Thursday, August 28, 2003

International Political Analysis (IPA) is one of the last required core courses at Insead.  It aims to give a conceptual framework through which political developments can be evaluated, primarily, it seems, so that one's commercial interests are not unduly compromised.  While many students complain about it (I am unsure if it still exists in the new curriculum), I believe that a strong case can be made that students in the most international of business schools should have some competence in this area; political awareness is part and parcel of working in a cosmopolitan arena, and should not be discarded simply because students "don't see where I will ever use this stuff".  While people here may be a few watts brighter than average, they are every bit as myopic. To give an idea of the course content, here are the reading assignments for the second session: Why We Will Soon Miss The Cold War, John J. Mearsheimer (The Atlantic Monthly, August 1990) The End of History?  Francis Fukuyama (The National Interest, Summer 1989) The Clash of Civilizations?  Samuel P. Huntington (Foreign Affairs, Summer 1993) Heavy, yes, even to an infrequent subscriber to Foreign Affairs, which I was for some time in the 90s.  The content is heavy with references to all manner of things; for example, these are mentioned in the first three pages of the Fukuyama paper: Western liberalism, absolutism, bolshevism, fascism, Marxism, Hegel, Kojève, Sartre, Aron, Napoleon, the Battle of Jena, and the Common Market.  No wonder most of my colleagues gave up; without some background of world history and philosophy, it is tough going. The class itself is tolerable at present; I don't expect that the coverage of the different theories of international relations is any more interesting anywhere else.  Though there is a great opportunity for a professor to make it so... one of my classmates used the terms "constructivist" and "liberalist" correctly in response to the professor's question about the fall of the Yugoslav republic; this for me was the highlight of the day. 7:31:17 PM    comment []

Lucky is back. School started last Monday, and the pace has been fast and furious ever since.  My days have been filled with the minutia of everyday life: binders, books, file folders and documents.  All punctuated with greetings of friends and acquaintances every five minutes in the hallways and in classrooms.  It's been grand, though difficult to move decisively into the business school headset that one needs to survive here.  The real work starts next week and by then I am sure that things will be moving smoothly. It has been fun to see the incoming class - all of the January students see the newbies and think, "Geez, I was just that clueless six months ago!"  Of course we all now think we know it all; how quickly seeing someone new can make you feel old, even though they are just the same. A warm welcome to Li Hoi and Omar to the incoming class!  Welcome! 2:42:01 PM    comment []