Course Syllabus

2018 YONSEI INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL

Nuclear Asia

CREDIT 3 INSTRUCTOR Toby Dalton

OFFICE OFFICE HOURS

TIME TBA CLASSROOM LOCATION TBA

E-MAIL tfdalton2017@gmail.com

[COURSE INFORMATION]
Nuclear energy and nuclear weapons are central features of the economic and security
landscape in Northeast Asia. This course will survey the politics and technology of both. It
begins with an introduction to nuclear energy technology and the dual-use problem associated
with splitting the atom, and efforts by the international community to construct a regime to
manage the technology. The course then traverses the development of nuclear weapons by the
United States, the Soviet Union and China, and the adoption of nuclear energy by South Korea
and Japan. Next it focuses on the history, technology and security implications of North
Korea’s nuclear program, as well as the future of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons in the
region. The course ends with a short simulation of a regional nuclear crisis.

COURSE DESCRIPTION This is a reading and discussion-intensive course. Students are expected to come to class
& GOALS prepared to engage in critical analysis and debate on the readings. The grading policy reflects
the emphasis on in-class participation. More than 2 unexcused absences will result in grade
reduction.

Objectives: Upon completion of the course, students are expected to be able to demonstrate
understanding of the technical underpinnings of and interrelationship between nuclear energy
systems and nuclear weapons; to evaluate critically arguments about nuclear energy and nuclear
weapons programs; to connect historical development of the international nuclear order to
contemporary policy issues in Northeast Asia; and to connect theoretical, technical, and
political knowledge to analyze the North Korea nuclear challenge.

PREREQUISITE

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

20% Midterm Exam – Comprised of in-class short and long essays

30% Final Exam – Comprised of in-class short and long essays

GRADING POLICY 20% In-class presentations – Short individual presentations on readings or current events

20% Class participation – Active participation in discussion

10% Team project – Team preparation of policy position paper

Course Syllabus
2018 YONSEI INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL

Jonathan Pollack, No Exit: North Korea, Nuclear Weapons and International Security (IISS, 2011)

Mark Fitzpatrick, Asia’s Latent Nuclear Powers (IISS, 2016).

TEXTS & NOTES
Additional articles, book chapters and other materials assigned for each class session, per the weekly
schedule.

Toby Dalton is co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace in Washington, DC. His work focuses on nuclear energy and nuclear weapons
issues, regional security in Northeast Asia and South Asia, and the evolution of the global nuclear
order. Prior to joining the Carnegie Endowment, he served in the National Nuclear Security
Administration at the U.S. Department of Energy, including as senior policy advisor to the Office of
INSTRUCTOR’S PROFILE Nonproliferation and International Security, and as Energy Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in
Islamabad, Pakistan. He was professional staff member on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, and a visiting fellow at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul, Korea. He is co-
author of Not War, Not Peace? (Oxford University Press, 2016) and has published numerous other
articles and papers. He holds a PhD in Public Policy from The George Washington University. Full
biography is available at: http://carnegieendowment.org/experts/578.

[WEEKLY SCHEDULE]

WEEKLY TOPIC & CONTENTS COURSE MATERIAL &

WEEK (PERIOD) NOTES
ASSIGNMENTS
July 3 - Introduction July 3 – In-class reading

July 4 – Nuclear Energy Basics July 4 – Selections from Charles

Ferguson, Nuclear Energy (Oxford,
2011); Matthew Fuhrmann, “Splitting
Atoms,” International Interactions,
Vol. 1, 2012.

1 July 5 – Nuclear Weapons Basics July 5 – Global Fissile Material

Weekend review: Nuclear Threat Initiative
“Nuclear 101” tutorial:
http://tutorials.nti.org/nuclear-101/overview/
Report, 2015 (International Panel on
Fissile Materials), p. 40-47; Scott D.
Sagan, “Why Do States Build Nuclear
Weapons? Three Models in Search of a
Bomb,” International Security, Winter
1996/97.

July 9 – Hiroshima and Nagasaki July 9 – Atomic Archive: The

Manhattan Project,
http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/
mp/index.shtml; Richard Rhodes,
Making of the Atomic Bomb (Simon
and Schuster, 2012), p. 696-721;
President Barack Obama Remarks at
2 Hiroshima, May 27, 2016. (In class)
National Geographic Video “24 Hours
After Hiroshima.”

July 10 – Soviet and Chinese Nuclear Weapons July 10 – Selections from David
Holloway, Stalin and the Bomb (Yale,
1996); Selections from John Lewis and
Course Syllabus
2018 YONSEI INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL
WEEKLY TOPIC & CONTENTS
WEEK (PERIOD)
July 11 – Atoms for Peace and Nonproliferation
Policy
July 12 – Deterrence and Extended Deterrence
July 16 – The NPT system: Peaceful Uses,
Nonproliferation, and the IAEA
July 17 – The NPT system: Disarmament
3 Knopf, “Nuclear Disarmament and
July 18 – Nuclear Energy in Japan
COURSE MATERIAL &
NOTES
ASSIGNMENTS
Xue Litai, China Builds the Bomb
(Stanford, 1991); Jeffrey Lewis, Paper
Tigers (IISS, 2014), p. 15-23.
July 11 – Len Weiss, “Atomic for
Peace,” Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientists, Nov/Dec 2003; Peter Lavoy,
“The Enduring Effects of Atoms for
Peace,” Arms Control Today, Dec
2003; History of the IAEA, ch 1-2
http://www-
pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/
Pub1032_web.pdf
Patrick Morgan, Deterrence: A
Conceptual Analysis (Sage, 1983), p.
11-17); Terence Roehrig, Japan, South
Korea, and the United States Nuclear
Umbrella (Columbia, 2017), chs 1 and
7; Fintan Hoey, “Japan and Extended
Nuclear Deterrence: Security and Non-
Proliferation.” Journal of Strategic
Studies 39 OR Seyoung Jang, “The
Evolution of US Extended Deterrence
and South Korea’s Nuclear
Ambitions,” Journal of Strategic
Studies, April 2016.
July 16 – Treaty on the Non-
Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons;
George Bunn, “The Nuclear
Nonproliferation Regime and its
History,” in Bunn and Chyba (eds),
U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy
(Stanford, 2006); History of the IAEA,
ch. 3 (skim).
July 17 – Matt Harries, “Disarmament
as Politics: Lessons from the
Negotiation of NPT Article VI,”
Chatham House, May 2015; Jeffrey
Nonproliferation,” International
Security, Winter 2012/13; Alexander
Kmennt, “How Divergent Views on
Disarmament Threaten the NPT,” Arms
Control Today, December 2013.
July 18 – Peter Dauvergne, “Nuclear
Power Development in Japan: ‘Outside
Forces’ and the Politics of Reciprocal
Consent,” Asian Survey, June 1993;
World Nuclear Association – Nuclear
Power in Japan; Eisaku Sato Nobel
lecture, December 1974.
Course Syllabus
2018 YONSEI INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL
WEEKLY TOPIC & CONTENTS
WEEK (PERIOD)
July 19 – Nuclear Energy in Korea
July 23 – Mid-term Exam (1st half of class);
Nuclear Energy in China (2nd half of class)
July 24 – Nuclear Power After the Fukushima
Accident
July 25 – Nuclear Power and Proliferation
4 Sagan, “Nuclear Power without
July 26 – Nuclear Latency in Asia
July 30 - North Korea’s Nuclear Program –
Beginnings up to Agreed Framework
[Teams and Assignments for Team Project]
July 31 – Nuclear Negotiations
5 August 1 – North Korea as a Nuclear Power
August 2 – Crisis scenarios
COURSE MATERIAL &
NOTES
ASSIGNMENTS
July 19 – Seyoung Jang, “The
Development of South Korea’s Nuclear
Energy Industry in a Resource-and-
Capital-Scarce Environment,” in
Gareth Austin (ed), Economic
Development and Environmental
History in the Anthropocene
(Bloomsbury, 2017); World Nuclear
Association – Nuclear Power in South
Korea.
July 23 – Selections from Mark Hibbs,
The Future of Chinese Nuclear Power,
Carnegie Endowment, 2018.
July 24 – Frontline video “Japan’s
Nuclear Meltdown.” Paul Joskow and
John Parsons, “Nuclear Power After
Fukushima” MIT Working Paper;
Robert Socolow and Alex Glaser,
“Balancing Risks: Nuclear Energy and
Climate Change,” Daedalus, Fall 2009.
July 25 – Steven Miller and Scott
Nuclear Proliferation,” Daedalus,
2009; H. A. Feiveson, A. Glaser, Z.
Mian, and F. von Hippel, “Fissile
Materials, Nuclear Power, and Nuclear
Proliferation,” in Unmaking the Bomb:
A Fissile Material Approach to Nuclear
Disarmament and Nonproliferation,
MIT, 2014.
July 26 – Mark Fitzpatrick, Asia’s
Latent Nuclear Powers (IISS, 2016)
July 30 – Jonathan Pollack, No Exit
(IISS, 2011), ch. 1-3.
July 31 – Scott Snyder, Negotiating on
the Edge (USIP, 1999), introduction
and ch. 3; Pollack, No Exit, ch. 4-5.
August 1 – Pollack, No Exit, ch. 6-7;
Mira Rapp-Hooper, “Decoupling is
Back in Asia,” War on the Rocks,
September 7, 2017.
August 2 – Jeffrey Lewis, “This is How
Nuclear War With North Korea Would
Unfold,” The Washington Post,
December 8, 2017; Robert Farley,
Course Syllabus
2018 YONSEI INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL
WEEKLY TOPIC & CONTENTS
WEEK (PERIOD)
August 6 – Team Project Work
August 7 – Team Project Presentations
August 8 – Asia’s Nuclear Future
6 and Justice of Nuclear Deterrence,” in
August 9 – Final Exam
COURSE MATERIAL &
NOTES
ASSIGNMENTS
“Terrifying Tale: Why a War Between
China and America Would Be All Sorts
of Awful,” The National Interest,
August 1, 2017.
August 8 – Toby Dalton, “Between
Deterrence and Disarmament,” The
Hindu, October 16, 2017; George
Perkovich, “The Diminishing Utility
Thinking About Strategy, 2011, p. 106-
112; Owen Toon et al, “Asia Treads the
Nuclear Path, Unaware that Self-
Assured Destruction Would Result
from Nuclear War,” Journal of Asian
Studies, May 2017.