Second Argumentative Research Essay

Due Date: 11.59pm 20 October 2024

WORD LENGTH: 1,700 words

Value: 40%

 

Make sure that you list on your coversheet at least two ways that you have responded to feedback on the first essay in this subject.

 

The essay will be marked on the following general criteria:

1. Argumentation and writing: 50%.

Make sure that your argument is sustained throughout the essay. You should make a case in your essay, rather than simply telling a story. Keep your essay focused on the proposition. ‘Discuss’ means discuss the validity of the proposition, not a series of tangential observations. Look carefully at the precise words of the proposition (which is to be the title of the essay), and make sure that your entire essay is a response to it. At the very least, your essay should have a clear statement in the opening paragraphs along the lines of: 'This essay argues that…' followed by an assertion that relates clearly to the proposition, and that is substantiated in the rest of the essay. 

At all costs, avoid digressions from the topic. Imagine, as you are writing, that you are trying to convince an extremely sceptical reader of your viewpoint. Try to show an awareness of possible contrary arguments, particularly in the opening.

An essay without a clear argument is extremely unlikely to get above a H3.

Make sure that each paragraph addresses a specific idea. Usually, this idea will be clearly set out in the opening sentence (the topic sentence).

 

2. Research: 50%

Research should include at least 10 secondary sources (either refereed academic articles or academic books).

Short book reviews and articles on the internet may provide useful information, but they will not count towards the 10 secondary sources

Make sure that your research demonstrates engagement with the course. Listen to the lectures most relevant to the topic, and review the required and additional readings for that week.

 

 

Each of the following propositions and questions can be answered in many ways. There is no prescribed, ‘correct’ answer.

 

The list of suggested issues that follows each proposition is intended as a starting point for your research and to give you a sense of the possibilities of the topic. It is not intended as a structure or as a comprehensive guide for your response. Do NOT use the topics as subheadings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. ‘Central Asia is a shining example of mutually beneficial cooperation between Russia and China.' Discuss.

Issues you might address include:

• The involvement of China and Russia in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (Thomas Ambrosio (2008) Catching the ‘Shanghai Spirit’: How the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Promotes Authoritarian Norms in Central Asia, Europe-Asia Studies, 60:8, 1321-1344)
• The shared interest of Russia and China in maintaining regional stability at a time when both are exerting power elsewhere (Ukraine, South China Sea and Taiwan)
• The irreconcilability of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union (see Paul Stronski, 'Russia and China's Uneasy Partnership in Central Asia', 29 March 2018, https://carnegieendowment.org/2018/03/29/china-and-russia-s-uneasy-partnership-in-central-asia-pub-75984)
• The contradiction between Russia’s dominant military role and China’s increasing economic hegemony in Central Asia; and the implications of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the war in Ukraine

 

2. 'Without the reckless expansion of Western military power, Russia would never have attacked Ukraine, and China would not be threatening Taiwan.’ Discuss.

Issues you might address include:

• John Mearsheimer’s argument that NATO expansion was the basic cause of Russia’s invasion of Crimea (‘'Why the Ukraine Crisis is the West's Fault,' Foreign Affairs, September-October 2014, pp.77-89)
• Michael McFaul’s contention that Putin’s aggression was shaped by domestic factors, not Western actions (McFaul “Moscow’s Choice.” Foreign Affairs, November/December 2014)
• Sam Greene’s argument that Putin is fighting in Ukraine for ‘regime security’ https://tldrussia.substack.com/p/why-putin-fights
• The place of Taiwan in Chinese nationalism rhetoric and the new calculus Xi Jinping bring to this question (see, eg., Oriana Mastro, “The Taiwan Temptation,” Foreign Affairs, July-Aug 2021 and Bonnie Lim, “Evolution of Xi’s policy on Taiwan since 2013,” China Leadership Monitor, 2022, https://www.prcleader.org/post/enabling-patriots-to-be-masters-of-the-island-evolution-of-xi-s-policy-on-taiwan-since-2013).
• US support for Taiwan and the new Chinese White Paper on Taiwan released after Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island in August 2022 (State Council Information office, “Taiwan Question and China’s Reunification in the New Era,” August 2022, online).

 

 

3. ‘Despite their differences, Putin’s Russia and Xi Jinping’s China are united by a deep commitment to civilisational diversity.’ Discuss.

Issues you might address include:

• The joint statement by Putin and Xi Jinping in February 2022, which affirmed that ‘the sides call on the international community to respect cultural and civilizational diversity and the rights of peoples of different countries to self-determination’ http://en.kremlin.ru/supplement/5770
• Russia’s promotion of racist, far-right extremists in Europe. See, eg Anton Shekhovtsov, Russia and the Western Far Right : Tango Noir, Routledge, 2018) and Matthe Carpenter, ‘Russia is co-opting angry young men’ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/08/russia-is-co-opting-angry-young-men/568741/
• Russia’s genocidal rhetoric during its war against Ukraine, and the claim of propagandists that Ukraine ‘lacks civilisational substance’ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/07/russian-media-coverage-ukraine-genocidal-streak
• China’s repression of Uyghur, Tibetan, Inner Mongolian, Hong Kong and other minority cultures and identities. See John Friend and Bradley A. Thayer, How China Sees the World: Han-centrism and the balance of power in international politics (University of Nebraska Press, 2018) and contrast it with Susan McCarthy, Communist Multiculturalism (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2009).

 

 

 

4. ‘Even after the crackdown that accompanied the invasion of Ukraine, Putin’s Russia remains a vastly freer society than China under Xi Jinping.’ Discuss.

Issues you might address include:

• The killing of Aleksei Naval’nyi, Russia’s leading opposition politician, and the imprisonment of others like Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin
• The outlawing of many Russian NGOs and independent media during the Ukraine war https://rsf.org/en/country/russia
• Russia’s introduction of draconian legislation to suppress criticism of the regime and the war. See, eg Human Rights Watch’ report https://www.hrw.org/report/2024/08/07/russias-legislative-minefield/tripwires-civil-society-2020
• Works discussing recent shift in Chinese governance under Xi Jinping, see, eg., Stein Ringen, The Perfect Dictatorship: China in the 21^st Century. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2016; Elizabeth Economy, The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the new Chinese state (Oxford: Oxford University, 2018); Josh Chin and Liza Lin, Surveillance State: Inside China’s Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2022; Minxin Pei, The Sentinel State. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2024.

 

 

5. 'As a rising global power, China’s influence is magnified by its ‘soft power.’ By contrast Russia, as a declining power, is forced to rely on “sharp power”.’ Discuss

• Joseph Nye’s conceptualisation of ‘soft power and his argument that neither China nor Russia make effective use of ‘soft power’ (Joseph Nye, 'What China and Russia Don't Get about Soft Power,' 29 April 2013 http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/04/29/what-china-and-russia-dont-get-about-soft-power/)
• Russian soft power as ‘conservative soft power’ (Keating, V.C. and Kaczmarska, K. (2019) ‘Conservative Soft Power: Liberal Soft Power Bias and the “Hidden” Attraction of Russia’. Journal of International Relations and Development, Vol.22, No. 2, pp. 1–27); and China’s Confucius Institutes as a mechanism of soft power
• Samantha Hoffman’s NED report on China’s ‘sharp power’: https://www.ned.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Double-Edged-Sword-Chinas-Sharp-Power-Exploitation-of-Emerging-Technologies-Hoffman-April-2021.pdf; and its strategy for controlling media in Africa https://www.ned.org/chinas-foreign-influence-and-sharp-power-strategyto-shape-and-influence-democratic-institutions/)
• Christopher Walker, 'What Is "Sharp Power"?' Journal of Democracy, Volume 29, Number 3, July 2018, pp. 9-23).
• Contrast David Shambaugh’s China Goes Global (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013) with Joshua Kurlantzick’s Charm Offensive (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), while also exploring the growing literature on China’s overseas foreign interference and influence operations.

 

6. 'By challenging Western domination, Russia and China are helping to renew the UN’s human rights institutions.' Discuss.

Issues you might address include:

• Stoeckl’s argument that Putin regime’s campaign for traditional values is a form of ‘illiberal norm promotion’ at the UN (Kristina Stoeckl and Kseniya Medvedeva, 'Double bind at the UN: Western actors, Russia, and the traditionalist agenda,' Global Constitutionalism (2018), 7:3, 383–421)
• Alexander Dukalskis’s study of China’s tactics in the UN Human Rights Council ('A fox in the henhouse: China, normative change, and the UN Human Rights Council,' Journal of Human Rights (2023), Vol.22/3, pp.334-350
• China’s campaign against human rights NGOs at the UN (see Rana Inboden, ‘China at the UN: Choking Civil Society,’ Journal of Democracy, Vol.32, No.3, July 2021, pp.124-135)
• Russia and China’s collaboration to secure the closure of the ‘human rights cell’ in the office of the UN’s Secretary General https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/27/china-and-russia-accused-of-waging-war-on-human-rights-at-un

 

 

7. ‘Despite their similarly tragic fates in prison, Liu Xiaobo and Aleksei Navalny had radically different visions of their countries’ futures. Liu stood for liberal democracy; Navalny for Russian nationalism.’ Discuss.

• Liu Xiaobo’s essay ‘Can It Be That the Chinese People Deserve Only “Party-Led Democracy”?’ Journal of Democracy January 2011, Vol.22/1; his pro-democracy manifesto Charter 08 https://rsf.org/sites/default/files/Charter08.pdf; and writing contained No Enemies, No Hatred: Selected Essays and Poems (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2012).
• PRC government statements vilifying Liu Xiaobo as an enemy of China after his receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize eg http://eu.china-mission.gov.cn/eng/dshdjh/201010/t20101030_8280869.htm
• Masha Gessen’s essay on ‘The evolution of Alexey Navalny’s nationalism.’ https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-evolution-of-alexey-navalnys-nationalism; and Navalny’s critique of ‘imperial authoritarianism’ in his prison essay, ‘This is what a post-Putin Russia looks like’ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/30/alexei-navalny-parliamentary-republic-russia-ukraine/ (also available on Factiva)
• The discussion of Navalny’s nationalism in Jan Matti Dollbaum, Morvan Lallouet, Ben Noble, Navalny: Putin's Nemesis, Russia's Future? (Hurst, 2021) https://academic-oup-com.ez.library.latrobe.edu.au/book/38868; and Marlène Laruelle, ‘Alexei Navalny and Challenges in Reconciling “Nationalism” and “Liberalism”,’ Post-Soviet Affairs 30 (January 2014), pp.276-297

 

8. ‘Unlike totalitarian China, Putin’s authoritarian regime is vulnerable to the threat of “coloured” electoral revolutions.’ Discuss.

Issues you might address include:

• Putin’s ‘preventive counter-revolution’: the countermeasures developed in the aftermath of Ukraine’s Orange Revolution to shield Russia against this kind of upheaval (Horvath, Putin's 'Preventive Counter-Revolution': Post-Soviet Authoritarianism and the Spectre of Velvet Revolution, (London: Routledge, 2013)
• The mass protests in Russia in 2011-2012 over election fraud and the impact of the 2013-14 Euromaidan in Ukraine
• China’s clampdown on dissent since Xi Jinping’s accession to power and PRC propaganda against ‘coloured revolution’ (Christopher Walker, ‘The Hijacking of Soft Power’, Journal of Democracy, vol 27, number 1, 2016, pp. 49-63.
• Hong Kong’s ‘Umbrella Revolution’ of 2014 and failed 2019-20 protest movement. See Kevin Carrico, Two Systems, Two Countries (Berkely: University of California Press, 2022); Louisa Lim, Indelible City (London: Text Publishing, 2022).

 

9. ‘China’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is proof that their “no limits partnership” has become a genuine alliance.’ Discuss.

Issues you might discuss include:

• The proclamation of a ‘no-limits partnership’ in the Joint Statement issued by Putin and Xi Jinping three weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. ('Joint Statement of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China on the International Relations Entering a New Era and the Global Sustainable Development,' 4 February 2022, http://en.kremlin.ru/supplement/5770)
• China’s abstention from UN resolutions condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; and its criticism of Putin’s threats to use nuclear weapons https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/04/scholz-china-germany-visit-lets-work-together-says-xi
• China’s 12-point peace plan for Ukraine. See https://english.news.cn/20230224/f6bf935389394eb0988023481ab26af4/c.html and https://carnegieendowment.org/russia-eurasia/politika/2023/03/inside-chinas-peace-plan-for-ukraine?lang=en
• The debate about the extent of Chinese aid and assistance for the Russian war machine, and the expansion of China’s economic ties with Russia since 2022 https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/04/30/russia-china-partnership-trade-relations/

 

10. A topic that has been approved in writing by the lecturer.

• Proposed topics must relate to course themes.