My teaching mission is to encourage and develop thoughtful public citizens by promoting critical thinking and active engagement in how students learn themselves. My classes introduce students to the theoretical underpinnings of international relations, the inherent tensions involved in 'saving strangers,' and China and Asia’s place in the world. My classes have to bring theory to life, and show students that international relations concepts and ideas matters to them in a practical sense in their daily lives.  In order to do just this, I bring my research into the classroom through my use of a 'flipped classroom' in designing advanced simulation negotiations.  Simulations cover live problems – the Korean Peninsula crisis, the Syrian civil war, and the faltering South Sudanese peace – and are used to promote critical thinking and problem-solving skills for ill-defined problems. 

AT MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY

PEACE OPERATIONS (Convener)

This survey unit is designed as a thorough introduction into UN peace operations, a continually high salience issue of global politics. The unit is divided into three parts: the theory and history of UN peace operations from 1947 through the present, including peacekeeping principles, doctrinal developments and evolving peacekeeping typology; the operations/praxis of peace operations, to include for example, the rules and practices on troop contributions, funding, and deployment models; and current debates, to include for example, whether peace operations work; contested consent, and the future of peacekeeping during great power competition.  

TRANSNATIONAL SECURITY (Convener)

This survey unit is designed for graduate students to explore transnational security issues, which challenge the traditional conceptual foundations of international security studies based on the primacy and sovereignty of the state. The unit examines the theories and analytical instruments needed to critically analyse different transnational security challenges.

STRATEGY & SECURITY IN THE INDO-PACIFIC (Convener)

This survey unit is designed for undergraduate students to study key strategic trends in the Indo-Pacific region. We explore the rise of China and India as emerging regional great powers, and the response by other major players, including the United States and Japan. It introduces students to the most pressing traditional and non-traditional security challenges facing the region today. It also provides students with a conceptual and empirical understanding of Australia’s role, interests and instruments in regional security and stability. The unit also introduces students to non-traditional challenges influencing the Indo-Pacific region. The unit concludes with an assessment of the sources and consequences of key regional factors that influence security and prosperity in the twenty-first century.

STRATEGIC SIMULATION (Co-teacher)

This graduate-level unit provides students with an opportunity to apply the knowledge they have gain throughout their program of study to a real world crisis, co-designed by multiple teachers of the Department of Security Studies & Criminology. By participating in a dynamic simulation, students will be required to solve problems and find solutions to real world challenges. Students will be assigned to an executive team that includes students with different skill sets and knowledge. These executive teams may include strategists, intelligence analysts, criminologists, counter terrorism experts, and cyber security analysts. Depending on their specialization, students will take one of these roles. Their mission will be to formulate solutions by employing the academic, research and analytical skills they acquired throughout their program. The student will be required to make policy recommendations based on his assessment of the situation.

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

THEORIES OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (Convener)

This survey course is designed for graduate students and offers a rigorous introduction to the main debates and theoretical perspectives of international relations: what do we know about international conflict and international cooperation? Is the state the most significant actor in international affairs today? Can theory inform us about the actual day-to-day of international politics?  By the end of the course, students will be able to identify and evaluate intellectual trends and issues in the study of international relations, and sharpen their skills to bridge theory and practice in understanding and practicing problem-solving in international affairs.

INTRODUCTION TO INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (Convener)

This survey course is designed for second-year undergraduate students and is structured in three parts. First, we will get settled into the course, understanding more about the roots of the discipline of ‘International Relations.’ Second, we tackle the mainstream theories and approaches to International Relations theory. Third, we look at a selection of contemporary issues in international politics today and see what we can learn from using the traditional theoretical insights.  In order to bring the theory back down to earth, the course assignments include news reports and also an advanced negotiation simulation.

DILEMMAS OF HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION (Convener)

This course is open to all undergraduate students through the 'Common Core' and takes a very broad understanding of humanitarian intervention, looking not only at states but also at international NGOs and the aid business, and not only at aid but also at other forms of political action. It focuses on the emergence of humanitarian intervention, its contemporary nature, success and failure, moral challenges, and ways forward. It examines dilemmas generated notably by great power politics, by the tension between state sovereignty and global humanitarian action, by resource constraints in a world of potentially limitless need, and by issues of authentic country ownership. It explores these issues both through overview analysis in lectures, and through real-world case studies in seminars. In classroom discussion, students’ country expertise will be very much in the lead.

ASIAN REGIONAL GOVERNANCE IN AN AGE OF GLOBALIZATION (Convener)

This course is open to all undergraduate students through the 'Common Core'.  Taking an historical approach and using key theoretical perspectives, students will learn how the East Asian region has coped with their own interdependence and contentious security issues, and why Asian regional governance has evolved into its current forms. This course will also explore the dynamics of regional institutional governance in our era of globalization, culminating in an advanced negotiations simulation.

THE UNITED NATIONS AND GLOBAL GOVERNANCE (Convener)

This survey course is designed for third-year undergraduate students with a rigorous introduction to the theoretical perspectives and main debates regarding the largest international institution, the United Nations, with a specific focus on peace and security issues.  The course is rooted in International Relations and International Law scholarship regarding international organizations and addresses questions:

• What do international organizations actually do in global governance?

• Can the United Nations promote international cooperation on peace and security issues?

• Can theory inform us about the actual day-to-day of how international organizations work?

By the end of the course, students can explain the practice of international organizations, and the United Nations in particular, from alternative theoretical perspectives; can understand the functions and functioning of the United Nations; can understand the current state of global governance regarding peace and security issues, and to think strategically about reform, and will haves sharpened analytical, teamwork and writing skills, and also their emotional intelligence in particular through an advanced negotiation simulation.