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This course can only be enrolled in by permission only. If you'd like to enroll in the course please send an email to Prof. Joseph Torigian at jptori@stanford.edu with your name, grade, and a brief paragraph as to why you want to enroll.Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis described China and Russia as "revisionist powers," signaling that, after years of focus on the Middle East and terrorism, great power politics once again sit at the center of U.S. foreign policy. But how have the political elite in these two countries thought about their security in the broadest sense? This course explores how leaders in Beijing and Moscow have historically sought to defend themselves against other competitors from within the regime, their own people, and other great powers. Drawing on international relations and comparative politics, the course applies political science theories to better understand how powerful actors in China and Russia behaved similarly or differently during crucial historical moments.During this course, students will learn the promises and pitfalls of comparing two countries with strong similarities but also significant differences. Why did the two major revolutions of the twentieth century occur in China and Russia? How did Mao Zedong and Josef Stalin translate violence, cult of personality, and strategic maneuvering into political power? Why was it that they also presided over major famines? Why did China and Russia see such different outcomes to reforms in the 1980s? What kind of authoritarianism do they impose on their population today? How have Beijing and Russia dealt with their ethnic and religious minorities? Why do they diverge with regards to nuclear weapons postures? How do these countries turn ideology and religion into political instruments? What is the role of individual leaders? How did Washington come to label China and Russia ¿revisionists,¿ and should Washington worry about developing close bilateral relations between Beijing and Moscow?