Grand Strategy From Great Powers To Small Powers In Asia

"Grand Strategy" has become a buzzword for International Relations since the 21st Century. The main reason is the emergence of the US-China strategic competition, particularly in Asia. With its increasing economic and military capabilities, China has challenged US primacy in the region, and to that end, China attempts to create its strategy vision and increase influence while the United States creates its own vision to counter it. In this context, many policy-makers and scholars in the United States and China provide the ideas for US or Chinese "grand strategy". These discussions over US and Chinese grand strategies are important because those ideas shape great powers' behavior that in turn determines the future direction of global and regional politics. However, the fundamental questions remain. There is little consensus over the concept of grand strategy, and each policy-makers and scholars use the term differently. Also, it is unclear whether superpowers or great powers are the only actors that monopolize "grand strategy" in the international relations. While great powers are important players in international politics, small and middle powers also have agency. In this context, this course explores the concept of grand strategy and a broad range of grand strategies formulated by great, middle, and small powers that affect regional politics by using the case of Asian states.