210069 SE BAK10: International Politics and Development (2023S)

Objectives: Students should acquire basic knowledge of postcolonial theories on the one hand, and of Chinese (colonial) history and thus of Chinese and Western self-understanding as well as of Western-Chinese relations on the other. In particular, students should deepen their understanding of current changes in the world order and the struggle for global hegemony and develop a self-critical view of processes of othering and the construction of enemy images. In addition, students will acquire and learn to apply basic methodological knowledge of critical discourse analysis.

Contents: With the economic rise of China, the global supremacy of "the West" is fading, and the world order shaped by U.S. hegemony is increasingly being called into question. In the US media, war with China is openly discussed (e.g. Foreign Affairs, The Hill), while "the West" forms military alliances against China (e.g. Aukus). After the trade war under President Trump, whose advisors had already argued for a military confrontation with China, armed conflict between the U.S. and China seems increasingly likely at present. In the wake of the U.S., the European Union is also increasingly revising its hitherto economic cooperation-oriented stance toward China.
At the same time, "the West" is arming itself discursively against China, which is often portrayed in the media as a threat. The Western rhetoric of the "red" or "yellow peril," established since the colonial era and especially after the "loss of China" (1949), is being revived. It articulates (neo-)colonial notions of Western superiority that have essentially determined the relationship between "the West" and China since the Opium Wars of the 1840s.
The seminar will focus on the critical analysis of Western representations of China and the Western-Chinese relations articulated in them. The theoretical starting point of the seminar is formed by postcolonial approaches, which open up the construction of China as "the Other" and thus at the same time processes of Western identity formation for reflection. The seminar will focus on China's colonial history, current Western policies towards China, and Western political-media discourses on China.

Methods: Oral: text discussion, working groups, (short) presentations.
Written: questions on basic literature, development of the question of the seminar paper, seminar paper.