1st Edition

Teaching International Affairs With Cases Crossnational Perspectives

By Karen A. Mingst, Katsuhiko Mori Copyright 1998
    240 Pages
    by Routledge

    236 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book introduces intellectual and pedagogical issues of teaching international affairs interactively. The contributors, all scholars and teachers, explore their experiences with using cases in different national settings (China, Japan, Australia) and in teaching American and non-American students both about other geographical areas (Europe and Asia) and global issues. The cases written for this volume are non-American centered, enabling students to examine the interdisciplinary material cross-nationally. The contributors show how active learning strategies, specifically active case learning, have been used in different cultures and evaluate their effectiveness in the different settings. The essays illustrate the problems teachers confront in teaching American students about other regions of the world and how cases alleviate some of these difficulties. Specific cases are presented to teachers and students for use in the classroom. These cases are uniquely interdisciplinary, requiring students to grapple with politics, economics, geography, history, and law. Teaching International Affairs with Cases is suitable for an interdisciplinary audience at both the university and secondary school level, as well as for professional schools.

    Preface -- Active Learning in Different Environments: The Influence of Culture in the Class -- Case Teaching in Non-American Contexts -- Case Teaching in “Internationalized” Japan -- Case Teaching in China: Breaching the Great Wall -- Case Teaching in “Asian” Australia -- Reviewing European Perspective Cases -- Asian and Pacific Perspective Cases -- Global Perspectives -- Lessons Learned -- Non-American Based Cases -- New Regionalism or Asian Ambiguity? Japan and the 1995 APEC Action Agenda -- Enter the Dragon: China Decides to Intervene in the Korean War -- Laws of the Land: The Mabo Case and Native Title in Australia -- From Blair House to the Farmhouse: Negotiating Agriculture Trade in the European Union -- Mischief on Mischief Reef: Chinese Adventures in the Spratly Islands -- Power, Debt, and the Environment

    Biography

    Karen A. Mingst is professor and chair of the Department of Political Science, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky. She has published work on international organization and law, international political economy, and African politics in the major journals of the field. She is the author (with Margaret P. Kams) of The United Nations in the Post-Cold War Era (Westview, 1995), the co-editor and author (with Margaret P. Kams) of The United States and Multilateral Institutions: Patterns of Changing Instrumentality and Influence (Unwin Hyman, 1990), and the author of Politics and the African Development Bank (University Press of Kentucky, 1990). She is active in the International Studies Association, having served as both treasurer and vice president. Dr. Mingst has a long-standing interest in innovative teaching: She was a member of the Pew Faculty, Kennedy School at Harvard University, and received an Outstanding Teacher Award in the College of Arts and Science in 1992–1993 and the Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Teaching. She edited a special edition of International Studies Notes on case teaching. Katsuhiko Mori is associate professor at the Graduate School of International Relations at the International University of Japan. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Carleton University (Canada) in 1994. Dr. Mori is the author of The Political Economy of Japanese Official Development Assistance (Tokyo: International Development Journal, 1995). He is involved as codirector in the case-method workshop of the Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development in Japan.