplomacy. This class is meant to prepare you to fully participate in the simulation and to increase your understanding of how the United Nations Security Council deals with and negotiates solutions to global problems such as global climate change, weapons proliferation, human rights, peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding.

Designed as a guide to comparative politics, this course looks at institutions and policies of various countries and regions from cross-national/regional perspectives. Topics covered include what comparative politics is, the history of comparative politics, political development, political culture, challenges and alternatives to the development approach, communism, democracy and democratization, and applicability of the various models and paradigms of comparative politics, as well as what lies ahead in comparative politics. Students will be exposed to mono-country, bi-country, and multi-country comparative studies in various fields.

At the heart of International Relations lies a continuous examination of the development of inter-state relations and different community building initiatives and projects to govern such. Remarkably, the Asia-Pacific, which is contested even in the definition itself, is known as a diverse region that owns most of the world population and an important arena where different major regional powers including U.S., China, and Japan cooperate, resulting in various community building projects while concurrently competing against one another. As a state cannot be alone traveler for peace and prosperity in this age of globalization and the impacts of what happens in the Asia-Pacific can be felt beyond the geographic area, this region and a set of institutions are worthy of comprehensive study. The course is designed for students who seek a better understanding of what the Asia-Pacific is, who involves in the building of the “regional architecture,” what the regionalism and its limitations, if any, is, and what the regionalism associated with institutions in the Asia-Pacific is likely to be.

This course is specifically designed for students of International Relations (International Studies). The main objective of this course is to introduce students to both research methodologies and methods commonly used in the discipline of International Relations and a broad research process roadmap, ranging from formulating research questions to selecting research designs, collecting and analyzing data, and writing research reports. Specifically this course aims to help students identify their research topics, formulate research questions, organize literature review, and select appropriate research designs and methods for their research projects. At the end of the course, students are required to submit their complete research proposals. It is expected that those research proposals can be converted into full research if students are selected to join the Honours Program in their final year.

Political theory can be considered a tradition of discourse or a mode of thinking about the significance of political events that can pave ways to a better understanding of our contemporary politics and societies. The main body of the scholarship includes the history, nature, and evolution of political theory—a realm of intellectual inquiry where we examine our most basic concepts and definitions, engage in normative judgment of our existing systems of government and governance, and articulate and defend a vision of the system of political organization we envision to be ideal. It is meant to offer critical insight into the different ways in which political thinkers have responded to the challenges and divisive issues in the complexity of our contemporary political world. The central question in any political debates is whether politics is necessarily driven purely by sub-rational motives such as material interests or can ideas make a difference?

International Relations (IRs) theory is no exception and has been the subject of intense academic, intellectual and political debates. It has witnessed highly divergent approaches and interpretations, theoretical trajectories and contending positions as well as applications of key concepts and contested views about the different logics of action and the practical purpose underpinning those generalizations and/or theorizations.

This course is designed to provide the participants with a solid theoretical and conceptual grounding of this complexity and diversity and an opportunity to engage key contemporary IRs theories at a high intellectual level as well as an occasion for theoretical reflection on their own political commitments. Since it engages more closely critical IR and interpretative understanding and analysis, it departs from the mainstream or orthodox theories and places more emphases on the critical alternatives to the orthodoxy.

This course aims at introducing students to the various methods by which foreign policies of states are analyzed and compared. It is divided into two parts. The first part examines theoretical approaches to foreign policy analysis. There are essentially three approaches to foreign policy studies. The course will examine: (a) studies that explain foreign policy at the level of individual policy makers; (b) studies that explain foreign policy in terms of factors at the level of domestic politics (including bureaucratic politics, domestic power politics, and national identity); and (c) studies that explain foreign policy at the level of international system.

This course equips students with theoretical and empirical knowledge of governance issues in developing countries. It is divided into two parts. In the first part of the course, students are familiarized with various major governance issues in developing countries. The themes covered in this course include inequality, human rights, gender, environment, development, etc. The second part of the course illustrates these issues with country-specific case studies from different parts of the world with a heavy focus on Southeast Asian countries.

This course provides students with theoretical frameworks and factual knowledge about the concepts, dynamics, and impacts of globalization. At the outset, the course introduces students to the theoretical debates about the concept, history, and dynamics of globalization. The second part of the course provides students with opportunities to examine the impacts of globalization on social order, specifically on states’ economies, governance, and identities. Then the course leads students to explore the links between globalization and (in)security, (in)equality, and (un)democracy. Finally, the course introduces the possible policy measures which can minimize the harm and maximize the benefits of globalization.

This course surveys theoretical and empirical knowledge of conflict resolution. The first part of the course introduces the students to the field of conflict studies, which is rich in theoretical and methodological approaches. Next, students are engaged with a variety learning activities designed to help them understand and to explain the causes of conflict. The final part explores a variety of theoretical approaches and practical policy measures to resolve conflicts.

This course specifically introduces students the nature of power, roles of both state and non-state actors, and order in international relations which have generally been considered as the domain of states. To equip students with better understanding about power, actors and order in international relations, this course will provide students with both theories and practices based on a variety of articles and journals

This course is about the making of small states’ foreign policy choices. It provides a general introduction to the history, traditions, approaches and theories of small states in conducting their diplomacy to pursue their foreign policy objectives. The course centers on theoretical and analytical tools as well as empirical information to understand and analyze small states’ foreign policy. Moreover, the course primarily aims to teach students to systematically explain and critically evaluate small states’ foreign policy.

There are three major parts and goals of the course. The first is to understand the history of small states in the Westphalian system throughout its historical incarnation from 17th to 21st century. Small states’ survival, proliferation and termination deserve our critical scrutiny in the structure shaped by power politics. Second, the class examines the intellectual processes by which small states’ diplomacy is made. This part is normative since it aims to provide students with theoretical and conceptual foundations for theoretically understanding and systematically analyzing small states’ foreign policy. To put it in a nutshell, the class examines key theoretical debates on small states’ diplomacy in international relations. Third, the class explores the political processes by which small states’ foreign policy choices are made. This part is positive and theoretical because it explores international, societal, institutional and decision-making influences on small states’ foreign policy choices. It aims to provide conceptual foundations for analytically and systematically explaining how and why small states’ foreign policy is conducted.

Three major goals are related, indeed. First of all, understanding the history of small states allows us to meaningfully and critically understand how and why those small states have existed, evolved and/or disappeared in the Westphalian system since October 1648. Second, comprehending both intellectual and political processes by which small states’ foreign policy is made enables us to more systematically, critically and effectively explain and evaluate substances and processes of small states’ diplomacy. The course highly encourages students throughout the semester to ask how and why small states’ diplomacy is conducted, as well as to think about what small states’ foreign policy should be and what the best process is for making sound foreign policy choices to maximize their interests at various levels.

This course examines the philosophy of human rights protection; the universal protection of human rights in international human rights law, in particular through the work of the UN Human Rights Council and other treaty-based committees. It offers an overview of the existing conventions and institutions. Indeed, this course is designed to equip students with the knowledge and skills—notably legal expertise sensitivity to cultural differences and knowledge of the UN system and its NGOs interfaces—necessary to be effective human rights workers and/or advocates within governments, NGOs and organizations more generally.

Problems in the growth of underdeveloped countries will be explored. The course strives to find answers to questions such as: Why some countries are richer than others? What accounts for the different growth rates among countries? Topics covered include the consequences of market structures, population growth, externalities, institutions, and political factors for economic development.

This course covers theoretical frameworks and factual knowledge in international security. At the outset, the course introduces the students to a variety of theoretical approaches, both traditional and non-traditional, to security and its concept. The second part of the course guides students to examine major contemporary security challenges such as terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, organized crime, state failure, migration, cyber-threats, environmental destruction, and energy security. The third part of the course provides students with opportunities to explore a variety of regional security challenges and issues such as China’s rise, the Korean peninsula, India’s rise, Pakistan’s security, and Russia’s revival. Finally, the course provides students with opportunities to explore practical policy measures to confront those security challenges.

Diplomacy, the art and conduct of relations among states, and between states and other actors, is an important means/instrument which states employ to pursue their foreign policy goals. Diplomacy is mainly, but not exclusively, conducted by professional diplomats working for the ministries of foreign affairs. As far as students of International Relations are concerned, the knowledge of modern diplomacy is a valuable asset for them. With such knowledge, students will be able to pursue not only their academic goals but also their dream careers in the ministries of foreign affairs. Against this background, this course is designed to introduce students to the nature and practice of modern diplomacy. At the outset, the course introduces students to the structure and functioning of the ministries of foreign affairs, the states’ principal institutions tasked with conducting diplomatic relations with other actors on the world stage. Next, the course leads students to examine the work of diplomats. In other words, this course guides students to examine and analyze the processes, methods, opportunities, and challenges of diplomatic negotiations and relations conducted by diplomats who are stationed both inside states and inside embassies overseas.

This course covers the basic quantitative and econometric tools needed to understand empirical research and to carry research projects using a quantitative approach. The course focuses on applied approach on how to use econometric techniques to analyze international issues. During the course, more applications in the area of international economics and the analytical method for analyzing government’s policy will be provided such as the analysis of the

quantitative impact of international trade, international flow of capital and investment, international labor and people movement, economic integration, global value chain, the flow of international technology, free-trade agreement (FTA) and other related issues.

Topics included are statistical inference, regression, quantitative method for evaluation of policies and programs, macro and microeconomic econometric forecasting. Students will also learn to use statistical software such as MS. Excel and other statistical software to perform the analysis. The prerequisite for this course is fundamental of statistics.

The course studies a number of important economic observations from ASEAN, East Asian, G8, and BRICS economies through the lenses of economic theory, especially the theory of economic growth. The purpose of this course is to provide a rigorous and analytical overview of economic structures, development policy orientations, economic performances, and development constraints of those economies.

This course introduces students to the global trade and emphasizes the significance and implications of government policies for trade and foreign direct investment in certain region or countries. Specifically, students will learn about various trade and investment policies and develop an intuitive understanding of the policy rationales, especially with regards to international agricultural trade. Students will learn about the roles of government and institutions in setting trade policies.

This course is the first part of the study of International Economics. International Trade Theory and Policy is alive with practical questions, including but not limited to: What is the basis for trade? What are the effects of trade? Who will gain from trade (and who will lose)? How are the value and volume of trade determined? What factors hinder trade flows? And what are the welfare impacts of public policy that attempts to alter the patterns of trade emerging through market forces? The course will answer these questions by presenting a coherent basic microeconomic framework that forms the theories of international trade in its historical timeline. First, the Classical theory of trade is concerned with the earliest theories of Mercantilism and the Ricardian model of comparative advantage. Then, Neoclassical trade theory deals primarily with Offer Curves and the Heckscher-Ohlin model. Following is the post-Heckscher-Ohlin theories of trade. After theories, we turn to policy, analyzing the impacts on economic efficiency (welfare) of certain protectionist trade policy instruments such as import tariffs and non-tariff barriers such as import quotas, export restraints, border taxes and so on. Applications to real-world current issues are also included.

With increasing financial globalization, hardly any countries around the world today are closed economies. This course is essentially macroeconomics for open economies—the second part of the study of International Economics. Therefore, this course is to develop a deeper understanding of how the macro-economy works when it is open to international capital flows. It is designed as an introduction to such topics as the balance of payments, uncovered interest parity, purchasing power parity condition, (determinants of) exchange rates and exchange rate regimes, the external balance of an open economy and monetary and fiscal policies in an open economy. Students will see how central banks, through affecting the money supply, can influence the exchange rate and thus the current account, and how the economy adjusts to various shocks under floating and fixed exchange rate regimes.

In a context of the global open economy, industrial policy no longer means a direct intervention or control of a government in a production but refers to policies implemented by various institutions to stimulate firm creation, to favor their agglomeration, and promote innovation and competitive development. Hence, this course covers policies aimed at integrating capital and product markets, rules of the game to ensure fair competition, the roles of Research and Development, and industrial development policies.

Problems in the growth of developing countries will be explored. The course strives to find answers to questions such as: Why are some countries richer than others? What accounts for the different growth rates among countries? Thus, it begins with a discussion of growth models and then move on to the analysis of, for example, health and education, population, urbanization, rural development, environment, and international trade and finance.

This course is practically designed for students to understand the process of trade negotiation, especially the nature of preparations that a state needs to make. At the same time, it also aims to illustrate the techniques, approaches, and strategies as part of state’s policies in the international economic relations. During this course, students expect to learn how to conduct analysis on trade policies and other related issues based on recent existing case studies.

The digitization of the economy is one of the recent topics of our time. Digital technologies have changed the way firms, household, government and market work and it will continue to do so in the future. This course is about digital economics an d how the digital economy influences markets and the society. The course will focus on the following areas: (1) fundamental of digital economies, (2) the digital technologies in private business and household sectors, (3) the digital technologies in public and government sectors and (4) the digital technologies in international trade and finance, (5) infrastructure, regulation and policy of digital economy.