IHP Asia

Geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific
(4 credits)

This course introduces key concepts and theories of geopolitics, applying them to the evolving strategic landscape of the Indo-Pacific. Students examine the roles of major powers, regional organizations, and small-state diplomacy in shaping maritime security, trade corridors, and technological competition. Case studies focus on flashpoints such as the South and East China Seas, the Taiwan Strait, and U.S. alliance systems, as well as the rise of multilateral initiatives like AUKUS and the Quad. By combining spatial analysis with political and historical perspectives, you will develop a comprehensive understanding of how geography, power, and policy intersect in the Pacific region.

Digital Power in the Indo-Pacific
(4 credits)

This course examines how digital systems shape power, vulnerability, and strategic leverage across the Indo-Pacific. Focusing on Australia, Japan, and Taiwan, we will analyze digital infrastructure, cyber operations, innovation ecosystems, and governance regimes as interconnected dimensions of regional order. The course treats innovation not simply as industrial competitiveness, but as the architecture of digital systems that generate authority, dependency, and systemic exposure. It examines persistent cyber pressure from regional actors, including China and North Korea, as structural conditions shaping institutional design, alliance coordination, and digital resilience. The course emphasizes interpretation, judgment, and applied analysis rather than technical mastery, enabling you to assess how digital systems translate into geopolitical influence and strategic risk. Through comparative analysis and structured learning on location, we will evaluate how technologically advanced democracies manage interdependence, regulate digital domains, and respond to sustained strategic pressure.

Economic Power in the Indo-Pacific
(4 credits)

This course examines how economic interdependence, strategic industry, and trade governance shape power and vulnerability across the Indo-Pacific. Drawing from political economy and international relations, the course explores how states use markets, institutions, and economic leverage to pursue security and strategic objectives under conditions of constraint. Through comparative study of Australia, Japan, and Taiwan, we will analyze how advanced economies navigate trade dependence, supply-chain risk, economic coercion, and rulemaking in an era of intensifying geopolitical competition. The course emphasizes interpretation, judgment, and applied analysis rather than technical economic modeling, enabling students to assess how economic strategies function as instruments of state power.

Applied Geopolitics: Strategy and Decision-Making in the Pacific Rim
(4 credits)

This course serves as the applied, integrative component of Indo-Pacific Politics and Power program. It does not introduce new substantive material; instead, it provides a structured environment in which to apply, integrate, and stress-test concepts developed in companion courses on geopolitics, digital power, and economic statecraft. Working in interdisciplinary teams, you will represent one state and assume complementary expert roles in geopolitics, economics, and technology. Across Australia, Japan, and Taiwan, teams use knowledge gained from the program to formulate strategy, manage trade-offs, and make decisions under conditions of uncertainty, alliance constraint, and escalation risk. Through collaborative strategy development, live simulation, and guided reflection, the course emphasizes judgment, adaptation, and comparative reasoning, mirroring real-world policy environments in which decision-makers act on behalf of one state while relying on deep analysis of others. You will gain practical experience in how strategic decisions are formed, contested, and constrained in the contemporary Indo-Pacific.