Professor Min is easily the best professor I have taken at UCLA. He was extremely clear in his lectures, which were accompanied by a slideshow, which he gave to the class with some of the terms and definitions blanked out to help us follow along. Most weeks (8 of 10) we had to do a CCLE-based quiz of about 15 questions covering the topics that we covered in class, with the quiz comprising 30% of our grade. There was no final, rather we had to submit a six-page essay on an important foreign policy issue, in Fall 2021 the essay examined where the US went wrong in Afghanistan. This essay was broken into a proposal due week 3 (5% of grade), a draft due week 8, and the actual essay (45% of grade) due on the Monday of week 9, which meant that there we had nothing to do during Finals week for this class. Participation in discussion sections counted for 20% of the grade. I had Merabi as my TA and he was very knowledgable on all of the subjects and very open to helping out if I had any questions or problems. Overall, if I could take this course again, I would not hesitate to and I would recommend taking it as a GE credit as you do not need to understand any complexities of political science that Professor Min does not cover.

I received an A+ in this class. I am selling my 130 pages typed-up notes for this class (all lectures + discussions) for only $15. They can be shared right away. Email me at ************* if interested.

Professor Min is one of if not the best professor that I have had during my time at UCLA. His lectures were extremely clear. He provided detailed breakdowns for concepts and theories—allowing us to contextualise each of them with a relevant real-life application of them—and even blanked out certain key terms and sentences from the powerpoint PDF for lectures that he made available prior to classes to allow us to fill in the blanks as we went along. The concepts we learned were genuinely interesting and I’ve already found myself applying some of the topics related to bargaining and negotiation in daily life. We were assigned weekly, open-book quizzes once a week which very well-designed and easy. Discussions were enjoyable and gave us further opportunities to apply what we learned to real-life situations. The ‘final’ for this class is a 5-6 page long analysis paper on a significant world issue related to the concepts we studied. Last year, it was a paper on the Iranian nuclear issue and this year it was about the most effective ways for the U.S. to handle North Korea’s nuclear capabilities. The paper was not a cake-walk by any means, but if you have passable research skills and understood content well enough, you will do very well. I haven’t heard of anyone who got below a B+ on it. Grade breakdown: Quizzes 45%, Paper 40%, Participation in section 15%. Overall amazing G.E that I would recommend to anyone regardless of major.

---Lecture: Min is the one of the best lecturers I have had so far. He makes the lectures extremely engaging and tries his best to incorporate entertaining elements. The information is presented very clearly, and his slides are a sufficient replacement for the textbook.
---Discussion: Sections do not provide much new information, but they do clarify certain concepts and provide examples of situations that are useful to bring up during exams.
---Paper: Min gave an interesting topic for the paper, and I had fun researching for it. The deadlines are reasonable, and the TAs offer good advice throughout the process.
---Exams: The midterm and final were both pretty difficult, but they were reasonable. You do have to do quite well on both exams and the paper to get an A in the class.
---Tips: Min provides sufficient information through his lectures. The slides are useful but are not a stand alone. You don't need the textbook if you use the recourses Min gives.

I loved this class and I highly recommend it. Min was very clear during lecture and very helpful before and after class as well as during office hours. Reading the textbook is not necessary, as it basically just regurgitates his lecture, but it was helpful in my opinion. The assessments are multiple choice and easy enough if you study. The discussions and practice midterms and finals were also very helpful. This class gave me an appreciation for and interest in world politics and more awareness about politics in the world outside the US.

The key to an A in this class is to 1) do well on the paper 2) collect good notes/memorize the content from the posted slides and bring this knowledge to the midterm and final. You do NOT need to read the textbook in order to do well (though some may find it helpful. In my opinion, though, it was way too much reading to do [~100 pages per week] and I was fine without it).

Professor Min is a great lecturer and I will miss being in his class! I'm a poli sci major but I would recommend this class to anyone interested in learning how states interact with each other and applying theories to trends we see in the world today - super interesting stuff!

Professor Min was such a straightforward and clear lecturer which made the class super easy to study for and understand. All lectures are recorded and slides are on canvas which is all you really needed to study for the midterm and final. Although there is a textbook, it really just repeats the same things that Dr. Min says in class so there is not any need to read it. I, and many other students alike, were reading the first few chapters of the textbook but then realized it wasn't necessary.

Along with a midterm and final, there was an essay that goes into the grade book as well. It was quite challenging but our TAs helped us a lot through the process.

This class mostly depends on your TA. Professor Min only has a few office hour slots so speaking to your TA is essential to getting help.

That being said, Sara Elbanna is the worst TA--our whole class agreed. She went into lectures unprepared then gave everyone a bad grade on section even if you participated multiple times and attended every course. She would curse in class all the time and made you feel dumb even if she didn't know the answer herself or was literally just looking it up. She never had her camera on in office hours and she acted superior even though she stumbled on her words so many times during section. She never responded to emails and always had improper responses when/if she did. If you get her for any Poli Sci class, switch sections.

As for the class, it's imperative you memorize every single thing Professor Min says or else you won't know many answers on the tests. Many of his questions are random sentences or trivia he mentions once, even if it's not related to bolded terms or main concepts. He is a knowledgable, entertaining professor though and you can tell he really cares about his students and their learning.

Don't let these reviews fool you. This class was absolutely a breeze, especially if you aren't familiar with political science at all. My one piece of advice would be to go to all the lectures in person as that is the easiest way to absorb the material, compared to watching the recorded lectures which aren't as engaging. The bolded terms on the slides are the most important material that you need to know, and Professor Min bases his exams off of those terms. As for the rest of the material on the slides, that won't matter as much. The paper was also fairly easy and I believe most people received a good score, just make sure you follow the rubric exactly. DO NOT READ THE TEXTBOOK IT IS A WASTE OF TIME. Overall 10/10, low-stress class. :)

Overall pretty decent class. I took this class as a GE with no knowledge of political science but still managed to do well. The professor is a very cool and funny person and generally the workload for the class is not that much. There's no homework, just one midterm, one paper, and the final exam. The paper definitely takes a lot of time to complete but go to office hours with the TAs and you should be fine. For the tests, there is an insane amount of content to memorize which is the main aspect of what makes this class a bit hard as a non-political science student but I still managed to get by with an A- and A on each test. PROFESSOR MIN SAW THAT THE TEST AVERAGE WAS LOWER THAN EXPECTED FOR BOTH TESTS SO HE ADDED A FEW EXTRA POINTS TO HELP. HES A REALLY NICE PERSON. Overall not too hard of a GE but definitely study a lot for the tests