Workshop 2009 Asia 100
organized by Kyoto University and Keio University

Please also visit to our ASIA Workshop Portal Site


Summary
Asia and Japan are un-separable. Although the past is full of discord and conflict among the Asian nations, the problems we face now suggest that there is so much more to share to let the past interfere with the efforts for policy collaborations.
The 13 "Asian issues" offer the ground for such collaborations. A Kyoto University and a Keio University lecture in tandem raise the issue at each session, inviting the students to challenge their on thinkings on the matter. The participants, away from Kyoto-Keio nexus and from the sights in Asia, will voice their opinions through the "distant-learning" system.

Objectives
The main theme of this course is to offer a framework, by way of lectures and discussions among the participants, for critically examine policy issues of our time in the East Asian context. The participants do not need to be Asia "specialists," but are expected to be strongly committed to revising their "conventional" thinkings on policy matters such as pandemics, the environmental issues, regional integration and the like. Active participation in the discussion following a lecture IS an integral part of this course.

Reference
For those who are new to the field of Asian studies, we recommend to start with the annual World Bank Report, available (PDF) through Internet. Check the World Bank website. Our suggestion is that you familiarize yourself with all sorts "statistical" representations of East Asia. Of course, each annual report comes with the substantial text comments.

Assignments, Evaluation
Given the novelty of this joint "distant-learning" course, many of the "requirements" for the credit hing upon the size of student participation. Minimum requirement, however, is a final 5-page essay which reflects the participant¡Çs grasp of the lectures and the changing awareness of where Asia is in your his/her mind before and after the major portion of the lecture series.


Enrollment | Assignments | Questions/Comments |

Related Courses in the past | Worksohp 2009 Asia, Prologue (July 3rd, 2009)
Staff Page (Password Required) |

#01Oct 02, 2009[Finished]
"Orientation"
Video and Slides in 1window | Video Only | Video and Slides in different windows << 10/25/2009 up

Four "architects" of this joint course will introduce the students to its overall goal, and the system of computer and human networks which supports it.

o #01 Lecture Material (PDF/2in1) (469225bytes, 10/25/2009)
#02Oct 09, 2009[Finished]
"Asia as a History: Viewed from North and Southeast Asia"
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"Asia" is not a natural whole, but is a complex of interactions of people culturally, politically, economically motivated. This section is meant to be a modest introduction to East Asia.

o #02 Lecture Material (PDF/2in1) (1076239bytes, 10/25/2009)
#03Oct 16, 2009[Finished]
"Asian Security Regime"
Video and Slides in 1window | Video Only | Video and Slides in different windows << 10/25/2009 up

Following the introduction Session 2, we move into "Conflictual Dimension of East Asia." East Asia is one of the last which still sustains the legacies of the Cold War: a divided Korea, the transitional economics of China, Vietnam, and Laos. The region is also a frontier of something new: the non-traditional security issues such as human trafficking and others.

o #03 Lecture Material (PDF/2in1) (194047bytes, 10/25/2009)
#04Oct 23, 2009[Finished]
"Asian Conflict: A view from Korea"
The one of the few remaining divided countries in Asia, the Korean perspective on conflict in Asia offers much to share with us.

o #04 Lecture Material (PDF/2in1) (92969bytes, 10/25/2009)
#05Oct 30, 2009[Finished]
"Beyond Major and Minor Powers"
Regardless of the Asian Financial crisis, East Asia continues to draw the attentions of the major powers. Given the complexity of the power interaction, East Asia may be a unique region where major and minor power distinctions may mean much.
#06Nov 06, 2009[Finished]
"Transformation of A Nation: The Case of Thailand"
This part, Wealth or Health, shifts our perspective inwardly. Thailand, one of the East Asian Miracle of the 80s, has undergone a fundamental transformation of its economy beginning late in the 60s, while minimizing the divisive internal strife. This is a nation whose recent past offers a miniature of what the pursuit of wealth may accompany with it.
#07Nov 13, 2009[Finished]
"Transformation of Rural Asia"
Much of Asia still remains "rural." Yet, rural Asia is not immune to the radical transformation evident in urban Asia.
#08Nov 27, 2009[Finished]
"Transforming Rural Population: the case of China"
China is both rich and poor. China is both urban and rural. The people beyond the boundary of rich and poor, and of rural and poor, are transforming themselves in their own accord.
#09Dec 04, 2009[Finished]
"HIV: a Curse of the Century?"
East Asia contains some societies who have successfully dealt with the onslaught of HIV in the 80s and 90s, but as a whole is bracing itself against the second (or 3rd) wave of HIV pandemic.
#10Dec 11, 2009[Finished]
"A Human Security Perspective"
Final Part deals with a new perspective on the issues that touch upon the core of human life: safe and secure daily life and the means to insure them.
#11Dec 18, 2009[Finished]
"Environment Counts"
The environmental issues are that which require policy coordination beyond the national borders while the damages occur within each of national border.
#12Jan 08, 2010[Finished]
"ODA"
Contrary to the popular belief, ODA has never been a "carrot" offered by the developed nations to make the developing nations do what they want. Asian financial crisis of 1997 and its aftermath also helped create the environment for ODA-led initiatives to become far more locally-customized policy endeavour.
#13Jan 09, 2010[Finished]
"Asia as one or Asia as many"
(Saturday class)

Asia is a multi-layered complex where a large number of international and regional organizations intimately interact, bi-lateral and multi-lateral policy coordinations criss-cross all sorts of policy issues. Why not East Asian community, then?