Getting Ready for MSLS is like the exams

For the upcoming MSLS conference from the 3rd to 5th August, not only will I make a return trip to KL, but I am resolute to be thoroughly prepared for the theoretical and practical debates ahead. I will read up on Malaysian politics as well as international relations, so this is my current reading list. I devised it for breadth of topics.

• International Politics: Enduring Concepts and Contemporary Issues, Eight Edition, edited by Robert J. Art and Robert Jervis; New York : Pearson/Longman, 2007
• An Insiders Guide to the UN, Linda Fasulo; New Haven, Conn. ; London : Yale University Press, c2004.
• The Malay Dilemma Revisited: Race Dynamics in Modern Malaysia, by M. Bakri Musa; Gilroy, Calif. : Merantau Publishers, c1999.
• Malaysia: Recent Trends and Challenges, edited by Saw Swee-Hock and K. Kesavapany; Singapore : Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, c2006.
• Asia Program Special Report, no. 116 September 2003. http://wwics.si.edu/topics/pubs/asia_rpt116.pdf
• One book on general international relations theory.
• One book on Malaysian foreign policy.

So in the next few days, I will be try to read as much as possible on the books. I will probably post up reviews, summaries and ideas with respect to the books. First book up: International Politics: Enduring Concepts and Contemporary Issues. Flipping through, its a textbook anthology of landmark pieces by the leading political scientists in the field. There are several pieces that I’ve covered in my studies so far, like Robert Pape’s Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism, a piece by Nye revisiting Interdependence, Fareed Zakaria, stuff by Schelling, Waltz, Huntington’s original “The Clash of Civilizations?”, a piece by Gilpin on Political Economy. If these names don’t ring a bell, its because most of these writers don’t publish for mass market. The book is close to 600 pages, and the words are tiny. More in the next update.