SemesterSpring Semester, 2025
DepartmentGraduate Institute of East Asian Studies MA Program, First Year Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies PhD Program, First Year
Course NameDebating Human Security: Justice, Equality, Humanity and Rights
InstructorWANG YUN
Credit3.0
Course TypeElective
Prerequisite
Course Objective
Course Description
Course Schedule




























































































































DATE

READING ASSIGNMENTS

TOPICS TO BE COVERED

W1



 

  1. Introduction



TED Talk video: Meg Jay “Why 30 is not the new 20,”

  1. Overview of the syllabus

  2. What are justice, equality, humanity and rights?

  3. How can “you” do about them?

W2



 

  1. Kaldor, ch.5 A Decade of Humanitarian Intervention,

  2. Owen and Liotta, 2006. “Why Human Security?” Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations Vol VII, No. 1: 37-55.

  3. *Roland Paris, “Human Security: Paradigm Shift or Hot Air,” International Security, Vol. 26, N. 2, Fall 2001: 87-102.

  4. *PJ Burgess and Owen, “What is ‘Human Security’? Comments by 21 Authors” Security Dialogue, Vol. 35, No. 3, September 2004: 345-72.

  5. YouTube Video: New War 2.0: Interview with Kaldor



 

  1. Are there universal standards of justice, equality and rights?

  2. What is human security?

  3. Group preference due



(* are recommended readings)

 

  1. Human Rights

(Universality and Rights)

W3



 

  1. Kaldor, ch.2 or Kaldor 2003 “American Power from Compellance to Cosmopolitanism”

  2. Gary King and Christpher Murray, “Rethinking Human Security”

  3. *Donnelly, Jack. 2007. “The Relative Universality of Human Rights” Human Rights Quarterly 29(2)

  4. *Goodhart, Michael. 2008. “Neither Relative nor Universal: A Response to Donnelly” Human Rights Quarterly 30(1): 183-193



 

  1. Who’s security? Measurement of human security

  2. Universal rights?

  3. Cultural rights?

  4. Political rights and socioeconomic rights, which one should be first?



 

W4



 



 

  1. Thompson, Mark R.. “Pacific Asia after 'Asian Values': Authoritarianism, Democracy, and 'Good Governance'.” Third World Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 6 (2004), pp. 1079-1095.

  2. Osofsky, Hari M.. “Understanding ‘Hostage-Diplomacy’: The Release of Wei Jingsheng and Wang Dan” Yale Human Rights & Development Law Journal 1 (1998).

  3. * Wachman, Alan. “Does the Diplomacy of Shame Promote Human Rights in China?” Third World Quarterly (2001).



 

  1. Expert Section 1

  2. Human Rights: the East and the West

  3. Asian values

  4. Case: Hostage diplomacy

  5. Exercise/Quiz 1



 

 

  1. Just War

(Stability and Responsibility)

W5



 

  1. Kaldor, Chapter 6 From Just War to Just Peace

  2. Owen, 2011, “R2P: More than a slogan”

  3. *Weiss, Thomas “The Sunset of Humanitarian Intervention? The R2P in a Unipolar Era,” Security Dialogue, 2004 35: 2: 135-153.    

  4. *Deitelhoff, Nicole, 2009. "The Discursive Process of Legalization: Charting Islands of Persuasion in the ICC Case," International Organization, 63(01): 33-65.

  5. *ICRC, “International Humanitarian Law in Brief”

  6. *Human Rights Watch, “Selling Justice Short,” 2009.

  7. *Scott Strauss, “Darfur and the Genocide Debate” Foreign Affairs, January/February 2005

  8. *Kenneth Roth, "The Law of War in the War on Terror," Foreign Affairs, January/February 2004.

  9. * Renatho Costa, "Religion and the New Wars Debate" Contexto International, 2019.



 

  1. Biopolitics

  2. SARS, MERS, Ebola, COVID-19 and more

  3. Biological security vs. Human rights

  4. What is City Wanderer?



 

W6



 

  1. Group 2 Presentation and Discussion

  2. TBA



 

  1. Expert Section 2

  2. Exercise/Quiz 2

W7



 

  1. City Wanderer discussion



 



CITY WANDERER© BEGIN



 

  1. Prepare City Wanderer projects



 

  1. Humanitarian Issues



(Issues of Justice and Humanity)

W8



 

  1. Michael Dillon, “Biopolitics of Security” in Handbook of New Security Studies (2010)

  2. Stefan Elbe, “Pandemic Security” in Handbook of New Security Studies (2010)

  3. Christian Enemark, “Is Pandemic Flu a Security Threat?” Survival (2009)

  4. Stefan Elbe, "AIDS, Security, Biopolitics," International Relations (2005)

  5. Multimedia: Pandemic Online game

  6. Movies: Contagion (2011)



 

  1. Just war theory and humanitarian intervention

  2. UN human security institutions

  3. R2P

  4. Landmine ban movement and transnational advocacy

W9



 

  1. Midterm Week



 



CITY WANDERER© REPORT DUE AND SHARING



 

  1. Case Study topic discussion



 

W10



 

  1. Kaldor, Chapter 5 or Kaldor 2003, “The idea of global civil society”

  2. Don Hubert, “The Landmine Treaty: A Case Study in Humanitarian Advocacy,” Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies, Occasional Paper # 42, 2000, Chapter 5.

  3. *Thomas Weiss, 2006, “Principles, Politics, and Humanitarian Action” Ethics & International Affairs 13(1)



 

  1. Expert Section 3

  2. Case: Global Civil Society and Cosmopolitanism

  3. Just war theory in test: China or Africa

  4. Just war theory in test: torture

  5. Exercise/Quiz 3



 

 

  1. Trade and Immigration

(Development and Equality)



W11




  1. (Video) Pietra Rivoli. 2009. The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy

  2. Wu, Guoguang. 2013. “Human security challenges with China: why and how the rise of China makes the world vulnerable?”

  3. *Tarrow, Sidney G. 2005. The New Transnational Activism, New York: Cambridge University Press. Ch.1-2.

  4. *Yong Deng and Thomas G. Moore, “China Views Globalization: Toward a New Great-Power Politics?” The Washington Quarterly, 27 (3) (Summer 2004): 117 – 136.



GROUP CASE PAPER TOPIC DUE



 

  1. Globalization: its promises and opposition

  2. Anti-globalization activism

  3. MNCs and “race to the bottom”

  4. Case: China’s view toward globalization

W12



 

  1. Peggy Levitt, "’You Know, Abraham Was Really the First Immigrant’: Religion and Transnational Migration” International Migration Review, 37(3), Transnational Migration: International Perspectives (Fall, 2003): 847-873.

  2. *Cohen, Robin. 1997. Global Diasporas: An Introduction. Seattle: Univ. of Washington Press.



 

  1. Expert Section 4

  2. Immigration: a cultural right or economic right?

  3. Freedom of immigration?

  4. Exercise/Quiz 4

 

  1. Sustainable Politics

(Issues of Suitability)

W13



 

  1. Tim Hayward, 2007. “Human Rights versus Emissions Rights: Climate Justice and the Equitable Distribution of Ecological Space,” Ethics and International Affairs 21.4.

  2. *Tarrow, Sidney G.; Donatella Della Porta, 2005b. Transnational Protest and Global Activism‎ (print)

  3. *Romina Picolotti & Jorge Daniel Taillant eds. Linking Human Rights and the Environment. 2003



 



TED Talk by Paul Piff: Does Money Make You Mean



       




  1. Principal-agent theory

  2. Kyoto Protocol

  3. Environmental rights



 

W14



 

  1. Xie, 2011, “China's Environmental Activism in the Age of Globalization,” Asian Politics & Policy 3(2): 207–224.

  2. *Abigail R. Jahiel “The Organization of Environmental Protection in China,” The China Quarterly: 757-787.



 

  1. Expert Section 5

  2. Environmental activism in China

  3. Exercise/Quiz 5



 

W15



 

  1. Owen Taylor and Mary Martin, 2010. “The Second Generation of Human Security: Lessons from the UN and EU Experiences?” International Affairs, 85(1).

  2. *Owen, Taylor, 2008. The Critique that Doesn’t Bite: A Response to David Chandler’s “Human Security: The Dog that didn’t Bark” Security Dialogue, 39(4), April/June 2008.

  3. *Caprioli, Mary, “Democracy and Human Rights Versus Women’s Security: A Contradiction?” Security Dialogue 2004 35(4): 411-428.

  4. *Emilie Hafner-Burton and Kiyoteri Tsutsui, “Justice Lost!: The Failure of International Human Rights Law to Matter Where it is Needed Most” Journal of Peace Research (2007): 407-25.

  5. *Emilie Hafner-Burton and James Ron, “Seeing Double”



 

 




  1. Review: Justice, Equality, Humanity and Rights

  2. Second Generation HS

  3. Feminist view on HS

W16




  1. Group Assignment Discussion and Preparation



 

  1. TBA

W17




  1. Group Presentation




  1. TBA

W28

Final Exam Week

GROUP PAPER DUE

Teaching Methods
Teaching Assistant
Requirement/Grading


  1. In-class exercises and participation: 10%




  2. In-class quizzes: 30%




  3. Thought papers: 20%




  4. Research paper (group): 20%




  5. Presentation and round table (group): 20%




Textbook & Reference

Texts:



Mary Kaldor, Human Security. Polity Press (2007) [PDF]



Yoichi Mine, Oscar A. Gomez, Ako Muto, Human Security Norms in East Asia (2019) [ebook]



Andrew Crabtree, Sustainability, Capabilities and Human Security (2020) [ebook]



All selected chapters/articles are available on Moodle.


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