History and Politics of Southeast Asia

Catalog description

(also POL 2360 ) This course is a study of Southeast Asia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Topics analyzed include the establishment of colonial regimes by Western powers, the political structures in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, international commerce, the state and society, religion and anti-colonial movements and the impact of nationalism and modernist reform. In the mid-twentieth century, war and peace in Southeast Asia bring an end to European colonial empires, the emergence of the political structures of independent states, economic and social as well as religious changes. In addition, the interplay of regionalism with issues of identity and unity in the context of post-independence nationalism, the beginning of the Cold War, the formation of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Non-Aligned Movement, the Second Indo-China War and international communism. The countries we discuss include Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Brunei. The course and Global-Learning Program trip in Thailand aim to increase our awareness of one of the most culturally diverse areas in the world today.