• Offered by Strategic and Defence Studies Centre
  • ANU College ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
  • Course subject Strategic Studies
  • Academic career PGRD
  • Course convener
    • Brendan Sargeant
  • Mode of delivery In Person
  • Offered in Summer Session 2020
    See Future Offerings

This course presents a comprehensive introduction to Australia’s current strategic environment including the South West Pacific, South East Asia and North East Asia, Middle East and the global international system. This module links closely to the Australia's Strategic and Defence Policy module as it sets past, present and future Australian policy into its historical and regional context.


This course is only open to students posted to the Australian War College.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:

  1. Understand the Indo-Pacific from the perspective of its emergence as a strategic system, its use in policy and academic debates as a framing device for understanding the strategic order and the changes occurring within that order.
  2. Describe and clearly identify the various regions and sub-regions that collectively constitute Australia’s strategic environment, including North Asia, South Asia, the Southeast Asian archipelago, and the Pacific Islands, or impact on Australia’s strategic environment – Middle-East and Afghanistan.
  3. Describe and identify the strategic position and perspectives of significant countries within the system, particularly the United States, China, India, Japan, Indonesia, and the Pacific Islands and New Zealand.
  4. Describe and analyse the impact of forces that affect the functioning of the strategic system as a whole, including nuclear proliferation, terrorism, climate change, cyber, and other forces related to globalisation.
  5. Describe and analyse the impact of economic as well as geostrategic forces in shaping the regional strategic order
  6. Describe and analyse the factors - geographical, historical, economic, political, military and cultural – shaping Australia’s strategic environment
  7. Explain and evaluate the implications of the strategic choices Australia makes in responding to its strategic environment
  8. Demonstrate the capacity to communicate effectively in written form on the subject of Australia’s strategic environment

Indicative Assessment

  1. Major Essay (5,000 words) (60) [LO 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
  2. Three written assignment (1,000 words each) (40) [LO 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]

In response to COVID-19: Please note that Semester 2 Class Summary information (available under the classes tab) is as up to date as possible. Changes to Class Summaries not captured by this publication will be available to enrolled students via Wattle. 

The ANU uses Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic Integrity. While the use of Turnitin is not mandatory, the ANU highly recommends Turnitin is used by both teaching staff and students. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the ANU Online website.

Workload

Teaching will occur intensively and is equivalent to 260 hours over the duration of the teaching period. 

Assessment is scheduled during the teaching period as part of the overall program timetabling.

Inherent Requirements

Not applicable

Requisite and Incompatibility

To enrol in this course, you must be studying Graduate Diploma of Military and Defence Studies or Graduate Certificate of Military and Defence Studies or Master of Military and Defence Studies or Master of Military and Defence Studies Advanced.

Prescribed Texts

Core reading materials will be available as an e-brick.

Fees

Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.  

If you are a domestic graduate coursework or international student you will be required to pay tuition fees. Tuition fees are indexed annually. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found at Fees.

Student Contribution Band:
1
Unit value:
12 units

If you are an undergraduate student and have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, your fees are set by the Australian Government for each course. At ANU 1 EFTSL is 48 units (normally 8 x 6-unit courses). You can find your student contribution amount for each course at Fees.  Where there is a unit range displayed for this course, not all unit options below may be available.

Units EFTSL
12.00 0.25000
Domestic fee paying students
Year Fee
2020 $8100
International fee paying students
Year Fee
2020 $11520
Note: Please note that fee information is for current year only.

Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links

ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.

The list of offerings for future years is indicative only.
Class summaries, if available, can be accessed by clicking on the View link for the relevant class number.

Summer Session

Class number Class start date Last day to enrol Census date Class end date Mode Of Delivery Class Summary
1732 16 Mar 2020 20 Mar 2020 20 Mar 2020 09 Apr 2020 In Person View

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