[POLS W4871] Chinese Foreign Policy

Unlike the other reviewer, I don't like Professor Nathan and his A-. Surely this class is considered easy with relatively little work, but it is filled with too much political correctness to be a great class (watch out those annoying people--they love to show off their lack of knowledge and reiterate their random sinophile, perhaps to appeal Nathan). The lectures are best characterized by Nathan's constantly scratching his head saying that his lectures are out of control, and a glance at the syllabus/reading list tells you how little effort Nathan seems to have put into teaching the course. Most of the concepts/arguments are outdated, and there is no topic assigned for the two essays. Instead students are left with several pretentiously ambiguous categories of writing to work on (which sounds nice at first, but actually a waste of time for students to come up with something "interesting" to write...). Choose your topic wisely (because of the whole political correctness thing).

Great course. Though DEFINATELY not for the conservatives or realists out there.

Especially good after Bernstein's modern chinese politics in the fall.

Nathan is really likeable. Easy grader...i would be shocked if 90% of the class didnt pull an A- for turning in their work.

And...if you're actually interested in learning, do the reading and you'll be a stud.

Andy Nathan is something of a bigshot in Chinese political scholarship, known for not liking the Communist Party. He got lots of press for publishing the Tiananmen Papers. He's even a nice man and a very nice advisor. Given all that, you'd think he would be a bit more interesting as a lecturer. I fell asleep in every one of his lectures. I expected to learn more about the cryptic and mysterious Chinese side of foreign policy formation, but Nathan teaches essentially a course on American policy towards China and an American view of other countries' policies towards China. He likes to involve student discussion into classes, which is nice, and the EP-3 incident spiced up all our lives. But the lecture content itself is pretty predictable.

This class is great for those who want to understand the basics of the Chinese view of the world and the Chinese policy goals and methods in interacting with other nations. Andrew Nathan understands the importance of including history when explaining current Chinese policies. His lectures, more often than not, entertain the class and they are almost always clear and informative. There are two 4-6 page papers, one midterm and a final. Both are take home papers. Grading is easy, and the class is a taker.

An excellent class for those interested in the future of both Chinese politics as well as United States foreign policy. Nathan is certainly one of the big names in the China field, so you get to hear the latest developments from the horse's mouth. As one of the co-authors/translators of the Tiananmen papers as well as writing the introduction to the Mao biography by Mao's doctor, Nathan is someone worth going to class for. It's interesting.