OCAS 3040 - The Indo-Pacific: What Strategy vis-à-vis China?

***UPDATED for 2025/26***

Other instructors: Allès, Delphine; Blarel, Nicolas ; Camroux, David; Doyon, Jérôme; Guibourg; Duchâtel, Meijer, Hugo; Patalano, Alessio;

The course will analyse the varieties of Indo-Pacific strategies, be they initiated by individual countries or international groupings like the Quad or AUKUS, in order to (1) compare approaches of countries located in this region (Japan, Australia, India, ASEAN countries) and others (the US, France, Germany, UK), (2) assess the consistency of economy and/or security-oriented policies, whether they emphasise on the one hand trade, development, connectivity etc. or, on the other hand, joint manoeuvres, intelligence sharing, arms sales etc. Each case study will refer directly to China to measure to what extent China’s rise overdetermines and/or limits these Indo-Pacific strategies. One full session will be devoted to the Chinese view of the Indo-Pacific initiatives.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• To know what’s going on in the Indo-Pacific is necessary to know what will the 21st century IR are and will be.
• To study the Indo-Pacific helps to understand the world economy as this meta-region is the epicenter of growth and trade
• Security-related issues are key in the Indo-Pacific, a region where one finds some of the global hotspots
• Making sense of the dynamics in the Indo-Pacific contributes to decipher the role of China globally
• The skills developed pertains to data-based knowledge and analytical techniques.

Professional Skills

• To know the Indo-Pacific helps professionally because this huge region is economically dynamic and strategically key to the world’s stability.
• Military dimensions
• The role of oceans in globalisation
• Facets of diplomatic activities
• The growing role of Asia in international relations

Feedback to students will take place on three occasions:

• after submitting a theme/topic in January/February:
• after submitting a research question, a bibliography and a plan in March;
• after the essays will have been marked. The essays will be annotated by the examiner and the grade explained. Christophe Jaffrelot and, if need be, another instructor will meet the students interested in a more detailed feedback. This interaction may also take place virtually.

This course will be run as a seminar. Students are required to keep up with class readings, but also with newspapers and specialized journals to keep up with the developments regarding the Indo-Pacific. The writing requirement consists of one major term paper on a topic of student interest. Each student will be asked to provide a short paper at mid-term to demonstrate that a project is underway. Course evaluation will be arranged in the following way: a 800-word mid-term outline of students’ term paper, which is then reviewed with them and commented on, is unassessed (formative), and the final 4,000-word essay (100% of the final mark) is assessed.

Students will have to submit a research question, a bibliography and a plan to Christophe Jaffrelot by March 2022.

By the first week of March, the topic of each essay will have to be finalized. The term paper will be submitted 15 days after the end of the course.

• In Class Presence: 2 hours a week / 24 hours a semester
• Online learning activities:
• Reading and Preparation for Class: 3 hours a week / 36 hours a semester
• Research and Preparation for Group Work:
• Research and Writing for Individual Assessments: 8 / 12 hours a semester