Graduate Course Descriptions

Spring 2024

IAFF 6102 Global Gender Policy

This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to examining the development of global policy approaches aimed at achieving gender equality. It provides grounding in the concept of gender equality and the creation of legal and normative approaches to tackling inequality, focused primarily on law and policy produced by the UN system. Critical and emerging policy approaches such as intersectionality-based policy development will also be covered. This course provides an overview of the lineage of global approaches to advancing gender equality and women’s rights. It will equip participants with an understanding of the relevance of gender equality to key international policy issues and concerns. It will examine the success and failures of attempts to advance gender equality policy implementation, including through comparison across different countries and thematic areas of global policy. The course will address the following questions: Can we really change the world or is that an unrealistic ambition? When we talk about gender and inclusion are we talking specifically about women? Can men be feminists and activists on gender equality issues? Do you have to agree with all feminist theories to take this course?

IAFF 6104 International Law

From the foundational tenets of the international legal system to its application in conflicts around the world, this course will lay out the basic core concepts underpinning international law while delving into subject matters including humanitarian law, environmental law, outer space, human rights, and sovereignty. The course will also include discussions of international law's enforceability, dispute settlement, and other systemic questions, using emerging international issues and ongoing conflicts as discussion starters.

IAFF 6118 Gender and Security

This course begins with an overview of the gender and security agenda. We will assess key factors and actors that shape gender and security dynamics, and we will analyze the development of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) movement. The core of the course is an issue-by-issue examination of important real-world problems. This includes both traditional security issues (armed conflict, terrorism, the roles of women and LGBTQ people in military organizations) and human security concerns (development, environmental challenges, humanitarian emergencies and pandemics, human rights and governance). The focus is on current and emerging real-world problems. The course concludes with a look to the future.

IAFF 6118 Global Electricity Markets

This course teaches students about the structure and operation of the power grid and electricity markets. The class will discuss electric grid models, infrastructure, costs, operation, and environmental aspects of power technologies in developing countries and the US, EU, and G7 nations. Students will learn about electric energy, capacity, ancillary markets, and how electricity is priced in different models. The role of electric transmission and the challenges of integrating renewables and carbon pricing into the grid will also be covered. Retail electric utility regulation will also be covered along with buying and selling renewable power. Students can explore their country or regional interests through a course paper.

IAFF 6118 International Organizations

This course provides a critical review of major international organizations and their relationship to global governance. This course aims to reach beyond the study of the architecture and mandates of international organizations. More specifically, we will examine how international organizations may shape global agendas and political outcomes, casting these organizations into an active world governance role. Answering these questions will require a firm understanding of major theoretical paradigms that inform the study of international affairs, as well as an agile handle on analytical thinking in the field. To aid this process, we will adopt a case-study methodological approach, linking theory to practice.

IAFF 6122 Development Policy & Practice

IAFF 6138 Bottom-Up Development

From William Easterly to Dambisa Moyo, and from Jeffrey Sachs to Paul Collier, development thinkers have expressed both considerable frustration with policies, programs, strategies and institutions charged with alleviating poverty, as well as the need to focus additional resources on or reformed actions toward populations at the ‘bottom.’ Despite the analyses and fretting, and resultant actions, hundreds of millions of the earth’s people remain tragically poor, somehow managing to survive on $2.00 a day or less. The COVID pandemic has exacerbated this number. This graduate seminar takes these analyses, frustrations, and unsatisfactory results as a starting point to delve into prospects for more effective poverty alleviation through the application of ‘bottom-up’ approaches. After briefly examining failings of foreign aid from both grassroots and top-down perspectives, the focus turns to bottom-up approaches, casting an eye on evolutionary aspects, critical components, and current applications. Subsequently, attention is placed on strategies used both by poor and disadvantaged people to strategically manage their limited resources and by forward thinking governments to alleviate poverty. The seminar closes with reflections on the policy environment in support of bottom-up development work and how policymakers might be better encouraged to support this approach toward poverty alleviation.

IAFF 6138: Dev,IndignousPeople,Minorities

This course examines the complexities of development and its potential positive and negative impact on ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples. In doing so, it emphasizes the increasingly important role that identity plays in the politics of development. The course's final assignment is a research paper on a development project that has impacted either an indigenous people or ethnic minority in any region of the world accompanied with policy recommendations for how the project could have better benefitted the populations in question.

IAFF 6138 Gender, Disaster and Development

This course examines research and practice in gender and development as they link to disasters. With climate change, disasters are increasing in frequency and range and, in many locations around the world, intensity. The events have multiple effects across households, communities, and nations, yet do not affect everyone equally or simultaneously. People vary in how they are impacted, and their relative levels of vulnerability and resilience link to socioeconomic differences by gender, age, income level, disability status, and related characteristics. Development that seeks to address inequality and support sustainability is concerned with the problems of disasters’ differential impacts. With this course, students become familiar with analysis and practice in development related to disasters as it links to gender and other categories of identity from a range of sources and disciplines.

IAFF 6138 Private Sector Development

Almost every government in the world would now say that: “the private sector is the engine of growth”. Yet in some countries, the private sector thrives, while in others it struggles in a poor enabling environment. Some private sectors contribute vibrantly to social objectives, while in other countries, increases in inequality seem to be accompanying private sector development. So, what does it take to encourage effective and ethical private sector development in developing countries? What is the role for the private sector in poor countries in the provision of social services such as health and education? This course aims to equip students to analyze these issues and become current with the range of current approaches being pursued. The class will be in seminar format, avoiding lectures as much as possible, and students will be expected to participate actively in class. Significant amounts of group work will take place in class.

IAFF 6138 Gender and Development

This graduate-level seminar will begin by examining the evolution of theoretical approaches regarding gender and development and the debates that have emerged over how to promote gender equity and rights across the gender spectrum. We will then consider some of the key issues in the field of gender and development and the challenges and successes that development practitioners have experienced in addressing gender inequalities. Throughout the course, we will seek to identify general patterns and lessons with broader applications as well as to recognize differences within and between societies. We will use a combination of academic sources, international development reports, and other materials produced by development practitioners to ground our discussions and study how organizations have sought to implement gender-sensitive approaches to development. The assignments are practical and relevant to professional work in the field of gender and development.

IAFF 6138 Violence, Gender and Humanity Assistance

This course examines the issues, challenges, policies, and interventions related to one of the most complex protection concerns in humanitarian settings, gender-based violence. Students will develop a practical understanding of the scope of violence that women and girls face in conflict and disasters and explore programmatic interventions to prevent and respond to such violence across sectors. This course will also address trends in gender and humanitarian settings including evidence-based interventions, policy initiatives, and the role of global feminist and women’s movements in emergency work.

IAFF 6138 Locally-led Humanitarian Assistance

Our approach in this course will be to examine humanitarian action from the perspective of local, national, and regional actors working in crisis settings. What do non-Western systems of humanitarian assistance look like? How do local systems interact and intersect with global humanitarian assistance? What can we learn from South-South cooperation on humanitarian assistance? What role do donors from the Gulf States and BRICS play? This course will also consider the significant reform movement undertaken by the signatories of the UN’s Grand Bargain which articulates the vision to make humanitarian action “as local as possible, as international as necessary.” Localization refers to putting local actors and crisis- and conflict-affected populations at the center of global humanitarian action and involves major reforms in the areas of financing, partnerships, capacity-building and coordination. We will examine the multi-dimensional nature of localization and analyze factors that impede and enable its full realization.

IAFF 6139 International Development Studies Capstone

The Capstone Project provides an opportunity for second-year students in the International Development Studies Program to undertake research related to a specific problem faced by a development organization. During the spring semester, capstone teams plan their research, implement it, analyze the results, do a public presentation of their work at the Elliott School, and submit deliverables to the capstone client as well as a final paper to their capstone professor. Teams will need to plan, implement, and write up their research. The professors will develop a regular schedule with each group to be updated on the team’s progress (in person and by email) and also to provide feedback. In particular, professors will work with teams to ensure that they have a viable research plan and methodology and that they implement the plan and methodology accordingly. By the end of the semester, all groups will have completed the equivalent of an international development consultancy for an organization engaged in the field.

This course is intended for graduating International Development Studies MA students only. Registration restricted to graduate students only. See department for meeting time and location.

IAFF 6143 Science and Technology Policy Analysis

Many of the most important and salient policy decisions taken by governments—whether for war or peace, whether they address everyday needs or long-term global grand challenges—involve science and technology. S&T is at the heart of debates regarding climate change; immunization against diseases such as COVID-19, measles, and rubella; decisions involving nuclear weapons; space exploration; cybersecurity and the generation and diffusion of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and gene-editing technologies like CRISPR; the widespread use of robotics, nanotechnology, 3-D printing, and advanced energy storage technologies; the internet of things (IoT); advanced manufacturing and the oncoming of the 4th industrial revolution (I4.0); energy policy and the transition to a carbon neutral economy; and many more. The second in the sequence of required core courses for the ISTP program, this seminar course offers the opportunity to go deeper and ask more probing questions about select contemporary policy topics like those listed above. The course will take an international perspective and provide opportunities for comparative analysis across both developed market economies and emerging economies.

IAFF 6141 is a prerequisite for this course.

IAFF 6146 Space Law

There are five international treaties specifically on space law. Most advanced space-faring nations have complex national laws and regulations implementing the various obligations under those treaties. However, space exploration, use, and exploitation is rapidly changing with the advent of technological capability spreading quickly among all nations and often involving the private sector alongside the more traditional governmental uses of space. Space is risky and complicated and the law is only slowly catching up to handle new problems. This course will develop a comprehensive understanding of the international treaties as well as exploring the evolving legal issues of new government and commercial initiatives such as using the Moon’s resources, advanced telecommunications, servicing spacecraft, placing weapons in space, and the threats of serious accidents in orbit.

IAFF 6153 Science, Technology, and National Security

This course examines how effectively states, and the United States in particular, develop policies designed to translate science and technology into strategic advantage. To assess these factors, the course addresses a range of issues including innovation, revolutions in military affairs, globalization and international economic integration, technology transfer and export controls, changing global security dynamics, and the impact of emerging technologies on defense industries and military power. The course begins with analysis of the interwar period, considering how effectively the great powers adapted to rapidly changing technology and assessing analytical frameworks for addressing these issues. Subsequently, the course uses case studies to addresses many of the key historic and current science, technology, and national security policy issues including science and technology in World War II, developing thermonuclear weapons, missile and satellite technology, airpower, counterproliferation, robotics, cyberpower, and governance of science and technology. Because there is no accepted canon of literature in this field, readings for this course are quite wide-ranging and require focused attention and active engagement to synthesize.

IAFF 6158 Contemporary Science Diplomacy

This course is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the current issues, trends, and critical discussions within the realm of science diplomacy. Throughout this course, students will delve into a wide range of contemporary topics that highlight the intersection of science, technology, and diplomacy. From climate change to emerging technologies, students will explore the real-world applications of science diplomacy and analyze case studies, examining various initiatives and diplomatic challenges from the Global North and Global South. During the course, the students are expected to engage in discussions and debates to foster critical thinking about the different dimensions of scientific collaboration, technology transfer, and the ethical dilemmas that can arise in pursuing scientific goals. The course may feature guest speakers who are experts in science diplomacy, offering diverse perspectives and insights.

IAFF 6158 Sci. Tech. & Global Statecraft

In the twenty-first century we often hear commentary about the many ways in which advances in science and technology are shaping national security and international affairs. With social media, satellites, and global fiber optic cable networks, it is now possible to communicate (nearly instantaneously) from the far corners of the world. At this same time, science and technology are often presented as a source of anxiety in international affairs with talk of new races in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, space, and hypersonic weapons. Fundamentally, science and technology play a defining role in shaping relations between countries. This course will explore the role of science and technology in international affairs using case studies from the 19th century through the present time. In doing so, we will explore how science and technology have shaped the international system as we know it today.

IAFF 6158 Issues in U.S. Space Policy: Tools and Scenarios

This course will address international space policy issues facing the United States and provides an overview of common tools (e.g., orbital mechanics, cost estimation, regulation) used in space policy making and implementation. The course will address current policy and regulatory issues facing U.S. space programs with regard to dual-use technologies, including export controls, spectrum management, and licensing of commercial remote sensing systems. Conflicts over dual-use technologies will be examined for their implications for a range of national interests. The course will also address strategic choices facing other nations in space activities, including dependence on U.S., European, and Russian space capabilities, developing indigenous space programs, and use of commercial space capabilities.

IAFF 6160 Defense Policy

This graduate course examines analysis as a tool supporting decision making in the national security arena. It takes a very practical view of how analysis is conceived, conducted, and then used to assist real-world choices. All analyses entail simplifying assumptions, so students are asked to discern such assumptions and their impact on utility of the analyses. The bulk of the course is critiquing finished analyses by others, but students are also asked to conduct a few analyses of their own of problems assigned to the whole class. Seminar sessions foster deeper understanding and debate. Succinct writing is stressed, and there is a mild bias toward aviation and naval issues. Where possible, combat data is examined.

IAFF 6162 Security Policy Analysis

This core course for students in the Elliott School’s Security Policy Studies (SPS) MA program is designed to help them analyze and evaluate contemporary security policies. Policies are statements of intent or commitments to actions made by governments and other actors; they involve decisions about the priorities and values to pursue as well as the resources and tools that will be devoted to that enterprise. Every policy decision could have been made differently. The course examines how social scientific concepts, methods, and analytic techniques can identify and prioritize security threats, risks, and challenges, and guide effective responses to them. It focuses on tools to analyze three important dimensions of contemporary security policies related to great power competition, conflict dynamics, and future uncertainty.

IAFF 6163 Transnational Security Issues (Lal)

The objective of this course is to develop higher-order thinking and knowledge of transnational security issues. It is designed to provide a better understanding of the characteristics and causes of issues that threaten human society across geographical, political, commercial and societal boundaries. Many of the challenges we analyze require multilateral solutions. Some of these challenges have roots in non-traditional security. Many topics have sufficient breadth and depth to warrant a dedicated course. This survey course will be particularly helpful in providing a solid basis for further study and specialization within the Elliott School.

IAFF 6163 Transnational Security Issues (Jermano)

Transnational threat actors exploit the globalization of commodity and capital flows to carry out illicit activities, raise revenue, and move and hide funds. Their operations adversely affect human, national, and international security as well as the integrity of the global financial system. Illicit networks cannot function without money, and the international community has adopted a range of tools to combat their financial schemes and mechanisms. This course will examine the character of illicit networks’ financial operations and how they intersect with other transnational trends that threaten security. It will also evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of economic and financial countermeasures relative to other policy tools for disrupting illicit networks, applying coercive pressure, and supporting conflict resolution.

IAFF 6165 Fundamentals of Intelligence

This graduate-level seminar will discuss the basics of intelligence collection, production, and analysis and provide an introduction to the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC), the authorities under which the IC operates, its role in informing U.S. national security and foreign policy, its role in implementing policy decisions, and the formation of policy and laws that guide the IC. The class will examine the IC in the context of historical, current, and expected future scenarios, and will discuss historic and potential future changes in how the IC informs and implements policy, as well as how oversight is conducted. In particular, the class will discuss the expanded role of the IC, both analytically and operationally, in the post-9/11 world, as well as the impact of the Wikileaks, Snowden, and other unauthorized disclosures in recent years.

IAFF 6169 Homeland Security

This course’s primary objective is to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of homeland security, encompassing both domestic and international dimensions. It delves into topics such as counter proliferation strategies, and related agreements, discussing the roles played by various governmental entities. The curriculum includes an exploration of border security, countering illicit trafficking in drugs, weapons, and human beings, as well as confronting transnational criminal organizations and domestic and foreign terrorism and nation state competition. The course takes a deep dive into the threats posed by different terrorist and extremist groups. It also scrutinizes the functions of both foreign and domestic intelligence organizations in managing these threats. Additionally, the course emphasizes the intricacies of risk-based decision-making, the delicate balance between privacy and security concerns, and the relevant laws and authorities pertinent to these issues. Active class participation is deemed indispensable, and various techniques, such as facilitated brainstorming, will be employed to foster a dynamic and interactive learning environment.

IAFF 6171 Introduction to Conflict Resolution

This course provides students with an introduction to the field of conflict analysis and resolution. It will introduce students to the major concepts and issues currently animating the field, explore the main strategies for responding to armed conflicts, and practice basic techniques for conducting conflict assessments. This course considers the “upper end” of the armed conflict spectrum, focusing on inter-state armed conflicts, contemporary civil wars, and other forms of organized violence. At the end of the course students should be acquainted with the nature of conflict resolution as a distinct theoretical and applied field of study and be familiar with major approaches to war prevention, mitigation, settlement, and post-war reconstruction projects. It will be useful for anyone with an interest in conflict resolution and management, including professionals in the fields of diplomacy, journalism, development assistance, humanitarian aid or international peacekeeping who wish to develop their knowledge of this important area. The course will connect theory to practice through discussion, policy analysis, research, and case study review of real events.

IAFF 6173 Security and Development

What is the impact of war on society and how can international development practitioners, diplomats, and security actors collaborate with communities and states to build back better? Fragility is multi-dimensional and solutions must be equally holistic to be effective. Transitional states are crowded places as local, regional, and international actors rush in to help, profit, gain influence, and or spoil reform efforts. With distinct values, capabilities, and perspectives, these external inputs must be aligned with local realities, capacities, and aspirations. Through this course, you will learn and apply a set of practical tools to develop international development interventions that first and foremost do no harm, and at their best, achieve sustainable, demand-driven impact that positively transforms the lives of those who have lived with war. Equipped with field-based case studies and real world professional experience; you’ll have a credible basis for pursuing a career in a transitional environment.

IAFF 6186 Civil Wars in World Politics

This course reviews the theories and empirics of civil wars and their relationship with the international system. Students will explore the causes, processes, and termination of civil wars through varying theoretical lenses. Questions will include: when do civil wars begin, how are they fought, who intervenes, why do some last longer than others, and what are their consequences for international peace and stability? Throughout the course, students will critically assess the divergent explanations for conflict processes by examining historical examples and violence datasets. By the end of the semester, students will acquire the tools and techniques necessary to better understand these conflicts and the associated foreign policy responses.

IAFF 6186 Artificial Intelligence & International Security

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already changing economies, domestic governance and law enforcement, military power, and intelligence operations and analysis. Students will build a foundational understanding with a general introduction to AI, followed by a more technical introduction to machine learning, deep learning, and generative AI. They will then examine how businesses successfully change their business and operating models to take advantage of AI’s strengths. Students will build on that foundation to understand the military and intelligence applications and implications of AI, its impact on the domestic elements of national power, and effect on the way countries interact with each other.

IAFF 6186 National Security Crisis Simulation

When an international crisis strikes, it’s best to be prepared. This course illuminates how the national security interagency apparatus really works, especially when the United States and its allies are under stress and (sometimes literally) under fire. This course involves a semester-length simulation of the national security decision-making process, with students role-playing members of the US National Security Council. The hands-on exercise will bombard you with various inputs—intelligence reports, presidential demands, news accounts, etc.—in an ever-shifting Middle East crisis. Like every crisis in that region, this one has global implications, involving competing military, economic, and political dimensions and multiple international powers. Students exercise their interpersonal and bureaucratic skills to build consensus on a way forward. Readings, lectures, and a scenario-specific supplementary bibliography provide detailed insight into US national security agencies and the real-world dynamics at play. The practical tools you learn to employ in this course can be applied to any crisis in the real world, and will help prepare you for important elements of the US Foreign Service oral examination.

IAFF 6186 Countering Violent Extremism

This course focuses on governmental and nongovernmental efforts to prevent and counter violent extremism. It provides students with an introduction to a burgeoning academic literature. The course charts the evolution of these efforts to prevent and counter violent extremism (P/CVE), particularly over the past fifteen years or so. This course also offers an opportunity to critically examine and discuss domestic and international P/CVE policies and programs around the world. The course will be useful for anyone with an interest in counterterrorism and/or preventing violent conflict, as well as a wide array of disciplines and issues including diplomacy, development assistance, peacebuilding, criminology, psychology, sociology, and political science. The course will connect theory to practice through discussion, research, and examinations of several case studies throughout the semester.

IAFF 6186 Cybersecurity

This course will provide an overview of current issues in the realm of cybersecurity, focusing on cybersecurity strategy, threats, conﬂict and policy. We will begin with an understanding of the power inherent in cyberspace and consider the policy issues facing the civilian, military, intelligence and private business sectors in dealing with oﬀensive and defensive cyber activity. Through the use of case studies, we will examine previous and ongoing cyber conﬂicts to understand their impacts on international relations. We will analyze the roles of several diﬀerent types of actors in cybersecurity including state actors, non-state actors such as criminal and terror groups and private sector responses. This course will also examine the issue of cyber deterrence, and the unique aspects of oﬀensive and defensive cyber activities by all cyber actors. A technical background is not required and basic aspects of cyber operations will be discussed in the introductory class sessions.

IAFF 6186 Emerging Threats

This course surveys emerging risks and challenges that threaten human, national and global security. It does so by paying special attention to a range of issues where scientific and technological innovation play a major role. Topics covered include how to think about the concepts of risk and securitization; revolutions in military affairs; the challenges of nuclear security and terrorism; conflict in cyberspace; the uses and consequences of robotics, drones and autonomous weapons systems; military developments in biotechnology; artificial intelligence; as well as security challenges related to demography, urbanization, public health, the environment, outer space, and quantum computing. For each issue, the course examines the politics of scientific and technological evolution by identifying the key drivers of change; the nature of threats at the local, national, and global levels; and how existing security policies should be reformed in response. A technical background is not required but will enhance one’s understanding.

IAFF 6186 Great Power Competition

This course examines the past, present, and future of how the most powerful states in the international system—the great powers—compete and cooperate in international relations. It begins by introducing different ways of defining and measuring relative power, and covers the key theoretical models of great power competition. It then examines various facets of great power competition, including its relationship to geography, technology, economics, ideology, status, nuclear weapons, and the global “periphery.” The course also examines the foreign and national security policies of individual great powers in detail, including those of the United States, the People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation, and a number of near- or potential-great powers, such as India, Japan, and European states. The course closes by looking forward to some emerging present and future challenges in great power competition. Through this course, students will gain a thorough understanding of how the great powers protect their security and pursue their interests in international politics.

IAFF 6186 Insurgency and Counterinsurgency

This course provides students with an introduction to the nature of insurgency, some key historical examples of how insurgencies were defeated, and analytical frameworks and tools for understanding and countering insurgencies. It is intended to provide a solid foundation for further inquiry into related topics such as irregular warfare, security and development, stabilization and peacebuilding, responses to terrorism, and conflict resolution. The course examines the multidisciplinary nature of insurgencies, and introduces students to the major concepts and issues of the topic, explores the main types of insurgencies, and analyzes in depth a number of strategic cases of counterinsurgency to help students understand the complexity and the variety of this form of warfare in the modern world. The course provides key frameworks for analysis for the study of insurgency and explores possible solutions to a number of current conflicts.

IAFF 6186 Analysis of Military Operations

This course introduces students to what militaries are, what technologies they make use of, and, most importantly, how they operate in peace and at war. It begins by providing students with the vocabulary necessary to discuss defense and military issues, covering the basics of military organizations and technologies. It then introduces the basic tools for the analysis of conventional military operations, followed by the application of these analytical tools to land, maritime, air, and joint military operations. The course also covers the analysis of “non-traditional” military operations, such as counterinsurgency, stability operations, and humanitarian intervention. The course ends with a look forward, considering how changes in the balance of power and emerging technologies will likely influence conventional military operations in the years ahead. Through this course, students will gain not only the fluency to comfortably debate and discuss military affairs, but, more crucially, a set of skills with which to systematically analyze military operations and strategies.

IAFF 6186 Illicit Finance & Security

State and non-state actors involved in illicit behavior raise, move, store, and use funds internationally to support their operations. The globalization of capital flows has increased the risk such activity poses to the integrity of the U.S. and international financial systems as well as to human, national, and transnational security. Multilateral organizations and their member states have responded by adopting systemic regulatory frameworks, expanding the use of targeted measures to combat financial threats, and enlisting support from the private sector. This course will examine the mechanisms and vulnerabilities of illicit financial activity as well as U.S. and multilateral tools for countering them. Students will analyze case studies, regulatory frameworks, and technological advancements to understand the evolving landscape of illicit finance and its impact on global security.

IAFF 6186 Military Power & Effectiveness

What explains victory and defeat in war? This question is vitally important to the course of history and the survival of nations. It is also important to affairs beyond war, like the outcomes of international negotiations, alliance structures, and the preservation of peace. Violence, or the threatened use of violence, is often the primary currency in the international arena and thus understanding military power and effectiveness is vitally important for anyone seeking to understand the affairs of states. This course assumes no prior background or knowledge of military affairs. It is an overview of military operations and strategy and the ways in which war and politics intersect to determine outcomes. This course will survey the fields of study in political science, military strategy, and policy analysis that illuminate this interaction: military effectiveness, Civil-military relations, military tactics and logistics, and foreign policy, among others. This course then explores innovation in military affairs and the limits of the application of military force in international relations.

IAFF 6186 War in Ukraine

Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine was the largest armed conflict in Europe since WWII. Russia’s invasion has profound implications not only for Europe’s security architecture—which was largely stable since the fall of the USSR—but for global security. This course introduces students to key concepts and issues regarding the war in Ukraine. Such issues include post-Cold War European security arrangements, Russian foreign policy and decision making, Ukrainian politics and the Euromaidan, Russia military modernization, Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea and post-Minsk ceasefires, the initial invasion, Western responses, evolution of the war, and possible trajectories. The course will include active scenario participation, guest lectures, and develop the students' abilities to engage in policy discourse on Russian and Ukrainian military, security, and international security. Students will also learn how to critically analyze, assess, and investigate sources of information to conduct relevant, rigorous, and empirically grounded research.

IAFF 6186 U.S. Grand Strategy

What should the United States do in the world? How has it, and how should it? This course examines U.S. grand strategy, meaning the economic, diplomatic and politico-military means that the state can employ to pursue its principal interests. The course first assesses the components of grand strategy: what are US interests, the means to achieve them, and the challenges to doing so. It then analyzes recent US grand strategies—the Cold War and 4 subsequent US administrations (Clinton, Bush, Obama and Trump). Finally, the course evaluates three principal options as the basis for grand strategic debates today. Whatever your passion or specialty in global affairs, this course gives both the framework within which it will be pursued, and the trade-offs that will have to be considered. It's the big picture.

IAFF 6186 Weapons of Mass Destruction Arms Control

War is nothing new, but the perfection of weapons that destroy on a massive scale threatens human extinction. The so-called Doomsday Clock now stands at 90 seconds to midnight. Finding ways to limit the potential harm and somehow reduce, control and eliminate these weapons of mass destruction – nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and their delivery systems – is a “wicked problem” of modern life. This course will explore how and why states develop, use or threaten to use weapons of mass destruction and how and why they agree or don’t agree to control them. It will explore the particular challenges of negotiating, implementing, and sustaining arms control agreements designed to limit these powerful weapons. The course will cover current topics in arms control, proliferation and disarmament.

IAFF 6186 US National Security (Prof. Farrell)

This seminar is a graduate survey course designed to examine the interests, institutions, actors, and processes involved in the making of US national security. We will explore key national security issues confronting US policymakers through the use of lectures, multimedia materials, discussions, assignments, and a crisis simulation. The course investigates the evolution of the U.S. national security establishment and management practices over time. Topics include conceptual foundations of national security, grand strategy, national security actors and institutions, and selected topics of U.S. national security, such as nuclear proliferation, economic security, and foreign interventions. The course presumes familiarity with American politics and US history, as in-depth analysis of these topics will occur. Students are encouraged to keep up with relevant world events to facilitate discussion and their assessment of US national security policy. By the end of the semester, students should be able to critically engage, understand, articulate and explain ideas and arguments about the US national security process and the complexity of American strategic interests and decision-making processes.

IAFF 6186 United States National Security (Prof. Reames)

This seminar is designed as a graduate survey course to examine the national interests, institutions, actors, and processes involved in the making of U.S. national security. In particular, this course examines the challenges and issues confronting U.S. policymakers in the national security domain using a combination of lectures, videos, practical assignments, and a crisis simulation. The course content includes conceptual definitions of national security, policymaking processes and debates, national security institutions and organizations, relationships between foreign, economic and defense policy issues, as well as civil-military relations. While the course presumes familiarity with American politics and U.S. history, in-depth discussion into these topics will occur and students are encouraged to keep up on relevant world events by reading legitimate news sources to facilitate discussion and their assessment of US national security policy. By the end of the semester, students should be able to critically engage, understand, articulate and explain ideas and arguments about the U.S. national security process and the complexity of American strategic interests and decision-making processes.

IAFF 6186 U.S. Security Policy in Asia

This course surveys the major security issues in East and Southeast Asia and the strategic challenges these issues pose to the United States. Topics include great power competition and the rise of China, nuclear proliferation and deterrence, alliance dynamics, human rights and democracy promotion, maritime security, and non-traditional security issues such as climate change and pandemics. Students will apply core concepts from International Relations (IR) theory to examine the emerging security trends and threats and their implications for U.S. national security. By the end of the semester, students will be able to critically engage, understand, and articulate realistic U.S. policy responses to major security issues in Asia.

IAFF 6186 Political Risk Analysis

This course examines the importance of political risk in shaping the international business landscape and environment. It examines the sources of political risk, how that risk may grow or change, how political risk influences business decisions, and how firms, investors, and international actors manage political risk. This course takes a multi-disciplinary approach drawing from international relations, economics, risk management, intelligence, and strategic communications to examine real-world political risks. The course begins with an introduction to the fundamentals of political risk, then explores megatrends, before shifting to empirical cases that focus on political risks related to the UK/Brexit, Russia, and China among others, as well as issue-based political risk associated with supply chains and technological advancements. By identifying and analyzing emerging and existing political risks, students will learn to navigate the complexities of political risk analysis. The course draws on academic literature while also focusing on the development of practical knowledge and skills that are applicable to both the public and private sector.

IAFF 6186 Russia & International Security

What are the sources of Russian conduct? This course facilitates students answering this question by gaining a holistic understanding of the influences on Russia’s policy choices in the context of international security so they can more effectively contribute to relevant public and policy discourse. The course will draw on an eclectic but not arbitrary selection of work by historians, cultural anthropologists, international relations, and political science theorists, economists, fiction authors, artists, and ordinary citizens. Every class will collectively build a foundational capability to comprehend Russia's behavior in the context of International Security in depth and from varying perspectives. Since this course is ambitious in scope and does not have prerequisites, it focuses first on gaining a comprehensive mastery of the chronology of Russia’s evolution as a nation state, the unique historical and geopolitical circumstances and narratives that continue to inform Russian security policy behavior and decision-making, and the orientation, capability, and capacity of the contemporary Russian national security state.

IAFF 6198 Economics of US - China Trade

This course will provide students with an understanding of core issues underlying the U.S.-China economic relationship, focusing on developments within the Chinese economy that have affected bilateral trade, investment, and competitiveness conditions. Emphasis will be placed on developments that have unfolded in the past four decades, starting with China's 1978 economic reforms and concluding with contemporary trade tensions. This course will encourage students to craft original positions by applying their course learnings, knowledge of international trade, and research and writing skills to contemporary U.S.- China trade issues. Students can expect to walk away from this class with experience in critically evaluating the literature and past policies, drafting original policy-relevant briefs, debating issues that are likely to have an enduring effect on the U.S. - China trade conditions of the future, and clarifying their thinking on complex issues that lie at the heart of this important and evolving economic relationship.

IAFF 6208 Communication in Modern Diplomacy

This course examines the expanding public dimension of modern diplomacy. It builds on global interest in public diplomacy in the 21st century’s diplomatic environment. We will explore how diplomats and political leaders communicate in a world of rapid globalization, new diplomatic actors, complex policy issues, digital technologies, increased risk, and uncertain boundaries between foreign and domestic. This seminar is designed to help public diplomacy concentrators deepen their knowledge and serve the interdisciplinary interests of students in global communication, international relations, and media studies.

IAFF 6212 Strategy and Leadership

Leaders in government, the private sector, and the non-profit sector must be able to develop a compelling strategy that is understood by managers and employers. They will be most successful if they can articulate a vision for staff and clients to embrace. The goal of this course is to provide you with some knowledge and tools to devise and implement your own smart visions and strategies at any level. The basis is how leaders determine their vision and then communicate and execute the vision, using their leadership skills.

Registration is restricted to MIPP students only.

IAFF 6216 Analytical Tools for Global Economic Policy

This course will introduce students to concepts used in international economic public policy. All students looking to understand the complicated world of economic globalization will benefit from the course. We will pay particular attention to policy choice among competing options. The course will develop an analytical framework to evaluate the costs and benefits of alternative choices. Students will learn about the consequences of globalization, international trade rules and agreements, foreign direct investment, foreign exchange markets, balance of payments crises, and the effectiveness of economic sanctions. Successful students will have current knowledge of basic microeconomic theory, especially supply and demand analysis.

IAFF 6222 International Security Politics

This course is an introduction to the dynamic and deeply important field of international security. The purpose is to provide you with an overview of the theoretical and policy debates in the field of international security. During the course, we will examine a variety of contemporary security issues to gain an understanding of these threats and their impact on international security in the 21st century.

IAFF 6222: Foreign Policy

The goal of this class is to prepare students to effectively participate in the crafting of U.S. foreign policy. Being a policymaker means that you aim to shape the future, while being an expert policymaker means you’re effective at it. But how do we know what works? Many say that foreign policy is an art form and that each official should rely on their own judgment in the policy process. This class advocates for an alternative approach. It offers a scientific framework for the conduct of foreign policymaking grounded in more rigorous and evidenced-based decision-making methods. This class will also survey the process and culture of key organizations and agencies crafting our foreign policy. Over the course of the semester, students will produce a detailed study and policy recommendation of an issue of their choosing, using the knowledge and skills gained in class.

IAFF 6302 Taiwan: Internal Development & Foreign Policies

When will China invade Taiwan? Will the United States defend Taiwan should China attack Taiwan? How will China’s attack on Taiwan impact the global supply chain? These are the questions pertaining to Taiwan that have been featured on media headlines, book titles, and public event announcements. They all suggest that Taiwan’s importance is determined by external actors and forces. Without a doubt, as a small island located at a strategic point in the Asia-Pacific region, Taiwan’s past, present, and future have and will continue to be shaped by outsiders. However, there is more to Taiwan than that. In this course, we will address the aforementioned questions, but we will also go beyond them to explore Taiwan’s history, internal developments, and its management of relations with external actors, including China and the United States. The course seeks to explore Taiwan’s intrinsic as well as strategic value to the world.

IAFF 6318 Contemporary Chinese Society

This course presents an overview of how the patterns of social life in China have been altered by the dramatic transformations carried out by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in its 75 years in power since 1949. The course will assess to what extent social patterns in China today reflect the changes launched by Xi Jinping, the post-socialist economic transformations led by Deng Xiaoping, socialist institutions of the Mao era, or the enduring social patterns of China’s imperial past. The course will also examine what the consequences of China’s altered social patterns are for issues such as China’s economic development prospects and the potential for political stability or instability. The changes in a wide range of social institutions will be considered, including political organization, village life and agriculture, cities and urbanization, schooling and education, inequality and stratification, family life, population trends, aging patterns, gender relations, and religion and culture.

IAFF 6318 Chinese Law & Legal Institutions

Introduction to the basic institutions and processes of the legal system of the People's Republic of China. Focus on the contemporary system and its role in political, economic, and social developments.” The final exam will be an in-class, 3-hour written exam. Students wishing to take the course must contact the instructor beforehand and get permission to enroll.

IAFF 6318 States and Societies in East Asia

Exploration of comparative politics in East Asia, focusing on the interaction of state policies, political institutions, and social processes. Topics include authoritarianism, economic development, democratization, contentious politics, public policy, interest groups, and judicial politics.

IAFF 6318 Gender, Power, and Sexuality in East Asia

This course offers an introduction to some of the basic concepts and theoretical perspectives on women, gender, and sexuality studies in East Asia. Drawing on interdisciplinary and cross-cultural studies, students will engage critically with many different issues. Throughout the course, students will explore how experiences of gender and sexuality intersect with other social constructs of difference, including race/ethnicity, class, and age. Special attention will be paid to various ways historical, cultural, social, political, and economic constructs have influenced the contexts of our lives and the social movements at the local, national, and some transnational levels that have led to key transformations. Our topic is historical, but the course as a whole explores questions fundamental to gender studies more generally. We will also focus on how the field of East Asian studies has come to engage with broader debates from other geographic regions and academic disciplines.

IAFF 6318 International Politics - East Asia

The course briefly assesses the historical dynamics of the region and the evolution of salient relationships since World War II, and then provides systematic review of developments since the Cold War. It treats pertinent contemporary Asian relations involving acute American rivalry with rising China, Korean peninsula developments, Japan’s future, Taiwan, territorial disputes along the rim of eastern, southeastern and southern Asia, relations with important flanking powers—India, Russia and Australia, regional multilateralism, terrorism, economic globalization, energy security, and climate change. Relevant issues and developments are assessed with a focus on relations among East Asian governments including relations involving a longstanding leading power in the region, the United States.

IAFF 6318 Uyghur History

If you read the news, you've heard of the Uyghurs. What happens when we study the history of the Uyghur homeland (Xinjiang or East Turkestan) through the voices of its autochthonous peoples? This only-at-GW course not only offers a detailed background for understanding today's Xinjiang, it explores the contestation of Uyghur identity through history and memory and even raises questions about how we understand the relationship between humans and time. We will read primary sources translated from Uyghur specially for this class.

IAFF 6318 China Frontiers

Are there distinctly Chinese ways of making boundaries and claiming territory? How have people on China's "frontiers" responded to the expansion of China-based states? This graduate seminar delves into these questions and more by studying change and continuity in Chinese frontier statemaking from the 1600s through the 2020s with a focus on Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Manchuria, Guangxi, Taiwan, and the South China Sea. We will put the Chinese case into dialogue with theories of territory and questions of comparative colonialism and imperialism.

IAFF 6318 Indigenous Lit & Film in Taiwan

This course delves into the multifaceted narratives and culture of Taiwan’s indigenous people through writing and cinema. By examining the works of the island’s major indigenous tribes, students will learn the diverse worldviews and history of Taiwan’s indigenous communities.

IAFF 6338 Ukrainian Security

Russia’s war against Ukraine has wide-ranging and profound consequences. The impact of the war, as well as its origins and the prospects for ending it, are hotly debated among policymakers and scholars in the U.S. and internationally. The course analyzes these issues from national, regional, and global perspectives. At the national level, it focuses on the two belligerents, Russia and Ukraine. At the regional level, we focus on individual nations and organizations such as the EU, NATO, and the OSCE. The global level analysis places the war between Russia and Ukraine in the context of relations between Russia, the U.S., and China, and the international order. The course also applies a historical perspective. While the course is not theory-centric, it will also apply theoretical perspectives from International Relations and Political Science.

IAFF 6338 Transatlantic Relations

For decades after World War II, the alliance between Europe and North America was critical to global security, prosperity, and expanding democracy. With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the transatlantic agenda shifted to a broad range of global challenges from climate change to technology and trade. More recently, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China's growing global influence, and electoral victories by populist leaders in the United States and Europe have renewed questions about the future of the transatlantic alliance. This graduate seminar examines the origins of the transatlantic alliance and its key institutions; the role of interests and values; the impact of political, economic and security changes since the end of the Cold War; and the prospects for cooperation on the global challenges the transatlantic community faces in the 21st century. Students will analyze challenges and opportunities for transatlantic cooperation from a policy perspective and develop skills to write persuasively to influence policy debates.

IAFF 6338 Comparative Post-Soviet Politics

Comparative Politics is the study of vital issues that are bigger than any one country and that are thus best understood by comparing the experiences of many countries. In this course, students will learn how the comparative method illuminates our understanding of crucial issues of theory and practice regarding countries that have emerged from rule by the USSR. These include war, democratization, imperialism, nationalism, revolutions, state collapse, gender politics, ethnic conflict, economic growth, economic resources/climate, and corruption. Special attention will be given to recent works combining a deep knowledge of local language, history, and culture with sophisticated comparative methodology. This is a seminar-style course that will involve in-depth discussion of important readings as well as the guided research and writing of an original research paper.

IAFF 6358 Contemporary Issues of US - Mexico Relations

This course examines the current drivers of the US-Mexico relationship, and uses concrete issues and recent junctures of the relationship to explore and understand both the policy and decision-making processes as well as the outcomes. It will provide students with a holistic understanding of the multifaceted agenda that makes this relationship so unique for US foreign and domestic policy. The course will also place the US-Mexico relationship in a larger geostrategic context -North American, hemispheric and global. This is not a "history of US-Mexico relations" course, though some readings on key defining moments will be required for context. The course will entail issue-driven policy simulation exercises in the latter portion of the semester in order to ensure that students understand both the issues but also the praxis and actual decision-making processes of this vastly complex relationship.

IAFF 6358 Climate Change & Environmental Policy in Latin America

Latin America is endowed with significant natural resources and environmental assets. The region holds almost one third of the world's fresh water. The Amazon rainforest, the largest on earth, lies within the borders of nine countries in South America. Latin America also has some of the largest energy resources in the world, including approximately 25% of proven oil and natural gas reserves and among the highest potential for renewable energy sources, such as hydropower, wind and solar energy. However, Latin American countries are also some of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including hurricanes, droughts and rising sea levels. Meanwhile, Latin America's contribution to energy-related emissions is increasing due to strong economic growth and a sharp reduction in poverty fueled by the commodities boom, which have led to a spike in demand for transportation and electricity. Thus, one of the greatest challenges for policymakers in Latin American countries is to construct a path toward low carbon economic development. Latin American countries must develop energy resources and improve policies to manage mass urbanization while minimizing their contribution to global emissions, protecting local environmental assets and adapting to the effects of climate change that are already occurring.

IAFF 6358 International Relations of Latin America

This course analyzes the trajectory of Latin America’s role in the world, assessing in particular conflict and cooperation with the United States. Focusing first on the Cold War, we explore why the U.S. frequently intervened in Latin American domestic politics; the U.S. cited security concerns amid its superpower rivalry with the Soviet Union, but many Latin Americans argued that these concerns were exaggerated. Focusing next on the post-Cold-War era, we analyze the emergence in Latin America of the “liberal international order,” including dramatic advances of market economics and democracy and considerable engagement in multilateral institutions. In the last half of the course, we explore how the “liberal international order” has frayed: the Trump administration proclaimed “America First;” China is a superpower rival; Russia is assertive; and the pandemic was devastating and corrosive. Goals that at one time were broadly shared across the hemisphere--democratization; attenuating climate change; controlling drugs and organized crime; establishing humane immigration policies—now appear elusive.

IAFF 6358 Economic & Social Development of Latin America

This course will examine the economic and social development of Latin America, with special emphasis on why it displays some distinctive characteristics and a weaker economic performance in recent history. The course will cover different aspects that contribute to development and analyze it in the context of Latin America. Finally, the course will discuss how global trends could affect the development of the region. Besides understanding how Latin America fell behind other regions in terms of inclusive growth, the course wants to provide students with tools to approach those and other related issues.

IAFF 6358 Latin American Geopolitics and Geoeconomics

This course will analyze the geopolitics and geoeconomics in Latin America. At the intersection of both lies the use of geopolitics to promote economic goals and of economic means to promote geopolitical objectives. Both seek to alter the balance of power and influence of the countries in the international arena. How has this interaction evolved in a context in which domestic politics underwent turmoil and the international arena drastic changes? How have Latin American nations sought to redefine their insertion, role, and influence in the ever-changing shape of the international system, from the years of the Cold War to the one of Globalization and the heyday of multilateralism to the era of Retrenchment and bilateralism. What are the implications for the future? The course will be based on lectures, student presentations, guest speakers, and research work. By the end of the semester students would have a solid grasp of facts and concepts, be able to analyze and forecast trends, and develop critical analytical skills.

IAFF 6378 Arabic for Diplomacy

This course examines the ever growing state and public realm of modern diplomacy. It builds on global interest in enhancing state and public diplomacy in today’s diplomatic climate. We will examine how government officials working in foreign affairs and political leaders communicate in a modern world of globalization, conflict, and complex policy issues. We will read and analyze articles from multiple media sources, focusing on TV interviews of Arab leaders and officials. This course is designed to help students engaging in the study of international affairs and diplomatic relations expand their Arabic language skills and cultural competence. This course is of special interest to students studying global communication, international relations, and media studies.

IAFF 6378 Conflict and Humanitarian Crises

Protracted conflicts across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have increased the vulnerability of millions of people and created staggering levels of humanitarian need. The effects of conflict are compounded by recurring and extreme weather conditions, water scarcity, and the COVID-19 pandemic. These shocks have combined to exacerbate political and economic instability, increased rates of poverty, hunger, and inequality and created the conditions for prolonged humanitarian crises and massive migration and internal displacement. This course will examine the historical, political, economic and environmental root causes of humanitarian crises in the MENA region and explore the relationship between conflict and humanitarian need and suffering in Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Iraq among other countries. With a focus on humanitarian policy and programming, the course will consider the role of the state, non-state actors, and international and regional organizations in responding to crisis and conflict; and how security challenges, counterterrorism laws and sanctions and geopolitical interests affect humanitarian access.

IAFF 6378 Oil: Industry, Economy, Society

Petroleum is one of the largest and most controversial industries worldwide, and affects the fortunes of companies and nations. This course takes a multidisciplinary approach (primarily political economy and management) to oil and its effects on business, nation-states, conflict, and the world economy. The first half of the course adopts a top-down viewpoint, examining the global oil environment. The second half is more bottom-up, using cases to grapple with issues such as governance, transparency, and security. The course is conducted in a mixture of seminar and lecture formats. A group proposal, paper, and presentation, as well as active class participation are expected, and constitute over half the assessment.

IAFF 6378 North Africa After Arab Spring

The popular protests that began in Tunisia over a decade ago catalyzed the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East that came to be known as the Arab Spring. The outcomes in the four countries of North Africa – Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia – have been dramatically different. They offer a fascinating platform for understanding the challenges of transition and stabilization. This course will examine the unique characteristics and policies of each country, as well as the drivers of popular discontent that they share. It will also look at how foreign actors and transnational issues continue to affect developments in these four countries. By the end of this course, students will be able to assess current and future developments in North Africa, the Middle East, and beyond. They will be able to identify core U.S. interests in the region, understand the different tools available to policymakers, and explain how best to orchestrate those tools.

IAFF 6379 Middle East Studies Capstone

Students complete a focused research paper that is the culmination of the Middle East Studies curriculum. Students complete this project in the final spring semester of their program.

IAFF 6385 Africa in the Global Economy

This course will examine the significant changes underway in Africa and its economies that are transforming its relationship to the rest of the world. The course will consider the impact of specific issues and integrate them into the kind of coherent narrative that policy makers and private sector leaders employ to understand and address critical trends. Issues covered will include Africa’s commercial integration, the impact of climate change and the green economy, the changing nature of health, rapid urbanism and demographic change, digital transformation and challenges and opportunities in finance.

IAFF 6385 U.S. Policy Toward Africa

This course will examine the evolution of interests, institutions, and instruments that have shaped U.S. engagement in Africa from the Cold War to the present day.

In the first half of the semester, we will examine key pivot points in U.S.-Africa policy and debate the policy dilemmas, contradictions, and consequences that competing interests and priorities have generated. In the second half of the semester, we will analyze contemporary issues in U.S.-Africa policy through discussion, debate, and role-playing exercises. Issues will include U.S. security engagement; diplomacy and influence; trade and investment; geopolitical calculations; and support for democracy and governance. Finally, we'll consider how domestic and global factors will likely shape U.S. interests and engagement in Africa going forward? Students should come away with a more critical understanding of U.S. engagement in post-independence Africa and an ability to analyze and assess how new developments in Africa and the global system impact U.S. interests and policy choices.

IAFF 6385 Peace and Conflict in Africa

This course uses an inter/multidisciplinary approach to explore the cultural, social, and political factors that have contributed to a majority of the African conflicts in the last century. Focusing on topics such as colonial and post-colonial impacts on nation building, ethnic and religious identities, economic development, gender and sexuality, diaspora and transnationalism, and international and traditional conflict resolution methods, this course offers a complex picture that highlights the different factors that have contributed to the radicalization and extremists views that have led to mass atrocities and genocides. Most importantly, this course engages with the idea of 'peace' and what peace has looked like or should look like in the context of Africa. It also explores the shortcomings and failure of our international system when addressing African conflicts.

IAFF 6385 Foreign Influence in Senegal

Students will explore the various ways that foreign countries are seeking influence in Senegal and West Africa and how Senegalese interpret and respond to the efforts. The program will consist of lectures, site visits, focus group discussion and cultural excursions such as visits to Goree Island and St. Louis. For the final project, the students will jointly write a white paper that assesses the actions of the various countries seeking to gain influence and how Senegalese react to these messages and interventions--issues that U.S. policymakers are keen to learn more about. Students gain a deep understanding of Senegal and international affairs, Senegalese culture and foreign power competition.

IAFF 6501 Quantitative Analysis for International Affairs Professionals

This course is designed to provide a strong analytical foundation in elementary statistical reasoning and techniques, and the skills necessary to understand, evaluate, and critic, claims, and conventional wisdom and popular opinion. Topics include descriptive statistics; sampling and statistical inference; testing for differences between means; techniques for analyzing categorical data; correlation, and measures of association; summarizing and presenting statistical results; and some of the fundamental issues of research study design. The course is rigorous but does not require an advanced mathematics background. Class time will be a mix of lecture, discussion, and hands-on computer work. Class attendance is essential.

IAFF 6502 Analyzing International Economic Data

The course will use trade, investment, and other economic data sources to examine international trade and economic topics including: trade in agricultural products and other goods, U.S. trade in oil, international trade in services, activities of multinational companies, international foreign direct investment, and GDP growth. Students will use economic statistics and tools available on the web or from Gelman’s Online Library. Students will gain hands-on experience using merchandise and services trade flows, foreign direct investment stocks and flows, balance of payments data, and foreign exchange rates. The course includes practical instruction on several types of online resources to specify data queries. Students will be asked to download economic statistics and manipulate electronic data in spreadsheets. The course will expose students to sources, terminology, and definitions unique to the analysis of international economic data. Students will be graded based on weekly attendance and class participation, three out-of-class assignments, a take home final exam, and a brief in class presentation that applies the skills learned in class.

IAFF 6502 Data Visualization with Tableau

I have some data, now what!?! This foundational skills course is geared toward students looking to develop data skills using Tableau. Students will work hands-on with Tableau (free Academic License) to analyze several datasets and create various types of visualizations. Along the way, students will be challenged to think about how their visualizations can be improved to communicate their ideas and findings more clearly. While the course is meant to be a gentle introduction to Tableau, even students who already have some experience in Tableau will find the course rewarding. Not only will this course help you build the necessary skills for evidence-based policy formulation, it will also make you more marketable. Tableau and data communication skills are in high demand among employers and can help set you apart in your professional career.

IAFF 6502 Intro to R

This course will help you familiarize yourself with the R programming language and R Studio integrated development environment (IDE). R is a free tool primarily used for statistical analysis. R is open source and benefits from several contributions (“packages'' or “libraries”) made by independent researchers. Statistical analysis is critical for effective, evidence-based policy making, and R counts itself among the highly sought after skills in the policy realm. In this class you will learn the fundamentals needed to create effective R scripts,run basic analyses, and troubleshoot (or debug) your code. You will also acquire the tools necessary to further develop your R skills to attain advanced-level programming knowledge.

IAFF 6502 Creating Data Rich Reports

Learn to use Quarto for integration of narrative text with code to create compelling reports, articles, books, presentations, blogs, websites, and knowledge repositories.

IAFF 6502 Negotiation Skills

This course helps students identify those aspects of their negotiating style that stand in the way of maximizing their negotiation outcomes. It is based on classic Interest-Based negotiations theory, with a focus on practical application, then followed by self-reflection. It is a highly interactive course composed almost entirely of a series of group exercises with varying degrees of complexity, and then debriefing of students' performance. Therefore, attendance of all 20 hours of class is mandatory, and there will be minimal presentation of concepts. Students are expected to read the book and other assigned materials uploaded onto the course's Blackboard page BEFORE the first class. Regardless of whether the course is given online or in person, students are expected to come ready with copies of their worksheets and exercises to work with.

IAFF 6502 Public Opinion/Sentiment Analysis

The goals of the course are to make students conversant in survey research, better consumers of public opinion data and gain the ability to use survey data in their work—all without having to become a statistician! This course will offer specific examples of how public opinion data has been used to inform policymakers. This is followed by a comparison of the validity of traditional survey research methods versus the more newly arrived social media sentiment analysis. It will provide an overview of the different methods of data collection as well as an introduction to sampling and questionnaire design and quality control measures. Students will then be exposed to how data is interpreted and used to form the backbone of pithy and cogent analyses. The course will conclude with an exercise in which students will review a data set and draft a policy memo based on a particular theme.

IAFF 6502 Restorative Justice

How a society responds to wrongdoing is critical to people’s perceived sense of security, belonging and justice. A state’s legal system plays an important role in establishing the rule of law and in maintaining popular confidence in its ability to manage transgressions. However, in many parts of the world, as is the case in the U.S., the justice system is not always designed to adequately contribute to healing or peace but instead deepens societal divides and conflict. Restorative justice is an attempt to address some of these gaps. Upon completion of this course, students will gain an Introductory knowledge of advanced communication skills to facilitate restorative justice circles between victims and offenders.

IAFF 6502 Leadership and Teamwork

This course explores the dynamics of team building, communication, and leadership that will increase managerial and leadership effectiveness. It is designed to empower participants to discover their preferred leadership style within a green and global context, emphasizing networking and servant leadership. Creating and sustaining a team involves a portfolio of skills which are particularly critical in a post-pandemic, horizontal and project-based environment, but also in traditional organizational hierarchies. In a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world, leaders must learn the tools of emotional intelligence and mindfulness, and develop a centered lens through which they can focus their contribution in global public service. Students will learn how to apply effective decision-making and problem-solving skills in teams; manage and resolve conflicts with appropriate communication skills; and identify and evaluate their own assumptions and behaviors related to leadership and group dynamics in organizations.

IAFF 6502 Persuasive Presentations

Storytelling sets speakers apart. It distinguishes adequate from the exceptional. It is an essential tool of influencers. The ability to communicate clearly, concisely, and compellingly affects one’s persuasive powers. Will your audience buy what you’re selling, endorse your recommendations, or invest in your program and policies? This course will cover how to design and deliver a formal briefing in TED Talk fashion – with dynamic verbal and non-verbal expression, tailored and targeted narrative structure, and resonant visual presentations. Students will learn essential techniques for assessing audience’s value proposition and influence levers, developing storylines, designing presentation material (graphics, slides), movement on stage, effective body language, vocal projection and stamina, and overall delivery skills for powerful, persuasive storytelling. Students will design, build, and present one briefing twice and receive personal and public coaching on how to improve their narrative and delivery. This class is highly interactive – and meant for those interested in leaning in, being challenged, learning quickly, and materially improving their storytelling skills.

IAFF 6502 Writing for International Policymakers

Outstanding international affairs professionals inform and influence through clear and concise communications. Successful writers create a foundation for decision and action by efficiently providing context and logically presenting evidence. Effective policy writing anticipates a leader's needs and identifies challenges, present options, and uncover opportunities. This course uses short written assignments, exercises, and tailored feedback to hone the skills of accuracy, brevity, and clarity. We will write against the backdrop of current international affairs or national security challenges. Specific skills include the ability to start with your bottom line, explain complex information, develop recommendations, and write with proper syntax and grammar.

IAFF 6502 STATA: Fundamentals

A four-week Stata introduction course that will cover basic skills for students to get hands-on using Stata for data analysis. This course provides a basic introduction to Stata software and its applications on data management, data analysis and econometric modeling.

IAFF 6502 Research Design for International Affairs

This course introduces students to a step-by-step approach to evaluating, producing and managing policy-relevant research in international affairs. Students practice key skills, such as how to survey existing knowledge, formulate research questions, choose analytical methods, and plan research projects. When deployed as part of a systematic approach, these skills help students produce quality course papers and complete superior capstone projects or theses. More importantly, a systematic approach to research will help them manage research throughout their professional careers. By the end of the course, students will demonstrate a grasp of research design by delivering a proposal for a research project.

IAFF 6503 Strategic Communications

This course will focus on strategic communication as it relates to international affairs. The course objective is to provide international relations professionals with working knowledge of communication strategy so they can more effectively participate in their organization's strategic communication process. Humans communicate for many reasons — to present themselves and their organizations in intentional ways, to achieve instrumental goals, and to build and maintain relationships with others. Ultimately, in the context of this course, students will develop a communication strategy and select tactics within a scenario to influence the cognitive, affective, and behavioral states of others — with the ultimate goal of getting another person or group of people to do something, stop doing something, or to allow an organization to do something. This course will examine the sources and levers of power and influence and cover the strategic communication planning process.

IAFF 6503 Alternative Analysis: Red Team

Members of both the 9/11 Commission and the WMD Commission expressed concerns that the U.S. intelligence community lacks imagination, does not "think outside the box," or challenge prevailing assumptions when analyzing threats to national security. Alternative analysis—often referred to as "red cell" or "red team”—uses various analytical methodologies to provide a more complete picture of issues than traditional analysis alone. Students will also be introduced to various methods of wargaming formats in which red teaming is applied. Students will be required to apply a variety of techniques used in red teaming and participate in a multi-sided war game.

IAFF 6503 Communicating Data with Web Apps

An introduction to interactive web apps with Shiny, an open-source web application framework that enables you to create interactive web-based visualizations and dashboards directly from your code.

IAFF 6503 Conflict/Corrupt:ResourceCurse

This course uses the case study of the "natural resource curse" - the oft-debated phenomenon of countries rich in natural resources being more prone to conflict and corruption - to explore how to conduct effective and ethical advocacy. We will first examine the political and economic indicators of the resource curse, define advocacy, and learn about the advocacy cycle. We will talk about the potential political levers in the United States and internationally, how to influence policymakers through crafting messages and targeted tasks, and throughout, will tackle the unavoidable ethical questions of conducting advocacy. This is not an exhaustive look at the resource curse, but rather leaves students with the practical tools to define and conduct advocacy campaigns.

IAFF 6503 Ethics in International Affairs

This course will introduce students to the 13 ethical dilemmas. The objective is to prepare students to effectively resolve the myriad of ethical challenges they will face in their personal and professional lives. The foundation for being able to do so is critical thinking. Critical thinking requires students to discover biases, viewpoints, and perspectives that affect the accuracy and persuasiveness of oral or written arguments, and to uncover reasoning errors or logical fallacies. Accordingly, effective use of critical thinking skills allows one to defend viewpoints, evaluate issues, analyze new information, and reach ethical conclusions – exactly what today’s environment demands from leaders. Students will evaluate, individually and collectively, dozens of real-life scenarios that require them to make hard choices in ambiguous situations. The course seeks to enhance students' confidence and competence in contributing to ethically-challenging decisions on a range of national and international issues.

IAFF 6503 Structured Analytic Techniques

This course introduces students to qualitative structured analytic techniques that they will be able to use across disciplines to help solve analytic problems. This course shows students how to use these techniques to approach analytic challenges and produce useful, insightful analysis. In numerous hands-on exercises, students practice specific skills to help them overcome mindsets, organize information, diagnose problems, explore different ways of thinking, and avoid surprises.

IAFF 6503 Writing for International Practitioners

Outstanding practitioners inform and influence through clear and concise communications. Successful writers create a foundation for decision and action by efficiently providing context and logically presenting evidence. Effective policy writing anticipates a leader’s needs, identifies challenges, presents options, and uncovers opportunities. This course uses short written assignments, exercises, and tailored feedback to hone the skills of accuracy, brevity, and clarity. We will write against the backdrop of current international affairs or national security challenges. Specific skills include the ability to start with your bottom line, explain complex information, develop recommendations, and write with proper syntax and grammar. To make the most of this course, view your work from the reader’s perspective, accept and incorporate feedback, and edit and edit again. Look to finish with a high-quality writing sample to complement your resume.

IAFF 6503 Leadership & Teamwork

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency - Chinese

A short, intensive 1-credit course designed to develop professional Chinese language skills for international affairs students and others who desire to improve their Chinese proficiency at the specified level and beyond, depending upon the participants.

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency - French

The primary objective of IAFF 6504 is to develop professional language skills for international affairs students and to train students to read and discuss international and cultural issues in French. The emphasis of the course is on reading comprehension and conversation skills. This course uses current news and international issues in French as a basis for training students to read magazine and newspaper articles, to watch and to understand the French news from a French TV channel as well as to discuss topics in French. Class time will be devoted to reading, discussion and vocabulary building activities.

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency - Russia

Intermediate Proficiency Russian is intended to improve the students’ skills in Russian (speaking, listening, reading and writing) through different activities - students’ interviewing each other, working in discussion groups, watching Russian news program, listening to the news in Russian, reading newspaper articles from Russian press or Internet, doing translation exercises on the vocabulary studied and the grammar reviewed, performing dialogues etc.

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency – Spanish

A short, intensive 1-credit course designed to develop professional Spanish language skills for international affairs students.

IAFF 6898 Capstone Workshop

First part of a two-semester sequence that addresses a concrete policy problem or issue in international affairs. In small teams, students refine the policy question of the capstone project, develop a research strategy, select appropriate research methods, and begin research. Continued in IAFF 6899.

IAFF 6899 Capstone Course

Second part of a two-semester sequence. Completion of the capstone sequence by conduct of the group's research, completion of the capstone report, and oral presentation of research findings and recommendations. Prerequisite: IAFF 6898.

Fall 2023

IAFF 6101 International Affairs Cornerstone

The International Affairs Cornerstone is required for all incoming students in the Elliott School’s International Affairs graduate program. The course introduces students to a variety of ways of thinking about international affairs; explores some of today’s major areas of international policy, while demonstrating the value of international relations theory for analyzing them; and provides students with an appreciation of the range of issues that future practitioners in international affairs will grapple with in the 21st century. The course seeks to ensure that all IA students have a solid foundation in international relations theory, and can use foundational theory to understand and analyze contemporary policy issues. The course also exposes incoming IA students to several major issues that are currently on the international affairs agenda, including war, conflict, and crises; international trade and finance; international aid and development; gender; global health and the environment; and emerging technology, among many others. Through this course, students will gain a broad view of the field of international affairs and an introduction to the theories with which to understand it.

IAFF 6102 Global Gender Policy

This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to examining the development of global policy aimed at achieving gender equality. The course provides an overview of the concept of gender equality, its capture in global policy and approaches to advancing implementation of select thematic areas of gender equality policy at global and country levels. Participants will gain knowledge of the genealogy of the current architecture of global gender equality policy, learn to critique policy approaches taken to advance gender equality and become familiar with the various strategies and tools used to advance implementation of these policies. Discussion of thematic policy areas includes formal economy employment, international security policy, education, health, violence against women, and responses to humanitarian crises.

IAFF 6106 Nuclear Weapons

Nearly thirty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and over three decades after the end of the Cold War, we find ourselves in a world in which nuclear weapons are still with us. Why do we have nuclear weapons? Why do countries seek nuclear weapons and how do they get them? How are nuclear weapons used, both in times of peace and in times of conflict? How is the spread of nuclear weapons controlled? Will we ever live in a world free of nuclear weapons? This course is designed to provide students with a basic orientation to the technologies, policies, and politics to answer these and other questions. We will examine the underlying technologies of the nuclear fuel cycle, production and accounting of nuclear weapons-usable fissile material, and the life cycle of nuclear weapons. We will discuss nuclear strategy and deterrence, particularly in how they relate to nuclear force planning and operations and the prospect of nuclear terrorism. Efforts to control the spread of nuclear weapons through nonproliferation, cooperative threat reduction, nuclear forensics, and counterproliferation are compared in the broader effort to control and reduce nuclear weapons through diplomacy and the means of verifying arms control and reduction agreements.

IAFF 6118 Global Justice

Within the domestic context, we often ask ourselves questions about justice: Is a proposed law fair? What would be a just tax policy? As a citizen, how should I engage in the politics of my country? What values—freedom? equality? democracy?—should our political and social institutions promote or embody? In this class, we will address these kinds of questions as they arise in the global context: What would make the world order just? What principles and values should guide states’ foreign policy? How should individuals and other non-state actors engage in global politics? What do we owe to people in other countries? We will read political theory scholarship on global justice from a variety of different perspectives, and use the ideas therein to analyze real-world political issues such as poverty, humanitarian intervention, the refugee crisis, and globalization. By the end of the term, you will be able to make coherent, informed arguments of your own (both orally and in writing) related to (some of) the major ethical debates surrounding global politics today.

IAFF 6118 International Law and the Use of Force

The use of force is one of the key focal points at which international law and politics intersect. This course provides an overview of the evolving norms on the legality of war, theories of just war, and the laws of war and wars of aggression, as well as important case studies including the use of force for humanitarian intervention and emerging issues in cyber-security, space law, and automated weapons. Readings will emphasize both the legal and political aspects of the use of force in the contemporary international system, including current uses of force such as the war in Ukraine. The class will examine questions such as: What are the consequences of using force without regard for the law? Is international law adequate to reflect the needs of contemporary politics? Is there a uniform understanding of the meaning of “force” in the international system? Students will discuss and understand the difficult issues involved in using force both effectively and legitimately given the increasing real-time coverage of politics and war around the globe, and examine the consequences of the expansion of actors on the international stage in which even private individuals can have major impacts.

IAFF 6118 Leadership & International Affairs

The course will focus on the leadership challenges that Elliott School graduates are certain to confront in their professional lives. The course will begin with a consideration of case studies of famous international leaders, and how concepts of leadership have changed over time. Part II of the course will then move into examining the skill sets required of successful leaders at all levels of career development, drawing on examples and case studies from international settings. Part III of the course will look at the exercise of those skills in different institutional settings, including inside the US government, across diverse cultural boundaries, and in the leading of NGOs, international organizations and key governments. Case studies will also figure prominently. Part IV will look at tomorrow’s challenges for international leaders and includes the development of a personal leadership plan by each student.

IAFF 6118 Qualitative Methods for Applied or Academic Research

This class introduces students to qualitative research, with a focus on the main methods of collecting qualitative data—-surveys, interviews and focus groups, participant observation, and archival/document research—-plus digital fieldwork including, but not limited to, its use as an alternative to ‘being there’ in person. (At least one class meeting will be held online, using Zoom, during our regularly scheduled class time.) Additional topics may include research designs, ethics, funding, and navigating Institutional Review Board (IRB) requirements, and qualitative data analysis methods, time permitting.

Students will learn through "how-to" readings and reflective articles by practitioners, as well as guest presentations and the instructor’s own experiences. Students will gain hands-on practice by working collaboratively in small groups and learning from their peers’ experiences as we explore a timely, globally relevant topic selected by the instructor. (Bring your curiosity; no prior experience necessary.)

For their final project, each student will write a research proposal on a topic of their choice and present it to the class for peer feedback. In prior semesters, students have used this proposal to refine ideas for capstone projects, dissertations, journal articles, or other projects.

IAFF 6118 Reimagining the UN for the 21st Century

The United Nations (UN) was created in 1945 following the devastation of the Second World War with one central mission: the maintenance of international peace and security. As a newly formed international organization in the latter half of the twentieth century, the UN shouldered an enormous mandate, faced tremendous challenges to peace and security, and confronted significant obstacles to global governance and security. In the twenty-first century, the pace and scale of globalization, modernization, and technological innovation have led to a burgeoning agenda of transnational issues and global threats to international governance and security. The challenge of managing global issues has been deepened by the increasingly intense reaction against globalization itself, which has produced a highly uneven and unequal distribution of winners and losers. This reaction has in turn fueled a backlash to the rules-based international system and the institutions established to support it. The associated rise in nationalism and populism has further undermined confidence in the system put in place in the aftermath of World War II. To these challenges must now be added the reality of rising competition among both great and middle powers, tensions that pose both external and internal threats to the effective functioning of the UN and other international institutions. Along with such existential threats posed by climate change, weapons of mass destruction, transnational crime and terrorism, migration, economic and financial instability, and most recently, global pandemics, the demands upon the UN are greater than ever. Yet there is broad agreement that, despite more than twenty-five years of concerted reform efforts, the United Nations and UN agencies are not meeting expectations in global governance and security. The question most urgently to be addressed today, therefore, is whether the UN still fit for purpose and if not, is it possible to reimagine this institution for the 21st century?

This course is to provide an analytic framework in which to craft a global strategy for the UN to navigate an uncertain future. Its purpose is to explore what must be done to make the UN and other international organizations more capable and competent for the 21st century. Policies are meaningless in the absence of good strategies for implementing them; and strategies are worthless in the absence of competent institutions to execute them. Therefore, the course will focus on how to institutionalize the way we deal with major issues at the global level. While the principal focus is the United Nations, the course encourages students to examine more broadly the wider web of international organizations that constitute the multilateral system.

IAFF 6118 Research Methods in Global Gender Issues

This course reviews mixed methods techniques and analysis with a focus on gender equality and social inclusion. Choosing which information to collect and which techniques are best for doing so are important steps. By taking this course, students will become better prepared to collect data, review others' research and reports, and analyze and communicate regarding local conditions and concerns. This course is not a substitute for a quantitative, statistical, or qualitative methods requirement, nor are those courses prerequisites for this. Also, while this course complements others in the GW Global Gender Program, it can be taken independently: any student interested in learning about and discussing research, information, and analyses as these support and affect projects, task orders, and assignments aimed at responding to global issues is welcome.

IAFF 6118 Wartime Governance Challenges in Afghanistan

The course will provide an Afghan perspective on critical issues facing Afghanistan’s post-9/11 political order. Against the backdrop of Afghanistan’s historical and indigenous social change efforts, internal political divisions, and active insurgency, students will be exposed to the country’s post-2001 trajectory of ambitious, internationally sponsored reconstruction and state-building. Students will assess and understand the challenges of wartime governance.

IAFF 6138 Achieving Sustainable Development

How can we achieve sustainable development? Our graduate seminar will investigate this question by first examining challenges to sustainability from a local to a global scale. Grounded in the UN’s Agenda 2030, we will identify the potential and limitations of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to support a change in development implementation. With a focus on rural development, we will identify the complexities of livelihoods and analyze novel, holistic approaches to development. Taking into account consequences from the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, the war in Ukraine, and persistent gender inequality, we will ground our discussions using case studies of existing and new projects and initiatives. We will also draw on exchanges with experts, with the ultimate goal of sharpening your skill sets to contribute towards sustainable development from the household to the policy levels. By the end of the course, you should be empowered to become a change maker towards sustainable development in your career in the public or private sector.

IAFF 6138 Civil Society and Development

International development has evolved from a field centered on governments and large international institutions to one that it is increasingly implemented by international, regional, and country- or community-based civil society organizations (CSOs). In this course, we will cover topics including: definitions of civil society in historical and philosophical traditions, as well as how they are used today in international development work; regulatory and legal frameworks that govern CSOs in different country contexts as well as formal and informal restrictions in the broader enabling environment for CSOs; the approaches of major international donors to working with CSOs and the ways international organizations supporting CSOs approach their work; debates around power dynamics, decolonization, localization, and other international frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); and the roles that CSOs play in different sectors of international development, though we will focus mainly on the democracy, human rights, and governance sector.

IAFF 6138 External Development Financing

Institutions, instruments, and theory of external development financing; financial flows to developing countries; development finance and the role of international and regional development banks; policies, methods, and practices of the World Bank, the IMF, and others; technical assistance, training, capacity building, and role of institutions in sustained development.

IAFF 6138 Gender and Development

IAFF 6138 Humanitarian Governance and Policy

In this course we examine humanitarian governance, coordination and policy, focusing on the knowledge and skills required by practitioners to formulate humanitarian policy and coordinate humanitarian response. The course begins by introducing students to the global humanitarian system and providing an overview of the main actors, their roles and mandates; the types and levels of humanitarian crisis; and the main standards, principles and legal frameworks for humanitarian assistance. The course continues by considering key factors that affect program design and implementation including politics, humanitarian access, funding, security, risk management and mitigation, and coordination. We also discuss strategies for humanitarian diplomacy, disaster risk reduction, and coordination across the humanitarian, security and development sectors. Students will engage these topics and dilemmas through course lectures and readings; case studies of current humanitarian crises; guest lectures from practitioners working on humanitarian policy and coordination in U.N. agencies, USAID, and NGOs; and applied learning.

IAFF 6138 Strategic Environmental Management

While many in the business, government, and non-profit sectors view environmental protection as a threat to competitiveness, others see win-win opportunities. This course provides students with graduate level knowledge and real life case examples that will allow them to design profitable corporate environmental management strategies. After taking this course, students will be able to:1. Formulate profitable corporate environmental management strategies. 2. Evaluate the effectiveness of green differentiation advantage strategies.3. Explain how corporate environmental strategies are affected by: stakeholder pressures, distinctive country contexts, and variations in business-level characteristics. And 4. Explain the opportunities/challenges of climate change trends for businesses.

IAFF 6141 International Science and Technology Policy

This course provides a comprehensive overview of the policy issues related to the support, use, management, and regulation of science and technology. It addresses US domestic as well as international issues, is concerned with governmental policies as well as non-governmental decisions, and it is focused on both the economics and politics of science and technology issues.

In today’s world, scientific discoveries and technological innovations influence almost every aspect of human existence. Many changes induced by these innovations have been extremely positive, bringing advances in health, communications, material wealth, and quality of life. At the same time, Science and Technology have helped create apparently intractable problems, including new risks to human health, pollution of the natural environment, and the existence of weapons capable of mass destruction. Given all of these impacts, making effective and fair choices regarding technologically complex issues is one of the most challenging tasks of modern governance.

IAFF 6145 U.S. Space Policy

This course will address international space policy issues facing the United States and place them in context with broader technological advances and the changing strategic environment. The course will address current bureaucratic and regulatory issues facing U.S. space programs with regard to dual-use technologies, including export controls, spectrum management, and licensing of commercial remote sensing systems. Conflicts over dual-use technologies, such as space launch, remote sensing, satellite navigation, and communications, will be examined for their implications for a range of national interests. The course will also address strategic choices facing other nations in space activities, including dependence on U.S., European, and Russian space capabilities, developing indigenous space programs, and use of commercial space capabilities.

Taught by ISTP/IISTP/SPI Director, Professor Scott Pace

IAFF 6148 Space and National Security

Space and National Security - A broad, complex, and multidimensional set of factors contribute to the ability of states to use science and technology to advance their national security. This course examines how effectively states, and the United States, in particular, develop policies designed to translate science and technology into a strategic advantage. To assess this issue the course addresses a range of factors including innovation, revolutions in military affairs, globalization and international economic integration, technology transfer and export controls, changing global security dynamics, and the impact of emerging technologies on defense industries and military power. Major themes addressed throughout the course would form parts of an integrative framework for understanding the interplay between science, technology, and national security policy.

IAFF 6158 Artificial Intelligence and Policy Changes

This class examines artificial intelligence (AI), problems of various sorts that AI use can cause, and candidate policy frameworks to manage these problems. No prior technical knowledge of artificial intelligence is needed to be successful in the class. The class examines problems in both the international and the domestic context; in each context, the class considers technical, policy, and normative problems that arise from the use of artificial intelligence. Technical problems arise from using data sets to train AI algorithms that are unrepresentative of the relevant population, for example. Policy problems include crafting and implementing the laws needed to reconcile the capabilities afforded to police departments by dense networks of close circuit cameras and facial recognition databases with broader values of individual privacy. Normative problems arise from various debates over new capabilities enabled by AI algorithms, including what constitutes “legitimate” heritable human genome editing or “appropriate” impacts of generational wealth or poverty. The class examines candidate policy frameworks, including international treaties, norms, and regimes for similar problems, as well as different domestic frameworks, including the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) in the European Union.

IAFF 6158 Economics of Technological Change and Innovation

This course provides an overview of important issues related to technological change and innovation that have attracted the attention of economists up to the present time. Among all social sciences, economics may be argued to have taken the longest and broadest interest in technological advancement and innovation.

The specific assumptions and methodologies of mainstream economic analysis have, however, been vigorously criticized more recently for failing to deal with the sources of technological advancement. Criticism has basically coalesced on two fronts. First, it is argued that mainstream economics has not paid adequate attention to the institutional setup supporting innovation and economic growth. Second, it is argued that an overly mechanistic approach has failed to take into account the evolutionary processes involved in scientific and technological advancement. The course attempts to provide a balanced view, taking into account both mainstream and neo-institutional/evolutionary approaches as well as expanding to the appraisal of the sources of new technology.

IAFF 6161 International Security

This course surveys the dynamic and deeply important field of international security. It is a required, cornerstone course for students in the Elliott School’s M.A. program in Security Policy Studies (SPS). The course begins, in Part 1, with an overview of the major theoretical approaches to the field of international security. Part 2 then examines key contemporary issues related to international order and organized violence, including great power rivalry, warfare, coercion, international security institutions, weapons technologies, and international conflict management. In Part 3, the course surveys key global and transnational security challenges, including those stemming from nonstate armed groups such as terrorists and criminal organizations; environmental, ecological and energy issues; emerging technologies; as well as pandemics and public health.

IAFF 6164 Environmental Security

This graduate course will examine the link between environmental issues and security. Although scholars for decades have studied how environmental issues can threaten security and lead to conflict, their research often lags behind the growing international consensus that environmental issues are national security issues. National leaders and international policymakers are increasingly taking action to address what they see as environmental threats to national and global security. The course will examine these emerging threats, such as climate change, energy, water stress, pollution, desertification, the arctic and oceans, and assess how conflict and competition in these areas has led to internal instability and international conflict. We will study how environmental change and stress can worsen resource shortages, including food and water stress, intensify migration, bolster recruiting by militants, and raise the prospects for cross-border conflict. And we will study the use and damage of the environment during war.

IAFF 6165 Fundamentals of Intelligence

IAFF 6171 Introduction to Conflict Resolution

IAFF 6173 Security and Development

What is the impact of war on society and how can international development practitioners, diplomats, and security actors collaborate with communities and states to build back better? Fragility is multi-dimensional; a myriad of challenges emerge during conflict and in the immediate aftermath and solutions must be equally holistic to be effective. Transitional states are crowded places as local, regional, and international actors rush in to help, profit, gain influence, and or spoil reform efforts. With distinct values, capabilities, and perspectives, these external inputs must be balanced with and adjusted for local realities, capacities, and aspirations. Through this course, you will learn and apply a set of practical tools to develop international development interventions that first and foremost do no harm, and at their best, achieve sustainable, demand-driven impact that positively transforms the lives of those who have lived with war. Equipped with field-based case studies, a real world professional experience, and practitioner critique; you’ll have a credible basis for pursuing a career in a transitional environment.

IAFF 6186 China's Military

This course focuses on the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and de facto state military of the People’s Republic of China. This course offers criteria and metrics to assess military forces that students will apply in critical analyses of the PLA. The course begins with the CCP’s assessment of its security environment and national security objectives that frame the requirements for China’s military. It goes on to explore the assigned roles and missions of the PLA and the military capabilities necessary to accomplish those missions. Most classes will focus on the characteristics of China’s armed forces in the context of major warfare domains – land, maritime, air, space, cyberspace, and nuclear. These classes will include overviews of weapons and equipment, force structure, operational capabilities, and force development goals for each of the military services. Civilian-military relations and the fusion of civil capabilities to military missions will also be discussed. The course does not require previous detailed knowledge of military affairs or the Chinese political system, but those who have not studied those areas may require additional reading to establish a sufficient foundation for class discussions.

IAFF 6186 Civil Wars in World Politics

This course reviews the theories and empirics of civil wars and their relationship with the international system. Students will explore the causes, processes, and termination of civil wars through varying theoretical lenses. Questions will include: when do civil wars begin, how they are fought, who intervenes, why do some last longer than others, and what are their consequences for international peace and stability? Throughout the course, students will critically assess the divergent explanations for conflict processes by examining historical examples and violence datasets. By the end of the semester, students will acquire the tools and techniques necessary to better understand these conflicts and the associated foreign policy responses.

IAFF 6186 Cybersecurity

This course will provide an overview of current issues in the realm of cybersecurity, focusing on cybersecurity strategy, threats, conflict and policy. We will begin with an understanding of the power inherent in cyberspace and consider the policy issues facing the civilian, military, intelligence and private business sectors in dealing with offensive and defensive cyber activity. Through the use of case studies and tabletop exercises, we will examine previous and ongoing cyber conflicts to understand their impacts on international relations. We will analyze the roles of several different types of actors in cybersecurity including state actors, non-state actors such as criminal and terror groups and private sector responses. This course will also examine the issue of cyber deterrence, and the unique aspects of offensive and defensive cyber activities by all cyber actors.

A technical background is not required and basic aspects of cyber operations will be discussed in the introductory class sessions.

IAFF 6186 Cyberspace, Conflict, and War

This course examines the relationship between information technology, conflict, and war. After introducing key concepts, capabilities, and actors in cyberspace, the course will examine the relationship between information technology and various aspects of domestic and international conflict and war. These include cyberwar, deterrence and compellence, offense and defense in cyber conflict, cyber conflict and escalation, espionage, conventional military operations, nuclear weapons, political subversion, mobilization and repression, civil war, and the laws of armed conflict, among others. These various aspects of cyberspace and conflict will be highlighted through in-depth examinations of key academic and policy debates as well as crucial contemporary case studies. Through this course, students will gain a thorough understanding of how information technology is shaping domestic and international conflict.

IAFF 6186 Cyber Threats and Policy

This seminar provides an overview of current issues surrounding cyber conflict. The seminar explores issues facing policymakers on the global stage through the lens of cyber conflict. Using cyberspace as the point of reference, this seminar explores state actors, non-state actors, state and global responses to cyber aggression, international relations focusing on cyberwar, ethics, and policy. Further, the seminar explores modern-day threat actors, their actions, and implications on national policy as it pertains to cybersecurity, attribution, privacy, and the law. The role of the private sector is analyzed in the context of national defense. The seminar concludes with an examination of the potential impact of hybrid threats and emerging technologies on US policy. The seminar is not intended to be a technical course, rather it seeks to examine political and security-related implications of cyber conflict as they pertain to the national-level policymaker.

IAFF 6186 Emerging Threats

IAFF 6186 International Organized Crime

International Organized Crime is a graduate-level seminar, focused on developing broad critical skills and knowledge around IOC and the aspects and issues that intersect with the topic. Transnational crime will be a defining issue of the 21st century for policymakers – as defining as the Cold War was for the 20th century and colonialism was for the 19th. This course will involve extensive reading, research, and writing. It will also include vigorous group discussions on the assigned readings/topic. Certain portions of what we will discuss, and encounter are rich enough to warrant a dedicated course – such as illicit trafficking, money laundering, or corruption. We will examine a variety of international organized criminal groups and their illicit activities. This survey will provide a solid basis for further, more in-depth study of these attributes, functions, and entities. It will consist of academic writings, broad overview lectures, specific student presentations, and contemporary readings of the issues we are studying.

IAFF 6186 Political Violence and Terrorism

What motivates individuals to engage in suicide terrorism? Why do some violent national movements succeed or fail? Why do some political movements decide to use terrorism and others do not? This course covers the causes, conduct, and consequences of political violence and terrorism, explores why the impacts of terrorism outweigh the material significance of actual attacks, and surveys methods and theories of countering terrorism and violent extremism. In the process, the course covers the definition of terrorism and terrorism types, it explores variation both in time and space, and shows perspectives from both practitioners and researchers of terrorism. In studying political violence, the course surveys some advanced analytic methods used in political science and intelligence analysis, including forecasting and structured analytic techniques.

IAFF 6186 Russia & International Security

This course is designed to facilitate students achieving a holistic understanding of Russia’s position and policy priorities in the context of international security, with a particular focus on Russia's war in Ukraine, to effectively contribute to professional and academic endeavors. The course will build this competence through an interdisciplinary approach appropriate to policy work that draws on an eclectic but not arbitrary selection of work by historians, cultural anthropologists, international relations, and political science theorists, economists, fiction authors, artists, ordinary people, and more. Not every discussion, reading, or even class, will be narrowly focused on security affairs, but they will collectively build a foundational capacity to comprehend Russia in the context of International Security in depth and from varying perspectives. Since this course is ambitious in scope and does not have prerequisites, it focuses first on gaining a broad and comprehensive mastery of the chronology of Russia’s evolution as a nation state, the unique historical and geopolitical circumstances and narratives that continue to inform Russian security policy behavior and decision-making, and the orientation, capability, and capacity of the contemporary Russian national security state.

IAFF 6186 Transitional Justice

Since the end of the Cold War, peacebuilding interventions have increasingly implemented Post-conflict Justice (PCJ) initiatives to overcome wars and conflicts and reach peace and reconciliation. Post-Conflict Justice, also known as Transitional Justice, is a dynamic multidisciplinary set of procedures adapted to societies transforming themselves after a period of pervasive human rights abuses due to conflict or wars. While definitions vary, they all capture the political, legal, and moral dilemmas phased in these transitions.

The purpose of this course is to allow the student to weigh the relative theoretical merits of some of the Post-conflict Justice components (its most iconic are Trials and Truth Commissions) in actual concrete experiences in different countries that have experienced huge violations of human rights. Emblematic case studies are used to illustrate and expand the analyzed concepts of transitional justice in countries in Africa, South America, and Europe.

IAFF 6186 Understanding U.S. Special Operations

This graduate course examines the use of U.S. special operations forces (SOF) in pursuit of a broad range of national security objectives. The course explores both historical (emphasis on post-World War II) and contemporary issues and debates surrounding the utility of special operations and the use of SOF. During the course, we will address a number of questions, including: What are special operations and SOF? How are special operations different from conventional military operations and why are they conducted? What are the different types of U.S. SOF, and how and why did they come to exist? What are the different roles and missions of each type of U.S. SOF? How have special operations and SOF historically been used? How are special operations and SOF used today and how is that likely to change in the future? What are the major operational, organizational, and cultural challenges facing U.S. SOF today and how should they think about overcoming them?

IAFF 6186 U.S. Grand Strategy

IAFF 6186 US National Security

IAFF 6186 US Security Policy in Asia

This course surveys the major security issues in East and Southeast Asia and the strategic challenges these issues pose to the United States. Topics include great power competition and the rise of China, nuclear proliferation and deterrence, alliance dynamics, human rights and democracy promotion, maritime security, counterinsurgency, and non-traditional security issues such as climate change and pandemics. Students will apply core concepts from international relations theory to examine the emerging security trends and threats and their implications for U.S. national security. By the end of the semester, students will be able to critically engage, understand, and articulate realistic U.S. policy responses to major security issues in Asia.

IAFF 6198 Law, Economics, and Governance of Global Trade

The global trading system is in crisis – reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing US-China trade war, a dysfunctional dispute settlement system, and mounting pressure for “de-globalization”. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is struggling to stay relevant, as countries continue shaping the future of trade through bilateral and mega-regional trade deals. Against this complex backdrop, this interdisciplinary course offers practical, in-depth knowledge of the law, economics, and governance of the global trading order. Topics include rationales for concluding trade agreements; the role, function, and organization of the WTO; bedrock principles and core disciplines of multilateral trade; the WTO dispute settlement system; recent trends in international trade cooperation; and the role of the United States in shaping and reforming the international trade order; and the future of the global trading system.

IAFF 6198 Macroeconomic Policies: A Case Study Approach

The course makes use of macroeconomic theory and international practice to analyze real world policy questions and country cases. We will develop a simple and flexible macroeconomic framework within which a number of policy issues will be examined, including: evaluating monetary and fiscal policies in different economic contexts; identifying economic and financial vulnerabilities; analyzing policy spillovers between countries; and designing economic policies for countries in or near crisis. We will consider the macroeconomic impact of the COVID-19 crisis and the war in Ukraine and their implications for policy-making going forward. Relevant country cases will be presented and discussed in class. Students will also make group presentations on country cases.

IAFF 6208 Public Diplomacy

This course examines concepts, practices, institutions, and critical issues in public

diplomacy (PD). It assumes the central importance of public engagement in today’s diplomacy and that diplomatic practice is changing in fundamental ways that pose challenges for practitioners of PD. More diplomatic engagement occurs in public places – real and virtual. A more diverse and increasingly active set of players is filling the global space for engagement and communications. Issues are more complex and often global in nature. The communications landscape is faster and more competitive than ever before, and new technologies are accelerating the speed of diplomacy and transforming its forms and core functions. Current events have led to more virtual engagement with foreign publics. Drawing on the experiences of diplomats, practitioners and a growing body of literature, this course will be organized as a practicum in public diplomacy and will examine the strategies, tools and practice of public diplomacy.

IAFF 6212 Strategy and Leadership

Registration is restricted to MIPP students only.

IAFF 6213 Leadership Capstone

The MIPP Leadership Capstone is the second course in the two-semester MIPP leadership program, building on IAFF 6212 Strategy and Leadership. This two-semester sequence explores the evolving nature of international leadership in the twenty-first century, focusing on horizontal leadership – a leadership approach that is critical for managing expert, networked teams on complex problems that require adaptation and learning. That is, it is an emerging leadership style for the current century where power is diffused and global challenges are complex and transnational.

In the Leadership Capstone, students practice horizontal leadership skills by researching and designing an individual leadership project that addresses a critical issue in their professional field, using lateral leadership skills to build alliances and buy-in. While the first semester of the program focused on strategic thinking and team leadership skills, the second semester emphasizes the development of skills in research, program design and evaluation, coalition building, proposal writing, and oral presentation.

This course is intended for MIPP students only.

IAFF 6318 Beginning Uyghur Language 1

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the Uyghur language, a Turkic language spoken by more than 11 million people, primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. Students with no prior knowledge of Uyghur will learn the basics of its grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. The course emphasizes the development of the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, using a communicative approach. Students will engage with authentic materials and real-life situations to enhance their language learning experience. Additionally, the course will introduce students to Uyghur culture, customs, and history, fostering an understanding of the linguistic and cultural context in which the language is spoken. By the end of the course, students will be able to engage in basic conversations and read simple texts in Uyghur, as well as demonstrate an appreciation for Uyghur culture.

IAFF 6318 South Asia & Regional Security

This course will analytically consider what fuels the security calculations and foreign policy

behavior of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and other key island nations in the Indo-Pacific, and how this interacts with the competition spurred by the simultaneous rise of India and China. What does rising cultural and religious nationalism, conventional and unconventional military competition and the vicissitudes of globalization mean for South Asian states and their relations with each other? What is the impact of new challenges of climate change, digital tech and social media on the deeply divided region? And most importantly from a regional security view, what is the shape of India-China rivalry and how can we understand the preferences and postures of regional countries in this emerging strategic landscape?

IAFF 6318 Women in Asia

This course examines the social, cultural, political, and economic roles of women in Asia in a comparative context, both in terms of historical development (from the mid-19th century to the present) and within different Asian societies. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the class will investigate the place of women in the family and in society, their relationships with one another and with men, and their relationship to politics and the state. By doing so, it will seek to identify major social and institutional constraints on Asian women for expanding their role in their respective societies and to explore both ideas and specific measures to narrow the existing gender gaps in these societies. Emphasis will be placed on China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea, but other countries in Southeast and South Asia will also be examined.

IAFF 6321 Colloquium: Europe & Eurasia

Europe and Eurasia play a crucial role in contemporary world affairs. This is currently being highlighted by the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, which has ramifications well beyond Europe itself and affects the international system. Europe is also becoming increasingly intertwined with China’s global ambitions and the triangular Russia-China-US relationship. While most of Europe is stable and prosperous, its countries are facing multiple sources of volatility, including tensions within the EU and NATO, changes in domestic politics, a steady influx of refugees, and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. This course integrates analysis of current developments in Europe and Eurasia, including their transatlantic and global implications, with an examination of their roots in the past, going back to 1945. The course covers great power politics during and after the Cold War, energy security, transatlantic relations, NATO, the EU, former Yugoslavia, Germany, and Russia and the former Soviet Union, including the Russo-Ukrainian War. In addition to seminars, the course entails group work, debates, and simulation exercises. Two shorter papers and a research paper allow students to explore topics of particular interest to them in greater detail.

IAFF 6338 Today’s Arctic: Geopolitics, Sustainability, and Governance

This course will build on GW's extensive Arctic studies program to explore current research across a variety of Arctic topics. It will examine the current geopolitical tensions between Russia and the Western Arctic nations, including the military build up and competing territorial claims. A second section will investigate the impact of climate change in the far north and how it will drive change in the natural world, human governance, and for the built environment. Third, the course will examine current lifestyles in the region, with a focus on the growth of a new green economy, plans for urban development, and the role of the Indigenous communities in shaping all aspects of Arctic life.

IAFF 6338 US-Russia Relations in the Twenty-First Century

Putin’s war against Ukraine, which started on February 24, 2022, has completely changed the world’s geopolitical landscape. The purpose of this course is to provide graduate students with an understanding of the main causes behind present dramatic developments, clarify issues that have led to the end of the post-Cold War order, and to trace the impact of U.S. - Russia relations on the evolution of domestic and foreign agendas in both countries. In the process, you will develop your critical thinking skills and will learn how to apply political science theories to specific foreign policy issues, define the principal drivers of U.S. - Russia interaction in an international context and debate the unfolding future scenarios of their relationship.

IAFF 6338 Russian Politics & Society at War

This class explores in real time how Russia is being transformed by its own full-scale war against Ukraine. Since its assault on Ukraine, the Russian has proven more resilient than was expected by Western pundits in terms of its stability, support from the population, ability to withstand the effects of sanctions, and attempts at bypassing international isolation. This course will study questions such as:

Why does the Putin regime appear so resilient?
What kinds of fights are taking place among the elites in Russia?
How is Russian society adapting to the war context?
Who are the new Russian emigrants leaving the country?
How is the Kremlin dealing with massive sanctions?
How is Russia reinventing itself as a Global South-aligned power to counter the decoupling from the West?

We will also look at the consequences of the war in Europe and the Global South, and discuss how new digital tools such as open-source intelligence (OSINT) and scraping/mining of the Russian-speaking digital space helps us in breaking through the new Iron Curtain.

IAFF 6341 Latin American & Hemispheric Studies Program Cornerstone

This course is intended for LAHSP students only.

IAFF 6357 Latin American & Hemispheric Studies Pre-Capstone Workshop

This course is intended for LAHSP students only.

IAFF 6358 Govts & Politics-Latin America

Democracy is challenged around the world, and Latin America is no exception. For several years during the late 1990s and early 2000s, every Latin American country except Cuba was considered a democracy. Still, the quality of democracy was uneven. Now, in Venezuela and Nicaragua, democracy has died, and in most other Latin American nations, it is in peril. We ask: why? Why, for decades after the Cold War, did democracy advance? And why has it receded? We focus on four sets of scholarly explanations: 1) political culture and history 2) economic development 3) the international community and 4) political institutions and leadership. Special attention is given to modernization theory, dependency theory, and the resource curse. We ask also: in the current post-truth era of populism and polarization, what can be done? The problems of egregious inequality, corruption, crime, and exclusion due to race and gender have long wracked Latin America and were exacerbated and exposed by the pandemic. In many countries, economic growth continues to depend upon extractive industries that impose a high toll on the environment and on neighboring communities. In this context, incumbent political parties have been defeated at the polls in many countries and presidential candidates deemed “leftist” have won. Are they in fact “left”? Are they tackling problems and achieving some success? Further, what can be done by the Biden administration and other international actors to foster prosperity and democracy in the region?

IAFF 6358 Immigration and Weak States: US Policy and Central America in Comparative Perspective

This course will look at hemispheric migration trends with a focus on the factors that give rise to weak states near the US border, options for improving these societies, and policy tools that the United States has at its disposal to mitigate push factors. An examination of Central America’s three northern countries (Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras), alongside external factors affecting their development, will provide the basis for a look at US immigration policy and a comparative look at the reasons behind other migratory outflows in the Western Hemisphere. Students will analyze present-day economic, security and governance challenges and think through realistic policy options for the countries of northern Central America and the United States alongside options for broader hemispheric alignment.

What options exist for better management of hemispheric migration? What are US policy options for advancing a more orderly migratory flow, and how can the US build long-term regional partnerships to do so? What are underlying political and economic factors that will continue to drive migration? What has yet to be considered that could set Central America and the region on a more orderly course?

IAFF 6358 Latin America-U.S. Relations

This course will analyze the evolution of relations between Latin America and the United States and explore the merits and viability of different policy approaches. While the course will examine several cases (e.g. Guatemala, Chile, Cuba) from the Cold War era, the principal emphasis will be on the post-Cold War period to the present. Grasping important changes in the relationship requires understanding the main trends and dynamics within the region as well as notable transformations in the domestic politics of the United States. The course will survey the global environment and relevant multilateral fora, as well as the role and implications of increasingly influential external actors in hemispheric affairs, particularly China, but also Russia and other countries. The focus will be on the policy choices and dilemmas confronting decision-makers both in Latin America and the United States. A mix of academic and policy-oriented readings cover salient, longstanding issues such as migration, trade, drugs, as well as new challenges such as climate change. Efforts to address authoritarian rule (e.g. Venezuela) and democratic backsliding (e.g. Central America) will also be assessed. Engaging in wide-ranging policy discussions from both Latin American and US perspectives, students will identify strategic objectives and the obstacles to pursuing them.

IAFF 6358 Security in the Americas

Security is an ever-present need and demand throughout the Americas. Everyone has a right to security but how security is achieved shifts depending on how its challenges are defined. This course will unravel the multidimensional aspects of security in our hemisphere seeking to understand the various security challenges from differing perspectives; the limits to providing security in a democratic society; and the appropriate roles for militaries, civilian authorities, and civil society in providing security. We will look thematically at how national defense is defined in different sub regions; how it differs from public security, and examine various strategies for tackling transnational organized crime, gangs, and the nexus between climate change and security. We will also examine security in particular geographies such as the U.S. – Mexico border; Central America; Colombia and Venezuela; and the Southern Cone. Throughout, students will be exposed to a variety of viewpoints through scholarly articles and research reports; official documents; and in discussions with specialists and experts.

IAFF 6361 Middle East Studies Cornerstone

This course is intended for MESP students only.

IAFF 6377 Middle East Studies Capstone Workshop

This course is intended for MESP students only.

IAFF 6378 Readings in Politics & Society

Readings in Politics & Society course will introduce students to events and issues, with the goal of enhancing their knowledge of past, current and future challenges that confront the Arab-speaking world. The diverse body of media articles presented in this class aims to foster the students’ critical thinking skills and allow them to compare and contrast news sources through analysis.The course is conducted in Arabic and aims to contribute to the development of advanced level competence in the fundamental language skills (reading, writing, speaking, and listening) at the advanced level of the ACTFL Guidelines for proficiency, and to build on their knowledge of some salient aspects of Arab culture.Through a multidisciplinary, practical approach students will be asked to engage with real authentic language through a range of articles published in various Arabic news outlets. Students will interact with the text through a variety of drills that target different skills.

IAFF 6378 U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East

This course examines U.S. engagement in the Middle East since World War I by studying the evolution of U.S. policy, reviewing key decisions, and assessing 21 st century challenges. Students will build on this foundation to determine what U.S. national security interests are – and what U.S. priorities should be – in this region, and how the current inflection point in the global world order affects them. The course also seeks to provide an analytical framework for better understanding differing perspectives on U.S. policy. Student presentations, writing assignments, and active class discussion will help students improve the analytical, written, and oral communications skills essential for a successful career in international affairs. The instructor is a former career diplomat who served as a U.S. Ambassador and as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs.

IAFF 6385 Transnational Security Threats in Africa

This course examines contemporary transnational security threats in Africa, including violent extremism; trafficking of narcotics and wildlife; human trafficking and smuggling; maritime insecurity; and corruption and money laundering. discussions will center on the political, economic, and social contexts out of which these threats arise, and the local, regional, and global factors that fuel or facilitate them. Students will assess responses to these threats by African governments, regional organizations, and international actors, and consider what new capacities and approaches will be required to effectively combat them.

IAFF 6385 Power, Politics, and Development in Africa

Students in this course will explore sectors and themes related to the field of development—as both a phenomenon of study, and a field of practice—in Sub-Saharan Africa. Students will be exposed to a cross-section of approaches towards development from various disciplines, with specific emphasis on strategic interactions, institutional constraints on behavior, and other political and social processes which all give rise to the modern development challenges faced by communities and states on the continent. Students will have wide latitude in guiding their study to best meet their interests beyond the core questions of the class, which is: What are the key causal inputs to lagging development in Sub-Saharan Africa, and what is the most impactful means to design or assess “interventions”?

IAFF 6385 Rising China and Africa

This course looks at the totality (political, economic, security, and soft power) of the China-Africa relationship historically, currently, and into the future. It is based on research for a book that I co authored with Josh Eisenman published in 2012 by the University of Pennsylvania Press and titled China and Africa: A Century of Engagement and a second book titled China's Relations with Africa: A New Era of Strategic Engagement that focuses on the political and security relationship. It is scheduled to be published by Columbia University Press in August 2023. The course covers both North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. It draws on a significant number of specialized readings from academic, policy, and journalistic accounts and the professor's 37-year diplomatic career. Students write two 10-12 page research papers, give one oral presentation, and are expected to participate in discussions of the required reading.

IAFF 6501 Quantitative Analysis in International Affairs Practices

IAFF 6502 Formal Briefing

This skills course will give students a foundation in giving formal briefings in a safe and supportive workshop environment. Students will be encouraged to try different approaches in developing a personal briefing style and to develop foundational skills in public speaking through mini exercises and in-class performance of a formal briefing. Through reading materials, lecture, and in-class discussion, students will also be introduced to the various types of briefings, how to structure and organize each, how to communicate effectively with different audiences and venues, how to work with colleagues in developing and presenting materials especially on complex policy matters requiring a balancing of many different factors leading up to the actual presentation and delivery, and the elements of proper delivery through a learn-by-doing approach to developing a personal briefing style. Prior to the course weekend, there is required and optional reading, with the opportunity to discuss and reflect on the materials together in-class. Also prior to the course weekend, students will submit to the instructor a draft written briefing so that class time can focus on refining the briefing and practicing delivery. The draft briefing submitted prior to class can be as simple as an outline or as elaborate as a prepared slide deck on any topic and should take no more than five (5) minutes to present. To get the most out of the class, it is important to prepare as much as possible in advance as prep time prior to the in-class performance will be limited. Details regarding the readings and draft briefing assignment will be sent to registered students prior to the class start date.

IAFF 6502 Introduction to GIS I

In this course, students will further their knowledge and understanding of how to use geographic information systems (GIS) or mapping software as used in international security and conflict studies. This course will start with installation and initial set up of the open-source GIS program QGIS. It will then explore how GIS is used in conflict studies and the major advantages it provides over non-spatial datasets and analysis. It will then explore the different types of data that can be used in GIS and how to load and manipulate the data. Students will learn how to do basic analyses of the data and produce simple maps for publication.

By the end of the course, students will be able to adequately describe how and when to use geospatial data in their analysis, produce basic maps that communicate results, and be prepared for more advanced GIS analysis methods courses.

IAFF 6502 Mediation

Third-parties are increasingly being used by people in conflict, both domestically and internationally, to help them resolve their differences. Whether providing a space for belligerents to reach a peace agreement, facilitating a contentious public policy debate on Capitol Hill, or helping departments work more effectively together, this interactive skills-building course will teach you how to harness conflictual energy and transform it into collaboration.

Mediation is an impartial, voluntary and confidential process that facilitates problem-solving and helps parties to a conflict develop solutions that meet everyone’s needs. In this highly experiential course, students will be introduced to the basic principles of mediation; learn how to engage the parties in a conflict and set up the mediation space; how to listen and gather information by disaggregating positional statements; framing and listing problems to resolve; brainstorming and developing solutions; and writing an agreement

IAFF 6502 STATA: Fundamentals

IAFF 6502 is a four-week Stata introduction course that will cover basic skills for students to get hands-on using Stata for data analysis. This course provides a basic introduction to Stata software and its applications on data management, data analysis and econometric modeling.

IAFF 6502 Technology for International Crisis Response

The advent of new technologies has fundamentally changed the capacity for processing and exchanging information in the 21st century. This professional development course will explore how technology is being used to respond to crises, create early warning mechanisms, monitor elections, provide banking services, ensure effective governance, and much more. It will also consider some of the key challenges related to access, implementation, scale, and evaluation that working with technology presents. The course is designed for graduate students to assist them in developing concrete strategies and technological skills to work amid this rapidly evolving landscape. Students can expect a hands-on and interactive learning environment with a variety of real-world examples from organizations working in the field.

IAFF 6502 Writing for International Practitioners

IAFF 6502 Negotiation Skills

This course helps students hone in those aspects of their negotiating style that stand in the way of maximizing their negotiation outcomes. It is based on classic Interest-Based negotiations theory with a focus on practical application and self-reflection. It is a highly interactive course composed almost entirely of a series of group exercises with varying degrees of complexity and then debriefing of students' performance. Therefore, there will be minimal presentation of concepts. Students are expected to read the book and other assigned materials uploaded onto the course's Blackboard page BEFORE the first class. Regardless of whether the course is given online or in person, students are expected to come ready with copies of their worksheets and exercises to work with. In addition to the assigned book, we will be using proprietary materials from the Harvard Law School Program On Negotiations in class. Students will therefore need to purchase their copies of the exercises for $6 total. Unfortunately, these exercises cannot be purchased by students independently since each team will get a different set of confidential instructions depending on which team they end up joining.

IAFF 6503 Data Visualization

Whether you are ready or not, we are in a period in human history where the volume, variety and velocity of data we face have far outpaced our innate abilities (and common knowledge) to make sense of this data. This course can help. This skills course is not only meant to help you be more competitive in a job market that highly values Tableau proficiency, the foundational skills taught can also help make you a better citizen of the world and have a greater professional impact.

This course is meant to help you develop data analysis and visualization skills with Tableau through hands-on learning. For this course, students are expected to download and install a free academic license of Tableau Desktop on their personal machine (see www.vizalyst.com for download instructions). While all students can gain from this course, it will particularly resonate with any who have spent more than an hour trying to analyze a particular dataset using Excel or another software tool.

IAFF 6503 Gender Advisor: Roles and Skills

This interactive and participatory course will cover the various roles, responsibilities, and necessary skills of a Gender Advisor in multilateral, bilateral, and international development organizations. The course will provide a comprehensive overview of how the latest tools, resources, and practices should be applied in international development work. The course will interpret the new and evolving set of policies on programmatic gender integration into meaningful practice to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of institutions and organizations seeking to promote gender equality. Students will have skills in their toolbox to advocate, integrate and mainstream gender equality and social inclusion into various settings.

IAFF 6503 Gender Monitoring and Evaluation

The course will introduce graduate students to setting gender and social inclusion-related targets and indicators, how to use gender and social inclusion-related indices, how to create an activity monitoring and evaluation and learning plan (AMELP) all in the context of international development projects and with the goal to transform projects into gender equitable and socially inclusive activities. Students will study proposals, case studies, and multiple global indices.

IAFF 6503 Introduction to Gaming and Simulations

Introductions to Gaming and Simulations provides first-hand experience in scenario and gaming analysis. The course specifically addresses the fundamentals of game development and employment based on government and industry best practices. Through lectures, readings, in-class exercises, and group assignments students will build the repertoire of skills needed to create high-impact games and simulations while simultaneously honing their ability to review and judge gaming proposals.

IAFF 6503 Negotiation Skills

This course helps students hone in those aspects of their negotiating style that stand in the way of maximizing their negotiation outcomes. It is based on classic Interest-Based negotiations theory with a focus on practical application and self-reflection. It is a highly interactive course composed almost entirely of a series of group exercises with varying degrees of complexity and then debriefing of students' performance. Therefore, there will be minimal presentation of concepts. Students are expected to read the book and other assigned materials uploaded onto the course's Blackboard page BEFORE the first class. The class time totals to 20 hours with the expectation of putting at least 15 hours of work outside the class. Regardless of whether the course is given online or in person, students are expected to come ready with copies of their worksheets and exercises to work with. Attendance of all 20 hours is mandatory as you are graded on your application of the concepts, not just understanding them theoretically. Finally, if you are looking for an easy course with minimal work, you will be sorely disappointed.

IAFF 6503 The Role of Defense Contracting

This course will provide students with an in-depth understanding of the role of government contracting in National Security and its role in ensuring military superiority. It will benefit students interested in entering government service or the defense and government consulting/manufacturing world. Students will learn about the development of requirements for critical assets and understand how industry translates these requirements into military assets and capabilities. They will gain practical insight on how to analyze, shape and bid on solicitations within the Department of Defense and associated entities. There will also be a simulation of how industry works to help the Government meet current and emerging issues. In addition, they will learn about the often-hidden external considerations such as congressional pressures and inter-service rivalries that play a role in influencing the selection of a particular contractor.

IAFF 6503 Writing for International Practitioners

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency - French

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency – Chinese

Intermediate Proficiency Chinese is designed to primarily improve students’ skills in Listening/Speaking and Reading through various activities – (1) Intensive Reading of Chinese texts followed by QA, (2) Role Play using numerous scenarios; (3) Real life Practice of SPT (Speaking Proficiency Test by ILR – Interagency Language Roundtable) with Professor Yang (20-year experience of SPT testing for the United States federal government); (4) TV/video/movie watching; (5) Chinese News Listening; (6) Chinese Newspaper Reading. In short, our focus will be on two major areas: Listening/Speaking and Reading.

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency - Arabic

This course is meant to develop Arabic language proficiency. The course will introduce the students to various Arabic media sources and will engage them in conversations on hot topics of the day that relate to the Arab world. It also allows for comparisons in coverage provided by Arabic news sources with western media. Every class will open up with a discussion of recent news being featured in the Arab world and proceed with discussing articles and news clips in breakout sessions that allow the student to advance their language fluency. The course will tackle all aspects of Arabic language proficiency including writing, oral presentation, and listening comprehension.

IAFF 6898 Capstone Workshop

IAFF 6899 Capstone Course

Summer 2023

IAFF 6118 Gender, War & Peace

This course offers a theoretical, as well as a practical thematic examination of the relevance of the concepts of gender and gender equality to understanding peace, armed conflict, international security and peacebuilding. Feminist IR theory is the critical frame for the class, with substantive coverage of masculinities theory and approaches. The seminar thematically covers issues such as: gendered conceptions of nationhood; militarization, combatancy, and demobilization of armed actors; wartime violence and harm; peace processes; post-war reconstruction and transitional justice. Classes will also cover the emergence of legal and normative frameworks adopted by the UN system to address these issues. A number of case study contexts globally will feature in thematic classes.

IAFF 6138 Development Project Implementation

Congratulations, your development project has been funded! This graduate seminar takes you through the process of implementing a development project from kick-off to exit. Combining theory and practice in weekly case study settings, you will learn how to navigate and overcome implementation challenges, such as making sense of conflicting monitoring data, managing donor expectations, and achieving project sustainability. Through experiential learning approaches, you ultimately will build crucial skillsets for a future career in development.

IAFF 6138 Gender and Development

IAFF 6163 Transnational Security

IAFF 6164 Environmental Security

IAFF 6165 Fundamentals of Intelligence

This course examines the conceptual, historical, legal, and policy foundation of national intelligence and the organizational structures and functions of the US Intelligence Community. Executive Branch management of intelligence, congressional oversight, intelligence collection and analysis, counterintelligence, and covert action are also addressed. The course also examines current issues in intelligence and national security, to include intelligence failures and reform. This course is suitable for students with a general background in international affairs and some familiarity with international security and US national security. The course should be of interest to students seeking to improve their understanding of intelligence and its role in national and international security, and of particular interest to students considering careers in these fields. The course offers a synthesis of concepts and practice, and a significant amount of the class readings are drawn from individuals who are both scholars and practitioners. The course will be conducted as an interactive graduate seminar. As such, thoughtful and informed participation is required

IAFF 6171 Introduction to Conflict Resolution

This course provides students with an introduction to the field of conflict analysis and resolution. It will introduce students to the major concepts and issues currently animating the field, explore the main strategies for responding to armed conflicts, and practice basic techniques for conducting conflict assessments. This course considers the “upper end” of the armed conflict spectrum, focusing on inter-state armed conflicts, contemporary civil wars, and other forms of organized violence. At the end of the course, students should be acquainted with the nature of conflict resolution as a distinct theoretical and applied field of study and be familiar with major approaches to war prevention, mitigation, settlement, and post-war reconstruction projects. It will be useful for anyone with an interest in conflict resolution and management, including professionals in the fields of diplomacy, journalism, development assistance, humanitarian aid, or international peacekeeping who wish to develop their knowledge of this important area. The course will connect theory to practice through discussion, policy analysis, research, and case study review of real events.

IAFF 6173 Security and Development

What is the impact of war on society and how can international development practitioners, diplomats, and security actors collaborate with communities and states to build back better? Fragility is multi-dimensional; a myriad of challenges emerge during conflict and in the immediate aftermath and solutions must be equally holistic to be effective. Transitional states are crowded places as local, regional, and international actors rush in to help, profit, gain influence, and or spoil reform efforts. With distinct values, capabilities, and perspectives, these external inputs must be aligned with local realities, capacities, and aspirations. Through this course, you will learn and apply a set of practical tools to develop international development interventions that first and foremost do no harm, and at their best, achieve sustainable, demand-driven impact that positively transforms the lives of those who have lived with war. Equipped with field-based case studies and real world professional experience; you’ll have a credible basis for pursuing a career in a transitional environment.

IAFF 6186 Cybersecurity

A technical background is not required and basic aspects of cyber operations will be discussed in the introductory class sessions.

IAFF 6186 Political Violence & Terrorism

This course examines the origins, motivations, and responses to political violence and terrorism. By surveying specific groups and individuals to understand their actions and ideas, students will think critically about the roots of political extremism and the relationships between ideas, violence, and action. The course will also engage with how states have responded to terrorism in various contexts around the globe and will discuss how some tactics work and some only exacerbate the problem. Throughout, students will engage with both current developments in global political violence as well as academic approaches and theories that look to explain the phenomenon.

IAFF 6186 Emerging Threats

IAFF 6186 Insurgency and Counterinsurgency

This course provides students with an introduction to insurgency and counterinsurgency. It is intended to provide a solid foundation for further inquiry into related topics such as irregular warfare, security and development, stabilization and peace building, responses to terrorism, and conflict resolution. The course examines the multidisciplinary nature of insurgencies, and will introduce students to the major concepts and issues of the topic, explore the main types of insurgencies, and explore in depth a number of strategic cases of counterinsurgency to help students understand the complexity and the variety of this form of warfare in the modern world. The course provides key frameworks for analysis for the study of insurgency and will explore possible solutions to a number of current conflicts.

IAFF 6186 International Organized Crime

IAFF 6186 US National Security

IAFF 6216 Economic Tools for Global Policy

In this course, MIPP Online students will analyze economic issues and concrete economic policy problems. This course examines questions such as: How does economic policy affect technology and immigration - and vice versa? What are the implications of various trade policies on the global economy? How has globalization and the rapid spread of high-tech communication influenced the US economy?

IAFF 6358 Racial & Ethnic Politics in Latin America

This course explores the history of ethnic and racial relations in Latin America and how they influenced the politics of the time. Racial thinking was deeply formative of the institutions of slavery and colonialism, creating a racist foundation to the republics that emerged in the modern era. The historical dynamics of race in nation formation, work practices, and culture and identity are a window on legacies and inequalities in the Latin American region that students will examine.

IAFF 6385 Peace and Conflict in Africa

IAFF 6501 Quantitative Analysis for International Affairs Practitioners

To be an effective international affairs practitioner you will need to understand the assumptions that underlie a particular quantitative analysis, to disentangle proper and improper uses of statistical evidence, and ask intelligent questions about the validity of quantitative measurement and statistical methods and sampling. The goal of this course is not to turn you into statisticians, but knowledgeable users and attentive critics of quantitative measurement. Therefore, this course is designed to provide a strong foundation in elementary statistical reasoning and techniques, and the skills necessary to understand and evaluate basic quantitative research. Topics include descriptive statistics; sampling and statistical inference; testing for differences between means; techniques for analyzing categorical data; correlation, and measures of association; summarizing and presenting statistical results; and some of the fundamental issues of research study design. The course is rigorous, but does not require an advanced mathematical background.

IAFF 6502 Analyzing U.S. Foreign Assistance

Why does the U.S. give foreign assistance? How much does it cost? What does the U.S. spend foreign assistance on? This course will explore these questions and cover the way the federal budget process is supposed to work and the way it actually works, with a specific focus on the U.S. foreign assistance budget implemented by the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development. The course is a graduate level, project-based class where students will have the opportunity to develop and justify their own proposal for foreign assistance resources for a country that they choose. This course will give students highly sought after hands-on, practical experience. For students interested in careers at the Department of State, USAID, or non-profit organizations that implement U.S. foreign assistance, this will be a great course taught by Cyndee Pelt and Homa Hassan, who have extensive international development experience. Professors Pelt and Hassan have served in the past three Administrations in various capacities both in Washington D.C. and overseas at the State Department and USAID – together they have over thirty years of experience working on U.S. foreign assistance programs.

IAFF 6502 Formal Briefing

IAFF 6503 Deconstructing Disinformation

A functional democracy requires the public to trust the information they rely on to make decisions. While numerous types of problematic information – including disinformation, misinformation, and propaganda – have always existed, networked technologies make it easier for media manipulators to spread inaccurate, misleading, and hateful information. In 2018, thirteen Russians were indicted for waging a three-year disinformation campaign to disrupt American democracy. Non-state actors also sought to incite partisanship and strategically suppress participation in the 2016 election. Extremist groups and partially automated accounts (“bots”) run by foreign state groups both propagated false rumors and conspiracies after a school shooting to shape the political reaction. The stock market lost over $130B in 2013 when a false tweet claimed that Barack Obama was injured in an explosion. And researchers are now confirming common sense about such damaging gossip: false information spreads faster than the truth. This course will critically examine disinformation, its impact, and key spreaders. It will then analyze potential interventions by governments, technology companies, and civil society organizations. In addition to deconstructing the problem of disinformation and critically analyzing potential solutions, students will learn how to plan communications campaigns and projects to counter disinformation.

IAFF 6503 Alternative Analysis: Red Team

IAFF 6503 Negotiation Skills

This course helps students hone in those aspects of their negotiating style that stand in the way of maximizing their negotiation outcomes. It is based on classic Interest-Based negotiations theory with a focus on practical application and self-reflection. It is a highly interactive course composed almost entirely of a series of group exercises with varying degrees of complexity and then debriefing of students' performance. Therefore, there will be minimal presentation of concepts. Students are expected to read the book and other assigned materials uploaded onto the course's Blackboard page BEFORE the first class. The class time totals to 20 hours with the expectation of putting at least 15 hours of work outside the class. Regardless of whether the course is given online or in person, students are expected to come ready with copies of their worksheets and exercises to work with. Attendance of all 20 hours is mandatory as you are graded on your application of the concepts, not just understanding them theoretically. Finally, if you are looking for an easy course with minimal work, you will be sorely disappointed.

IAFF 6503 Ethics in International Affairs

This is a course in applied ethics, dealing with questions and problems of ethics that occur in international affairs. Among other concerns, this includes such issues as human rights both national and international, international business, war, globalization, and global assistance and humanitarian intervention(s). We will discuss and analyze, and attempt to find ways and/or methods or steps or techniques to solve ethical disputes and issues that arise in international affairs.

IAFF 6503 Strategic Communication

This course will focus on strategic communication as it relates to international affairs. The course objective is to provide international relations professionals with working knowledge of communication strategy so they can more effectively participate in their organization's strategic communication process. Humans communicate for many reasons - to present themselves and their organizations in intentional ways, to achieve instrumental goals, and to build and maintain relationships with others. Ultimately, in the context of this course, students will develop a strategy and select tactics within a scenario to influence the cognitive, affective, and behavioral states of others - with the ultimate goal of getting another person or group of people to do something, stop doing something, or to allow an organization to do something. This course will examine the sources and levers of power and influence and cover the strategic communication planning process.

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency - Arabic

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency - Chinese

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency - Russian

Intermediate Proficiency Russian is intended to improve the students’ skills in Russian (speaking, listening, reading and writing) through different activities - students’ interviewing each other, working in discussion groups, listening to podcasts in Russian, reading newspaper articles from Russian press or Internet, doing translation exercises on the vocabulary studied and the grammar reviewed, performing dialogues etc. Movies and videos from YouTube are also on the schedule. The conversational topics covered include Economy, American Values, War on Terrorism, American Government, etc.

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency - French

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency – Spanish

A short, intensive 1-credit course designed to develop professional Spanish language skills for international affairs students.

Spring 2023

IAFF 6108 International Development Policy

This course will examine the scope and nature of international development assistance and the challenges currently facing development organizations. We will consider how development theory has evolved since Bretton Woods and the Marshall Plan and how it is reflected in the operational policies of donors. We will then turn to the methods and tools that characterize the work of principal donors, from needs assessment and project design to evaluation. The effectiveness of development assistance will be an important theme of this course; we will examine how mixed results have brought methods and concepts into question and consider how agencies are responding to this challenge. We will also consider the impact of COVID-19, climate change and geopolitical issues on development operations. Research assignments will give students the opportunity to address a current development challenge in the form of a briefing paper for the senior management of a development agency and with the process of identifying development projects within the operating framework of one of those agencies.

IAFF 6118 International Organizations

This course provides a critical review of major international organizations and their relationship to global governance. Discussion units are divided into three parts, beginning with an exploration of why international organizations and transnational networks are created, by whom and in what historical context. The different structural levels of international organizations and networks are next considered, with an emphasis on understanding how inter-linkages among organizations contribute to the management of global affairs. Once the working elements of governance are understood, we will consider how international organizations and transnational networks attempt to achieve mandated goals, such as peace and security, economic growth and stability, the promotion of human rights, as well as human development and more. Each of these governance challenges will be assessed within a context of shifting geo-political configurations, norms, identities and interests.

Finally, this course aims to reach beyond the study of the architecture and mandates of international organizations. More specifically, we will examine how international organizations may shape global agendas and political outcomes, casting these organizations into an active world governance role. Answering these questions will require a firm understanding of major theoretical paradigms that inform the study of international affairs, as well as an agile handle on analytical thinking in the field. To aid this process, we will adopt a case-study methodological approach, linking theory to practice.

IAFF 6118 Data Analytics for International Affairs

This course provides a foundational overview of data analytics in the social sciences. Students will be introduced to concepts in data, statistics, and research methodology. The course will then explore how to use and interpret descriptive statistics; how to measure, categorize, and evaluate variables; where to find data for analysis; and how to critically evaluate quantitative research. Students will learn how to conduct basic analyses using the R programming language. Analytical thinking is essential to evidence-based policymaking. This class will teach you how to critically evaluate arguments based in data, as well as run your own basic analyses to develop well-informed policies. This course is quantitative in nature but does not require advanced mathematical knowledge or programming skills. However, the course necessitates the time, effort, drive, and initiative associated with acquiring a new hard skill.

IAFF 6118 Applied Qualitative Methods

This class introduces students to qualitative research, with a focus on the main methods of collecting qualitative data—surveys, interviews and focus groups, participant observation, and archival/document research—plus digital fieldwork* including, but not limited to, its use as an alternative to ‘being there’ in person. Based on time and student interests, additional topics may include qualitative data analysis methods, research designs, ethics, funding, and navigating Institutional Review Board (IRB) requirements. Students will learn through "how-to" readings and reflective articles by practitioners, as well as guest presentations and the instructor’s own experiences. Students will gain hands-on practice by working collaboratively in small groups and learning from their peers’ experiences as we explore a timely, globally relevant topic selected by the instructor. For their final project, each student will write a research proposal on a topic of their choice and present it to the class. Students are encouraged to use this proposal to refine ideas for capstone projects, dissertations, journal articles, or other projects. *At least one class meeting will be held online, using Zoom, during our regularly scheduled class time.

IAFF 6118 Global Electricity Markets

This course teaches students about the structure and operation of the power grid and electricity markets. The class will discuss electric grid models, infrastructure, costs, operation, and environmental aspects of power technologies. Students will learn about electric energy, capacity, ancillary markets and how electricity is priced. The role of electric transmission and the challenges of integrating renewables and carbon pricing into the grid will also be covered. Retail electric utility regulation will also be covered along with buying and selling renewable power. Students will be able to explore their country or regional interests through a course paper.

IAFF 6118 Nuclear Security Policy

This graduate seminar course introduces students to major themes and debates in the contemporary study of nuclear security, from a wide array of perspectives, including historical, theoretical, practical, and international. It provides students with the technical and conceptual tools needed to understand the role nuclear weapons play in international politics. The course relies heavily on an interactive "systems map" of the current global nuclear weapons system, which lays out the key dynamics that are part of the nuclear weapon system. By working through the map, the course covers a wide range of contemporary global nuclear challenges, including nuclear security/terrorism, non-state actor nuclear challenges, Iran, DPRK, and the role of nuclear weapons in international politics.

IAFF 6118 The Ethics of Foreign Aid

This class will explore the ethical issues surrounding foreign aid. We will address questions such as: Are individuals in wealthier countries morally obligated to give resources to people in poorer countries, and if so, how much? Sometimes aid comes in the form of "development assistance" with political conditions attached. Are wealthy countries and international financial institutions ever morally justified in attaching these conditions? If so, when, and what kinds of conditions is it morally permissible for them to attach? How should we evaluate the morality of NGO aid programs that provide valuable goods and services, but also become complicit in wrongdoing within the communities they aim to help and/or make those communities dependent on foreign aid?

IAFF 6138 Violence, Gender, and Humanitarian Assistance

IAFF 6138 Gender and Development

This graduate-level seminar will begin by examining the evolution of approaches to gender, social inclusion, and development and the debates that have emerged over how to promote gender equity and rights across the gender spectrum. We will then consider some of the key issues in the field of gender, social inclusion, and development and the challenges and successes that development practitioners have experienced in addressing inequalities. Throughout the course, we will seek to identify general patterns and lessons with broader applications as well as to recognize differences within and between societies. We will use a combination of academic sources, international development reports, and other materials to learn about the challenges and pathways forward. The course will enable participants to engage in critical reflection about the interplay between gender norms, roles and relations; various understandings of development; and political, economic, and social change. There will be skill-building components throughout the course, and assignments are practical and relevant to professional work in the field of gender, social inclusion, and development and global affairs and public policy more broadly. The debates, class discussion, and paper assignments will also help students sharpen verbal, analytical, and writing skills and enhance professional competence.

IAFF 6138 Bottom-Up Development

From William Easterly to Dambisa Moyo, and from Jeffrey Sachs to Paul Collier, development thinkers have expressed both considerable frustration with policies, programs, strategies and institutions charged with alleviating poverty, as well as the need to focus additional resources on or reformed actions toward populations at the ‘bottom.’ Despite the analyses and fretting, and resultant actions, hundreds of millions, if not more than a billion, of the earth’s population remains tragically poor, somehow managing to survive on $2.00 a day or less. This graduate seminar takes these analyses, frustrations and unsatisfactory results as a starting point to delve into prospects for more effective poverty alleviation through the application of ‘bottom-up’ approaches. After briefly examining failings of foreign aid from both grassroots and top-down perspectives, the focus turns to bottom-up approaches, casting an eye on evolutionary aspects, critical components, and current applications globally, with an emphasis on efforts in Latin America and the Caribbean. Subsequently, attention is placed on how poor people manage to survive, and in some cases get ahead, with few resources, before turning to an examination of several increasingly noted mechanisms responding to poor people’s needs for assistance to improve their economic standing. The seminar closes with consideration of the pros and cons of these mechanisms and approaches, and their prospects for achieving poverty alleviation from the bottom-up.

IAFF 6138 Private Sector Development

Almost every government in the world would now say that: “the private sector is the engine of growth”. Yet in some countries, the private sector thrives, while in others it struggles in a poor enabling environment. Some private sectors contribute vibrantly to social objectives, while in other countries, increases in inequality seem to be accompanying private sector development. So, what does it take to encourage effective and ethical private sector development in developing countries? What can governments and development partners do to encourage such development, and what mistakes from past lessons should they avoid? Can foreign investment make a positive contribution to growth and public revenues and can it support the expansion of social services as well as economic development. What should governments do with accumulated assets from a previous era dominated by state-led strategies – privatization, sales of shares, management contracts? Can the private sector contribute meaningfully to adaptation to climate change and to the achievement of the aims and objectives of the Paris Climate Accord?

This course aims to equip students to analyze these issues and become current with the range of current approaches being pursued. The class will be in seminar format, avoiding lectures as much as possible, and students will be expected to participate actively in class. Significant amounts of group work will take place in class.

IAFF 6143 Science and Technology Policy Analysis Seminar

IAFF 6146 Introduction to Space Law

IAFF 6158 Space Economics

This course is aimed at developing an understanding of the economic theory and practical issues underlying public, private, and international space programs and ventures. It covers the entire spectrum of investments from R&D to commercial operations in space as well as terrestrial uses of space applications. The focus is on using analytical tools that non-economists working in policy positions should know in order to be able to evaluate economic analyses and make informed and balanced judgments on economic aspects of space ventures.

IAFF 6158 Issues in U.S. Space Policy: Tools and Scenarios

IAFF 6158 Science, Technology, and Global Statecraft

IAFF 6158 Doctoral Seminar in Science and Technology Policy

Doctoral seminar on theory and practice in science and technology policy. Critical evaluations of current and historical foundations of science and technology policy. Application of analyses to policy questions and implementation of policy choices in selected fields related to science and technology policy.

IAFF 6160 Defense Program and Policy Analysis

IAFF 6162 Security Policy Analysis

This core course for Security Policy Studies (SPS) MA students is designed to analyze, assess, and make astute judgments about contemporary security policies. It examines how social scientific concepts, methods and analytic techniques are used to identify and prioritize security threats, risks, and challenges, and develop effective responses to them. During the course, students will analyze: how security policies are formulated, including how policy options are developed and how to choose between them; how data and research influences security policy, or not; how policies are implemented, including how to identify and evaluate the effectiveness of different policy tools; and frameworks for thinking about the ethical dimensions of security policies. The course surveys these issues across nine important dimensions of security policy concerning strategy, military power, nuclear stability, armed conflict, gender dynamics, political instability, political economy, environmental change, and cyberspace. It also introduces students to some important techniques for conducting security policy analysis, including net assessment, systems analysis and operations research, nuclear stability analysis, conflict analysis, scorecard diplomacy, counterfactual analysis, forecasting, network analysis, scenario analysis, and temporal network analysis. The course ends by discussing how some of these techniques could be useful for designing a Global Capstone project (IAFF 6898/6899).

This course is intended for first-year Security Policy Studies graduate students only. Also register for one discussion section: IAFF 6162.30-.35.

IAFF 6163 Transnational Security

Many topics have sufficient breadth and depth to warrant a dedicated course. This survey course will be particularly helpful in providing a solid basis for further study and specialization within the Elliott School.

IAFF 6163 Transnational Security and Illicit Finance

IAFF 6169 Homeland Security

The mission of the course is to develop a better understanding of the present and future direction of the domestic and international aspects of securing a nation from current and developing threats, both man-made and natural. The course develops an understanding of operational, diplomatic, and technical strategies and policies, including those of other nations and of international organizations and groups such as the United Nations, the European Union, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The course investigates such efforts as the Proliferation Security Initiative and other arms control and weapons control agreements, treaties, and organizations. At the national level the course will address the role of the Department of Homeland Security, the National Security Council, and the whole of government in securing national borders, countering illicit trafficking in weapons, precursors and people which may constitute a threat. The course will examine the threats from foreign terrorist organizations (FTO), homegrown violent extremists (HVE), and domestic violent extremists (DVE) and the roles of foreign and domestic intelligence organizations and law enforcement. The implications of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and synthetic biology in both the threat landscape and deterrence, disruption, and defeat options will also be assessed.

The course encourages debate and examines the roles and complexity of risk-based decision making, and the balance between privacy and security and related laws and authorities both in the United States and abroad.

IAFF 6171 Introduction to Conflict Resolution

This course provides students with an introduction to the field of conflict analysis and resolution. It will introduce students to the major concepts and issues currently animating the field, explore the main strategies for responding to armed conflicts, and practice basic techniques for conducting conflict assessments. This course considers the “upper end” of the armed conflict spectrum, focusing on inter-state armed conflicts, contemporary civil wars, and other forms of organized violence. At the end of the course, students should be acquainted with the nature of conflict resolution as a distinct theoretical and applied field of study and be familiar with major approaches to war prevention, mitigation, settlement, and post-war reconstruction projects. It will be useful for anyone with an interest in conflict resolution and management, including professionals in the fields of diplomacy, journalism, development assistance, humanitarian aid, or international peacekeeping who wish to develop their knowledge of this important area. The course will connect theory to practice through discussion, policy analysis, research, and case study review of real events.

IAFF 6173 Security and Development

What is the impact of war on society and how can international development practitioners, diplomats, and security actors collaborate with communities and states to build back better? Fragility is multi-dimensional; a myriad of challenges emerge during conflict and in the immediate aftermath and solutions must be equally holistic to be effective. Transitional states are crowded places as local, regional, and international actors rush in to help, profit, gain influence, and or spoil reform efforts. With distinct values, capabilities, and perspectives, these external inputs must be balanced with and adjusted for local realities, capacities, and aspirations. Through this course, you will learn and apply a set of practical tools to develop international development interventions that first and foremost do no harm, and at their best, achieve sustainable, demand-driven impact that positively transforms the lives of those who have lived with war. Equipped with field-based case studies, a real world professional experience, and practitioner critique; you’ll have a credible basis for pursuing a career in a transitional environment.

IAFF 6186 Countering Violent Extremism

Violent extremism is not a new phenomenon, but it has grown to become a serious threat to international peace and security over the past two decades. The attack on the US Capitol on June 6th, 2021, made it abundantly clear that the violent extremism is again presenting an existential threat to American democracy as well. By promoting, supporting, or committing acts that aim to shape political outcomes, violent extremism often seeks to defend an ideology by advocating racial, national, ethnic, or religious supremacy while opposing core democratic principles and values. Prof. Alistair Millar’s course focuses on governmental and nongovernmental efforts to prevent and counter violent extremism. It provides students with an introduction to a burgeoning academic literature. The course charts the evolution of these efforts to prevent and counter violent extremism (P/CVE), particularly over the past fifteen years or so. This course also offers an opportunity to critically examine and discuss domestic and international P/CVE policies and programs around the world. The course will be useful for anyone with an interest in counterterrorism and/or preventing violent conflict, as well as a wide array of disciplines and issues including diplomacy, development assistance, peacebuilding, criminology, psychology, sociology, and political science. The course will connect theory to practice through discussion, research, and examinations of several case studies throughout the semester.

IAFF 6186 Nuclear Strategy

This course explores nuclear strategy and the role of nuclear weapons in international politics. The goal is to provide students with a sophisticated understanding of these issues. It lays the foundation by studying deterrence theory and its application to nuclear issues; extensions of these arguments to what is termed the “nuclear revolution”; and debates over U.S. Cold War nuclear strategy and forces. The course will also introduce students to the basics of nuclear weapons and forces, including command and control. Following sections of the course will address current U.S. nuclear strategy and the challenges posed by Russian and Chinese nuclear forces; and the nuclear policies of key regional nuclear powers. Specific topics will include arms control and nuclear disarmament, ballistic missile defense, and future challenges to states’ nuclear retaliatory capabilities.

IAFF 6186 Great Power Competition

This course examines the past, present, and future of how the most powerful states in the international system—the great powers—compete and cooperate in international relations. It begins by introducing different ways of defining and measuring relative power, and covers the key theoretical models of great power competition. It then examines various facets of great power competition, including its relationship to geography, technology, economics, ideology, ideas and identity, and the global “periphery.” The course also examines the foreign and national security policies of individual great powers in detail, including those of the United States, the People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation, and a number of near- or potential-great powers, such as India, Japan, and European states. The course closes by looking forward to some emerging present and future challenges in great power competition. Through this course, students will gain a thorough understanding of how the great powers protect their security and pursue their interests in international politics.

IAFF 6186 Emerging Threats

IAFF 6186 US Grand Strategy

This course examines U.S. grand strategy, meaning the politico-military continuum of means and ends that the state employs to achieve security. The course first analyzes the concept of grand strategy: what it means, how it’s achieved and when it fails. The course then turns to causes of grand strategy—the international conditions, technological developments, geographic circumstances, domestic actors and ideological beliefs that shape strategic options. Finally, to make these concepts more concrete, the course examines U.S. grand strategy at two pivotal points in recent U.S. history: the early Cold War, when the United States introduced nuclear missiles into the military, and today.

IAFF 6186 Cybersecurity

A technical background is not required and basic aspects of cyber operations will be discussed in the introductory class sessions.

IAFF 6186 Insurgency and Counterinsurgency

IAFF 6186 Political Risk Analysis

This course examines the importance of political risk in shaping the international operating environment. It examines the sources of political risk, how that risk may grow or change, how political risk influences business decisions, and how businesses and international actors manage political risk. This course takes a multi-disciplinary approach drawing from international relations, economics, risk management, intelligence, and strategic communications to examine real-world political risks. The course begins with an introduction to the fundamentals of political risk, then explores megatrends, before shifting to empirical cases that focus on a range of country-level risks, including the UK/Brexit, Russia, and China, as well as issue-based political risk associated with non-traditional currencies and technology. By identifying and analyzing emerging and existing political risks, and comparing strategies to measure and mitigate political risk at the macro and micro levels, students will learn to navigate the complexities of political risk analysis. The course draws on academic literature while also focusing on the development of practical knowledge and skills that are applicable to both the public and private sector.

IAFF 6198 Quantitative Models for Trade Policy Analysis

This course examines the effects of trade on workers and industries in the United States and abroad and gives you experience applying the tools used to quantify these effects. The tools we will use have been tailored to provide the detail and types of information that are of interest to policymakers. The course includes a thorough grounding in sources of trade and industry data, a structured introduction to data analysis, and in-depth applications of empirical trade models, including industry-specific and econometric “gravity” model of trade. This is a hands-on course requiring you to gather data, build datasets, and run applied trade models. It will provide training in understanding, applying, and communicating the results of these models. All models will be provided; you will not be required to build your own.

IAFF 6198 Rising Market Powers and 21st Century Globalization

This course introduces undergraduate and graduate students to the political economy of policymaking at the intersection of global markets and foreign affairs. The majority of economic growth is now occurring in countries that are not historically wealthy high-income democracies, and where many of the textbook assumptions regarding how markets function often do not hold. Focusing on rising market powers, including China, Brazil, India, and Russia, the course examines how their unique approaches to global markets and economic governance will shape the global geopolitical competitive landscape moving forward. By surveying historic waves of globalization and development strategies, this course will offer students the tools to evaluate how states influence market dynamics, industrialization, and globalization in the contemporary world. The goal of this class is to make students conversant in the dominant themes of modern political economy, preparing them to do original research and analysis in the development subfield. It will also provide students with a substantive knowledge of the history of economic development, including a contextual knowledge for the role of institutions, ideas, and political leaders in forging national economic policies in a financially and commercially interdependent world.

IAFF 6208 Communication and Modern Diplomacy

IAFF 6212 Strategy and Leadership

Registration is restricted to MIPP students only.

IAFF 6213 Leadership Capstone

This course is intended for MIPP students only.

IAFF 6318 Korean Civil Society

The course covers the conceptual frameworks from the literature on movements, nongovernment organizations and social enterprises and applies them to the South Korean civil society. More specifically, we explore the diverse roles that South Korean civil society has taken up in response to political and economic instability over the last decade. On the one hand, the strong civil society that led the country to democratization in the 1980s made a comeback and removed a corrupt president in 2017. On the other hand, while traditional charities have been on the decline, there has been a surge of social and solidarity economy organizations such as cooperatives and social enterprises in response to concerns of climate change, growing economic inequality and social injustice. We will also study how tensions within civil society at times have exacerbated the social divide. We examine the recent clash of feminist and anti-feminist movements over deep-rooted misogyny and gendered citizenship debates.

IAFF 6318 State and Society in East Asia

This course explores comparative politics in East Asia, with a focus on how state policies and political institutions interact with social processes. We will analyze state-society relations in the context of authoritarianism, economic development, democratization, contentious politics, electoral politics, policymaking, political participation, the media, litigation, international norm adoption, and foreign policy. Our readings investigate how marginalized groups, such as women, people with disabilities, and non-citizens, are gaining a voice in East Asian politics. We will trace the origins and evolution of civil society in East Asia’s democracies and examine how comparative studies shed light on patterns of political participation in East Asia’s non-democracies. Readings and discussions will focus on Japan, South Korea, China, and Taiwan. We will examine theories about various political institutions and actors, including politicians, bureaucrats, the media, lawyers, the police, activists, and the attentive public. The course is designed to help you learn to analyze and write about sociopolitical change and continuity in comparative perspective.

IAFF 6338 Central Asian Politics

This course provides a deep dive into Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) and its politics. We tackle the question, what is political? Course materials and discussions provide a view of politics through the life lenses of religion, family, gender, economics, security, military power, migration, education, healthcare, media, and activism. How do citizens and the state interact in these spheres? What is political culture and how does it change? We will also examine relationships between state actors and between power states including China, Russia, and the United States. This semester we will additionally discuss the impacts of the Ukraine conflict and ongoing instability in Afghanistan on the geopolitics of the region.

IAFF 6338 Nationalism, Nation-Building, and Ethnic Conflicts in Eurasia

Russia’s war in Ukraine has relaunched debates about Russia’s nationalism and imperial identity. How should we think about nationalism, nation-building, and ethnic conflict in the post-Soviet space? This class examines imperial and Soviet legacies in the present-day shaping of national identities, citizenship policies, memory wars, nationhood ideologies, ethnic tensions, and de facto states in countries ranging from Ukraine to the South Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Baltic States. It will delve into Russia’s complex identity-building and nationalist symbolic politics before and after the outbreak of the war.

IAFF 6338 The American Far Right in Historical and International Perspective

Today, the American far right constitutes a major threat to democracy. This threat is not entirely novel, as it draws from nativist and authoritarian currents deeply rooted in American history. Neither is the threat isolated, containing contemporary parallels in several western democracies, as well as important cases in the global south, such as India and Brazil. This course situates the contemporary American far right in these dual contexts—historical and international. The course is structured around a series of paired comparisons. Students will study contemporary American domestic terrorism alongside Italian neo-fascist violence, Pat Buchanan’s populism alongside Jean-Marie Le Pen and Jörg Haider, the “militia movement” alongside paramilitaries in Ireland and eastern Europe. Topically focused, this course is designed to help students develop a limited expertise on the American far right and its closest international counterparts. Beyond substantive knowledge, students will be pushed to engage with the conceptual, theoretical, and normative debates at the core of contemporary far right studies. In particular, the structure of the course confronts American exceptionalism as a methodological practice, encouraging students to think creatively about the status of the United States in comparison with other states and societies.

IAFF 6358 Climate Change & Environmental Policy in Latin America

Latin America is endowed with significant natural resources and environmental assets, including almost one third of the world's fresh water, the largest rainforest on earth, a quarter of proven oil and natural gas reserves and among the world's highest potential for renewable energy sources, such as hydropower, wind and solar energy. However, Latin American countries are also some of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including hurricanes, droughts and rising sea levels. Meanwhile, Latin America's contribution to energy-related emissions is increasing due to strong economic growth and a spike in demand for transportation and electricity. Thus, one of the greatest challenges for policymakers in Latin American countries is to construct a path toward sustainable, low carbon economic development. This course aims to give students a sound understanding of the concepts of climate change and environmental policy, the major policy challenges facing Latin American countries and best practices being used in Latin America and other countries around the world.

IAFF 6358 International Relations of Latin America

IAFF 6358 Econo&SocialDevofLatinAmerica

This course will examine the interaction between economic development and social dynamics in Latin America. Because of the vast nature of the subject, the incredible diversity among countries , and the symbiotic relationship between economies andsocieties, the course will follow a thematic approach, illustrated where possible with examples from different parts of the region. The course will begin with key questions, debates, and actors at the center of Latin America’s economic development that translate into specific challenges and processes for different issues in Latin America’s social development (including migration, gender, health, poverty, and urban development, among others). By the end of this survey course students will have a grasp on the ways in which economic structures and policy choices by Latin American leaders have intersected with key social issues in the region. Because the course is geared to a practitioner audience, class sessions will explore debates concerning economic and social issues with the expectation that students develop their own approach and draw their own conclusions to the various subjects.

IAFF 6378 Oil: Industry, Economy, Society

IAFF 6378 Conflict and Humanitarian Crises in the MENA

IAFF 6378 Arabic for Humanitarian Assistance and International Development

This course equips students with the necessary linguistic and cultural tools to pursue successful careers in the Foreign Service, public sector, private or international organizations specializing in humanitarian assistance and international development. Besides helping students to develop their communicative abilities and advance their skills in Arabic for humanitarian assistance and international development, this course trains students within the contexts in which these efforts are carried out in formal and informal settings.

This course is intended for students at the Intermediate High level of proficiency and focuses on promoting proficiency in speaking, reading, listening, and writing, as well as acquiring specialized terms pertaining to humanitarian work and international development.

Prerequisite: Advanced Arabic (ARAB 3001) or equivalent.

IAFF 6378 Arabic Dialects: Modern Arabic

This course helps students build proficiency in and command of the Moroccan dialect. The course’s focus is developing communicative functions in Moroccan Arabic and increasing cultural competency in Moroccan culture.

Prerequisite Beginning Arabic II (ARAB 1002) or equivalent.

IAFF 6378 American Policy in the Middle East

The United States has been the most powerful external actor in the Middle East and North Africa for much of the last 70 years, defending and advancing what generations of US policymakers have identified as vital national interests. Today, however, most Americans, and even the American government itself, seem to have grown weary of wars, crises, and expensive military commitments in the region. Iraq, Afghanistan, and the intractable Arab-Israeli peace process—not to mention the perception of numerous American policy failures—all have led successive US administrations to the conclusion that the United States should pare its involvement and focus its attention elsewhere. But is this the right course of action?

When US attention lapses, emergencies in the region have a way of drawing America back in. It’s undoubtedly an arena of competing interests involving the United States, Russia and China, which increasingly bears implications for US global policy. Taught from a practitioner’s viewpoint, this course will focus on the history of and present-day rationale for US engagement in the region; we will have active class discussions on current developments, debate opposing views, and hold a simulation that will pull these strands together in a policymaking exercise with real-world implications. At the end of the course, you’ll know what the US is doing there and why it matters.

IAFF 6385 Security in East Africa

This course will examine the complex political and security landscape of East Africa, including Sudan and South Sudan, Somalia, and Ethiopia. It will explore crises but also opportunities. Students will assess the policy choices confronting African governments, regional organizations, civil society, and international actors as countries face critical transitions and threats ranging from violent extremism to demographic pressures to climate change.

IAFF 6501 Quantitative Analysis for International Affairs Practitioners

The goal of this course is not to turn you into statisticians, but knowledgeable users and attentive critics of quantitative measurement. Therefore, this course is designed to provide a strong foundation in elementary statistical reasoning and techniques, and the skills necessary to understand and evaluate basic quantitative research. Topics include descriptive statistics; sampling and statistical inference; testing for differences between means; techniques for analyzing categorical data; correlation, and measures of association; summarizing and presenting statistical results; and some of the fundamental issues of research study design. The course is rigorous, but does not require an advanced mathematical background. Class time will be a mix of lecture, discussion, and hands-on computer work. Class attendance is essential.

IAFF 6502 Negotiation Skills

IAFF 6502 Writing for International Practitioners

IAFF 6502 Principles of Financial Statement Analysis

This is a one credit skills course designed to provide an introduction to the analysis and interpretation of corporate financial statements for ESIA graduate students. The course is tailored to the needs of each class so it can best benefit students with little to no economic or business experience or study as well as those with practical study or experience that wish to hone or refresh their skills. Emphasis will be given to placing financial information and its analysis within an actual market context. Students will learn basic financial analysis tools and apply them on real world examples and will work in teams on a focused course-long project in an area of interest within the context of a simulated business environment. Attention will be given to the analysis of multinational corporations and the financial performance of businesses in an international context as well as current topics and issues in finance of interest to the students.

IAFF 6502 Formal Briefing

IAFF 6502 Public Speaking

Many aspects of daily life involve public speaking. Whether you are giving a toast at a social event or making a presentation before a professional audience, good public speaking skills are important, and can help you to make the right impression and further your career. This course will provide students the opportunity to learn (1) how to structure and organize a speech, (2) the elements of proper delivery, (3) the various speech types, (4) how to use visual aids, (5) how to encourage audience participation, and (6) how to identify topics. Students will present several speeches on different topics.

IAFF 6502 Cross Cultural Communications

The ability to communicate effectively and sensitively across cultures has become both more critical and more difficult in today’s global environment. This course will examine the underlying factors which a) create a culture, b) determine culture’s values and practices, and c) establish cultural communication patterns and expectations. The focus of the course will be development of cross-cultural communications, management, and negotiation skills. National, regional and universal levels of culture and communications will be explored. Course methodologies will include case studies, videos, simulation, and assessment instruments relative to communicating and working in multicultural settings.

IAFF 6502 Communicating Global Policy Issues

This course is designed to improve your strategic communications, media, and advocacy skills. Knowing how to develop and deliver compelling messages to targeted US audiences is key to advancing important policy positions and strengthening America’s global leadership in the US and around the world. This hands-on strategic communications, media and message training “PowerTalk” workshop will help students become more effective spokespeople and advocates with the media, policymakers, engaged public and other key stakeholders. Learn the essentials of strategic communications and advocacy campaigns, including: preparing a basic communications and advocacy strategy; developing and delivering effective messages; preparing for and conducting media interviews and briefings; anticipating and managing difficult questions and avoiding common pitfalls; using stories, visuals and statistics for maximum effect; and amplifying your message via new and traditional media, strategic partnerships, celebrities, and other best practices.

IAFF 6502 Intro to R

IAFF 6502 Advocating for Women's Rights

This skills class will equip students with the building blocks for conducting successful advocacy efforts on global women’s issues. It will foster an understanding of different elements of an advocacy campaign, from grassroots mobilization to direct engagement of policymakers through individual, celebrity and coalition advocacy. It will build students’ skills in various tactics such as identifying the elements of “the ask,” crafting successful messages, building and managing coalitions, conducting power analysis, crafting the “elevator pitch,” and tailoring messaging for media. Finally, it will examine successful case studies of gender-responsive foreign policy from the perspective of advocates and policymakers alike.

IAFF 6502 Research Design for International Affairs

Learning to conduct research is not easy in any field. It’s even more difficult to produce valid policy-relevant knowledge and conduct rigorous policy analysis in the various disciplines that are relevant to international affairs. You cannot simply apply established theory from a single discipline; nor should you simply extrapolate from your own experience, however compelling. To get started, you need some sort of rough map of the unknown territory you will explore. This means that you need to survey the central issues, theories, methods and data that animate discussions of the issue or issues you address. Once you have an idea of your research problem, you must make a focused conceptual effort to formulate significant questions and choose effective methods to address them. As you proceed, you will spend a fair amount of time simply trying to find and collect information. To that end, you need to apply specific research techniques rigorously and efficiently. And once you learn how to generate valid results, you will need to figure out how to manage the research process instead of allowing the process to manage you. Last but not least, you need to communicate your results in language that your intended audience will find clear and appealing.

IAFF 6503 Foreign Policy in Practice

This course will give students the chance to examine policy debates facing the Biden Administration. The current context following the midterms will be utilized as the backdrop for the class. The course will focus on five case studies: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Israeli/Palestinian issues, and Iran. Students will learn about and practice a State Department official’s main responsibility – writing for and briefing senior leaders. The course will also give students insights into policy development and implementation by enabling them to review current policies and decide whether to propose changes.

IAFF 6503 Systems of Foreign Affairs

Students will apply knowledge and experience in foreign service, and develop the concrete skill-set necessary to engage systems thinking at work. This includes conceptualization, analysis, and building / managing complexity and ambiguity, and collaboration with unfamiliarized colleagues. The instructor encourages students’ expertise, open-mindedness, creativity, curiosity, and bravery to engage, share, and push back against assumptions if necessary. Students with interest in achieving the SDGs ought to consider this an opportunity to think deeply and practically about eliminating silos and achieving goals, leveraging interdependency and considering environmental and other constraints.

IAFF 6503 Leadership and Teamwork

IAFF 6503 Alternative Analysis: Red Team

IAFF 6503 The Role of Defense Contracting

This course will provide students with an in-depth understanding of the role of government contracting in National Security and its role in ensuring military superiority. It will benefit students interested in entering government service or the defense and national security consulting/manufacturing world. Students will learn about the development of requirements for critical space, land, sea, air artificial intelligence, and cyber assets and understand how industry translates these requirements into military assets and capabilities. They will gain practical insight on how to analyze, shape and bid on solicitations within the Department of Defense and associated entities. There will also be a simulation of how industry works to help the DoD meet current and emerging threats in the current European security environment. In addition, they will learn about the often-hidden external considerations such as congressional pressures and inter-service rivalries that play a role in influencing the selection of a particular contractor.

IAFF 6503 Data Visualization and Analysis with Tableau

I have some data, now what!?! This foundational skills course is geared toward students looking to develop data skills using Tableau. Students will work hands-on with Tableau (free Academic License) to analyze several datasets and create various types of visualizations. Along the way, students will be challenged to think about how their visualizations can be improved to communicate their ideas and findings more clearly. While the course is meant to be a gentle introduction to Tableau, even students who already have some experience in Tableau will find the course rewarding. Not only will this course help you build necessary skills for evidence-based public policy formulation, it will also make you more marketable. Tableau and data communication skills are in high demand among employers and can help set you apart in your professional career.

IAFF 6503 Analyzing International Economic Data

IAFF 6503 Budget and Appropriations for Gender Equality

This skills class will enable students to understand and meaningfully engage with the federal budget and Congressional appropriations cycle through the lens of gender equality programs. It will foster an understanding of the different stages of the U.S. funding cycle, how and when to interact with policymakers, and how to create and reform foreign assistance programs that support gender equality. Students will gain practical, hands-on experience in understanding the President’s Budget Request, Congressional Budget Justifications, and the annual appropriations bills; identifying gender gaps in existing foreign assistance programs; and crafting funding and legislative requests to Congress.

IAFF 6503 Structured Analytic Techniques

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency - Russian

Intermediate Proficiency Russian is intended to improve the students’ skills in Russian (speaking, listening, reading and writing) through different activities - students’ interviewing each other, working in discussion groups, listening to podcasts in Russian, reading newspaper articles from Russian press or Internet, doing translation exercises on the vocabulary studied and the grammar reviewed, performing dialogues etc. Movies and videos from YouTube are also on the schedule. The conversational topics covered include Economy, American Values, War on Terrorism, American Government, etc.

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency - French

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency – Spanish

A short, intensive 1-credit course designed to develop professional Spanish language skills for international affairs students.

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency – Arabic

A short, intensive 1-credit course designed to develop professional Arabic language skills for international affairs students.

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency – Chinese

IAFF 6898 Capstone Workshop

IAFF 6899 Capstone Course

Fall 2022

IAFF 6106 Nuclear Weapons

IAFF 6108 International Development Policy

This course will examine the scope and nature of international development and the challenges currently facing development organizations. We will consider how development theory have evolved since Bretton Woods and the Marshall Plan and how it is reflected in the operational policies of donors. We will then turn to the methods and tools that characterize the work of principal donors, from needs assessment and project design to evaluation. The effectiveness of development assistance will be an important theme of this course; we will examine how the mixed results of development efforts have brought methods and concepts into question and consider how agencies are responding to this challenge. We will also consider the impact of COVID-19 on development operations and accomplishments and the extent to which the COVID crisis has triggered a new approach/rethinking in development. Research assignments will familiarize students with the profiles of prominent donors and with the process of defining and responding to a specific development opportunity within the operating framework of one of those donors.

IAFF 6118 Leadership & International Affairs

IAFF 6118 Gender and Security

IAFF 6118 Applied Qualitative Methods

IAFF 6118 Research Methods in Global Gender Issues

This course reviews mixed methods research with a focus on gender equality and social inclusion issues in the context of international development. In social and economic development, choosing which information to collect and which techniques are best for doing so are important steps. Students in this course will study and practice basic research methods using a feminist approach. By taking this course, students will become better prepared to collect data, review others' research, and analyze and report on local conditions and attitudes affecting global gender equality and social inclusion. This course is not a substitute for a quantitative, statistical, or qualitative methods requirement, nor are those courses prerequisites for this. Also, while this course complements others in the GW Global Gender Program, it can be taken independently: any student interested in learning about and discussing research as it affects projects and task orders aimed at development is welcome.

IAFF 6118 Global Justice

IAFF 6118 International Law and the Use of Force

IAFF 6118 Global Electricity Markets

This course teaches students about the structure and operation of the power grid and electricity markets. The class will discuss electric grid models, infrastructure, costs, operation, and environmental aspects of power technologies. Students will learn about electric energy, capacity, ancillary markets and how electricity is priced. The role of electric transmission and the challenges of integrating renewables and carbon pricing into the grid will also be covered. Retail electric utility regulation will also be covered along with buying and selling renewable power. Students will be able to explore their country or regional interests through a course paper.

IAFF 6118 Wartime Governance Challenges in Afghanistan

IAFF 6118 The U.N.: Policy and Impact

States are the central actors in international relations. They are motivated and driven by their national security interests. In this context, international institutions matter in part because they facilitate international security and peace through their specialized agencies. This course (3 credits) – The UN: Policies and Impact –, open to all graduate students, fulfills a core requirement of the MAIA degree program. The course provides the opportunity to research and integrate knowledge about the purpose, values, and policies and missions of the UN (and its specialized agencies), and to examine the significance of their collective power. Students will challenge established knowledge and expand insights into international politics and security. Furthermore, the course will study the roles of The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and some regional organizations to assess how they enhance or limit UN policies and actions. Ultimately, students will critically analyze the relevance and significance of the international institutions for a sustainable international peace as great power competition (USA, China, and Russia) becomes dominant due to policy failures.

IAFF 6138 Achieving Sustainable Development

IAFF 6138 Bottom-Up Development

From William Easterly to Dambisa Moyo, and from Jeffrey Sachs to Paul Collier, development thinkers have expressed both considerable frustration with policies, programs, strategies and institutions charged with alleviating poverty, as well as the need to focus additional resources on or reformed actions toward populations at the ‘bottom.’ Despite the analyses and fretting, and resultant actions, hundreds of millions, if not more than a billion, of the earth’s population remains tragically poor, somehow managing to survive on $2.00 a day or less. This graduate seminar takes these analyses, frustrations and unsatisfactory results as a starting point to delve into prospects for more effective poverty alleviation through the application of ‘bottom-up’ approaches. After briefly examining failings of foreign aid from both grassroots and top-down perspectives, the focus turns to bottom-up approaches, casting an eye on evolutionary aspects, critical components, and current applications globally, with an emphasis on efforts in Latin America and the Caribbean. Subsequently, attention is placed on how poor people manage to survive, and in some cases get ahead, with few resources, before turning to an examination of several increasingly noted mechanisms responding to poor people’s needs for assistance to improve their economic standing. The seminar closes with consideration of the pros and cons of these mechanisms and approaches, and their prospects for achieving poverty alleviation from the bottom-up.

IAFF 6138 Humanitarian Governance and Policy

IAFF 6138 Monitoring & Evaluation for Foreign Assistance Programs

Nearly half of the world’s population — more than 3 billion people — lives on less than $2.50 a day. For over five decades, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other donors have been providing much needed development assistance to countries world-wide. The assistance from donors ranges from food assistance to health care to governance to education. How effective is that assistance? How do you show whether a program is improving people’s lives? What can you do to prevent a $100 million program from becoming a resounding failure? In this entry-level course, you will explore key approaches to measure the results of global development assistance and critically consider evaluation methodologies to determine whether this assistance is working to meet the needs of recipients. In addition, you will be able to determine how to learn from success and failure, apply and integrate approaches from other disciplines, use data as part of management practices, and suggest adaptations to improve program implementation. Throughout this course, you will develop your own Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Plan for a real-world program; these kinds of MEL Plans are now a standard requirement in most international development programs.

IAFF 6138 Strategic Environmental Management

While many in the business, government and non-profit sectors view environmental protection as a threat to competitiveness, others see win-win opportunities. This course provides students with graduate level knowledge and real life case examples that will allow them to design profitable corporate environmental management strategies. After taking this course, students will be able to:1. Formulate profitable corporate environmental management strategies. 2. Evaluate the effectiveness of green differentiation advantage strategies.3. Explain how corporate environmental strategies are affected by: stakeholder pressures, distinctive country contexts, and variations in business-level characteristics. And 4. Explain the opportunities/challenges of climate change trends for businesses.

IAFF 6141 International Science and Technology Policy

IAFF 6145 US Space Policy

U.S. Space Policy - This course will address international space policy issues facing the United States and place them in context with broader technological advances and the changing strategic environment. The course will address current bureaucratic and regulatory issues facing U.S. space programs with regard to dual-use technologies, including export controls, spectrum management, and licensing of commercial remote sensing systems. Conflicts over dual-use technologies, such as space launch, remote sensing, satellite navigation, and communications, will be examined for their implications for a range of national interests. The course will also address strategic choices facing other nations in space activities, including dependence on U.S., European, and Russian space capabilities, developing indigenous space programs, and use of commercial space capabilities.

IAFF 6158 Economics of Technological Change and Innovation

IAFF 6171 Introduction to Conflict Resolution

This course provides students with an introduction to the field of conflict analysis and resolution. It will introduce students to the major concepts and issues currently animating the field, explore the main strategies for responding to armed conflicts, and practice basic techniques for conducting conflict assessments. This course considers the “upper end” of the armed conflict spectrum, focusing on inter-state armed conflicts, contemporary civil wars, and other forms of organized violence. At the end of the course, students should be acquainted with the nature of conflict resolution as a distinct theoretical and applied field of study and be familiar with major approaches to war prevention, mitigation, settlement, and post-war reconstruction projects. It will be useful for anyone with an interest in conflict resolution and management, including professionals in the fields of diplomacy, journalism, development assistance, humanitarian aid or international peacekeeping who wish to develop their knowledge of this important area. The course will connect theory to practice through discussion, policy analysis, research, and case study review of real events.

IAFF 6186 Transitional Justice

This course focuses on a dynamic set of multidisciplinary practices to help societies transform themselves after a period of human rights abuses due to conflict or authoritarian regimes. While definitions of TJ may vary, they all encompass the political, legal, and moral dilemmas about how to confront and redress the legacy of these violations and achieve a transition. The origins of Transitional Justice (TJ) can be traced back to the Nuremberg trials.

This course will put students at the heart of these often tricky, but exhilarating debates. And it is not all about law anymore. Instead, the field has expanded recently in three significant ways: it has moved to embrace a larger number of disciplines, transcending its initial legal focus; it has broadened its goals; and more recently, its mechanisms have been used to address historical injustices such as slavery in the United States, or, forced Aboriginal assimilation in Canada.

The purpose of this course is to: (i) examine and analyze TJ mechanisms including trials, amnesties, truth commissions, reparations, memorialization and institutional reforms; (ii) investigate normative and political debates raised by TJ processes; (iii) assess the effects and reach of TJ processes; (iv) look at real case studies from a variety of countries in most regions of the world that have experienced massive violations of human rights; and, (v) develop a critical understanding of the potential and limitations of the field.

IAFF 6186 Cyberspace, Conflict, and War

IAFF 6186 Cyber Threats and Policy

IAFF 6186 The Analysis of Military Operations

For better or for worse, the military is the primary tool with which the United States engages the rest of the world. And yet, to average civilian citizens—including most foreign policy professionals—it is shrouded in mystery, with a byzantine bureaucracy, impenetrable jargon, an alphabet soup of acronyms, complex technologies, and often engaging in mind-bendingly complicated operations thousands of miles from American shores. This course cuts through this fog by introducing students to what militaries are, what technologies they make use of, and, most importantly, how they operate in peace and at war. It begins by providing students with the vocabulary necessary to discuss defense and military issues, covering the basics of military organizations and technologies. It then introduces the basic tools for the analysis of conventional military operations, followed by the application of these analytical tools to land, maritime, air, and joint operations. The course then covers a series of important hypothetical military contingencies, including in Cold War Europe, the defense of the Baltics, the Taiwan Straits, and others. We also cover the analysis of “non-traditional” military operations, such as counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, and various forms of humanitarian intervention. The course ends with a look forward, considering how changes in the balance of power and emerging technologies will likely influence conventional military operations in the years ahead. Through this course, students will gain, not only the fluency to comfortably debate and discuss military issues, but, more crucially, a set of skills with which to systematically analyze military operations and strategies (note: no military experience or specialized knowledge of military issues is assumed or required).

IAFF 6186 Emerging Threats

IAFF 6186 International Organized Crime

IAFF 6186 The Chinese Military

This course focuses on the military component of China's comprehensive national power, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). We begin with an overview of Chinese national security objectives, the role of military forces in securing those objectives, the missions Chinese leaders assign the PLA, and the military operational capabilities Chinese leaders view as necessary to accomplish those missions. Next we take a quick tour of the history of the PLA, with emphasis on the decades since the start of China’s reform era in 1979 and the ongoing effort to generate military capabilities commensurate with China’s ambitions as a rising global power. We then examine the PLA in more detail, including organization, force structure, operational capabilities, specific missions, modernization objectives, the PLA’s role in national security policy-making, and relations between military officers and civilian authorities. We will take a brief look at the other components of China’s armed forces and security services, and close with an examination of alternative futures for Chinese military power.

IAFF 6186 Political Violence and Terrorism

IAFF 6186 Civil Wars in World Politics

This course examines the interplay between contemporary civil wars and world politics, exploring the causes and consequences of these interactions. Students will apply concepts from international relations theory to analyze key questions concerning civil wars. For example, when do civil wars begin? How are they fought? Who intervenes in civil wars? Why do civil wars last so long? What are the consequences for international peace and stability? The objective of this course is to acquire the tools and techniques to critically analyze these conflicts and to understand the different foreign policy challenges they entail.

IAFF 6186 Cybersecurity

A technical background is not required and basic aspects of cyber operations will be discussed in the introductory class sessions.

IAFF 6186 Insurgency and Counterinsurgency

Insurgency and Counterinsurgency - This course provides students with an introduction to insurgency and counterinsurgency. It is intended to provide a solid foundation for further inquiry into related topics such as irregular warfare, security and development, stabilization and peace building, responses to terrorism, and conflict resolution. The course examines the multidisciplinary nature of insurgencies, and will introduce students to the major concepts and issues of the topic, explore the main types of insurgencies, and explore in depth a number of strategic cases of counterinsurgency to help students understand the complexity and the variety of this form of warfare in the modern world. The course provides key frameworks for analysis for the study of insurgency and will explore possible solutions to a number of current conflicts.

IAFF 6186 Nuclear Proliferation and Nonproliferation

This course focuses on the state of scholarly and policy-relevant analysis of nuclear proliferation and nonproliferation and the state of communication between researchers and policy practitioners working in this field. The goals of this course are: 1) to familiarize students with the scholarly and policy-relevant literature on why states seek or do not seek nuclear weapons; 2) to familiarize students with the range of policy options used and discussed to prevent nuclear weapons proliferation; 3) to prepare students to make informed judgments about appropriate circumstances for the use of and expectations of the effectiveness of these tools to meet nonproliferation objectives; and 4) to prepare students to contribute to the scholarly and/or policy-relevant understanding of nuclear proliferation and nonproliferation. After successfully completing this course, students will be able to: 1) identify and contextualize leading explanations of and methods for predicting nuclear proliferation and nonproliferation; 2) identify and describe policy options for the prevention of nuclear weapons proliferation; 3) use theoretical, historical, and technical tools to develop, compare, and evaluate the use of these policy tools generally and for specific cases; 4) articulate how their ideas and arguments about nuclear proliferation and nonproliferation fit into and hold potential for contributing to the wider expert understanding of these topics.

IAFF 6186 US Grand Strategy

IAFF 6198 Macroeconomic Policies: A Case Study Approach

The course makes use of macroeconomic theory and international practice to analyze real world macroeconomic policy-making. We will develop a simple and flexible macroeconomic framework within which a number of policy issues will be examined, including: evaluating monetary, exchange rate, and fiscal policies in different economic contexts; identifying economic and financial vulnerabilities; analyzing policy spillovers between countries; and designing economic policies for countries in or near crisis. In this context, we will also consider the macroeconomic impact of the COVID crisis as well as the war in Ukraine and its broader geopolitical implications, and consider how these events affect macroeconomic policy-making. Relevant country cases will be presented and discussed in class. Students will also make group presentations on country case studies.

IAFF 6198 Trade and International Policymaking

The architecture of the international trading order has evolved over time from a “shallow” integration regime (main focus on border measures such as tariffs and quotas) to one of “deep” integration (broader economic integration that regulates behavior of governments far behind the border). While deeper trade integration arguably yields economic benefits, it oftentimes affects trade-adjacent policy areas, such as labor, migration, environment, public health, national security, data privacy, competition or investment. Not infrequently the international trading order thereby brushes up against these trade-adjacent fields because of competing values and policy imperatives, thus creating conflict within a country or between the country and its trading partners.

This advanced seminar in international trade deals with issues on the interface of international trade and other arenas of national and international policymaking – so-called “trade…and” topics. It discusses areas of friction, co-existence, and synergy between the international trading order and various “trade…and” topics from an international economic, legal, and policy perspective. The course aims at developing concrete policy options for the United States that are compliant with international treaty obligations, improve international relations with trading partners and allies, and consider US social, economic and national security interests.

IAFF 6208 Public Diplomacy

IAFF 6213 Leadership Capstone

This course is intended for MIPP students only.

IAFF 6216 Economic Tools for Global Policy

In this course, MIPP Online students will analyze economic issues and concrete economic policy problems. This course examines questions such as: How does economic policy affect technology and immigration - and vice versa? What are the implications of various trade policies on the global economy? How has globalization and rapid spread of high-tech communication influenced the US economy?

IAFF 6222 U.S. Foreign Policy

Over the last two decades, as the United States and its partners have militarized foreign policy, development assistance has been “securitized” and deployed to solve a range of national security problems, from improving governance in failing states, to countering violent extremism and insurgencies, to promoting democracy. This seminar explores to what extent can and should development be used in these ways, what is the impact of doing so on political order, and has this shift away from supporting longer-term economic growth led to new challenges for both governments and international organizations?

The first part of the course examines the theory and practice of using development to achieve short-term political and security goals. The second part of the course examines how the United States and other nations have attempted to address conflict and its drivers through civilian-military approaches in a number of countries. Students will develop recommendations for addressing real-life policy problems while engaging in online discussions and developing briefing memos.

IAFF 6308 International Relations of South Asia

This course will analytically consider the national security calculations and foreign policy perspectives of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, and their impact regionally and beyond, including increasing uncertainty in India-China relations and growing competition in the Indian Ocean

IAFF 6318 Korea-Japan Relations

Few modern-day nations have as tangled and contested a relationship as the two Koreas and Japan. While these regions are linked by close diplomatic, economic, and cultural ties, the complex and often fraught history between the peninsula and the archipelago has led to tensions and controversies in recent years. This course explores this relationship from ancient times to the present day. Topics include the early cultural and mythical links between the two regions, Japan’s controversial colonial occupation of Korea, and the modern-day legacies of WWII that manifest in protests, textbooks, and charged political rhetoric. In addition to understanding how historical disputes impact contemporary Korea-Japan relations, this course will allow students to assess and critique governmental policies and rhetoric related to the history of the region as well as conduct a substantial research project of their own choosing.

IAFF 6318 Women in Asia

IAFF 6321 Colloquium: Europe and Eurasia

Europe and Eurasia play a crucial role in contemporary world affairs. This is currently being highlighted by the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, which has potential ramifications not only for Europe itself, but for the international system as a whole. This course integrates analysis of current developments in Europe and Eurasia, including their transatlantic and global implications, with an examination of their roots in the past, going back to 1945. The course covers great power politics since the Cold War, energy security, transatlantic relations, NATO, the EU, former Yugoslavia, Germany, and Russia and the former Soviet Union, including the Russo-Ukrainian War. In addition to seminars, the course entails group work, debates, and simulation exercises. Two shorter papers and a research paper allow students to explore topics of particular interest to them in greater detail.

IAFF 6338 Politics of Post-Soviet Eurasia

This course is a seminar on comparative politics and state building in the post-Soviet successor states. The eleven states in this region (Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan) inherited a similar institutional legacy that in turn has structured their attempts to consolidate new approaches to political and economic institution building, popular mobilization, and identity construction. Despite this shared legacy, the states of post-Soviet Eurasia have pursued a range of strategies for everything from privatization to foreign relations. During the Fall 2022 semester, we will focus on the consequences of the Russian war on Ukraine and what that conflict means for Eurasia as well as the rest of the world. We will cover a wide range of topics including the impact on civil society, the media (including social media), and energy politics.

IAFF 6388 Nationalism in Europe

This is a class on the causes and the political effects of nationalism in Europe. The first part of the course is designed to provide you with an understanding of the most prominent explanations of the emergence and spread of nationalism, and the background knowledge and tools with which to evaluate them. We will study the transition from Empires to nation-states. We will also focus on developments in the "periphery of Europe." The second part of the course focuses on the effects of nation-building on state policies toward non-core groups and diasporas, patterns of political violence, and political identities. The third part of the course deals with contemporary challenges: populism, nativism, immigrant incorporation, the prospects of a European supranational identity, contemporary self-determination movements, and Gendered dimensions of nationalism. We will cover cases across Europe and from different time periods. You will learn how to formulate research questions, develop arguments, and evaluate hypotheses.

IAFF 6341 Latin American & Hemispheric Studies Program Cornerstone

This course is intended for LAHSP students only.

IAFF 6357 Latin American & Hemispheric Studies Pre-Capstone Workshop

This course is intended for LAHSP students only.

IAFF 3187 Security in the Americas

This course will explore the rapidly changing, often confusing panorama of contemporary defense, civil-military relations, and citizen security in Latin America and the Caribbean. Students will consider frames that have guided security policies from the late Cold War to the present, with most emphasis on recent years. These include great-power competition, counter-terrorism, counter-drug and counter-organized crime policies, “ungoverned spaces,” and emerging concerns about climate, migration, and corruption. Students will consider these frames amid the present backdrop of expanding authoritarian populism, rising social protest, politicization and blurring of military and police roles, and a decline in U.S. engagement. The course will explore security models and experiences, from “Plan Colombia” and ”mano dura” strategies to those coming from civil society and the Inter-American human rights system, some of which take an expansive view of the “security sector” and its reform.

IAFF 6358 Feminist Movements in Latin America

This course examines feminist movements in Latin America, focusing on topics that provide an intellectual narrative to the construction of gender in Latin America. Organized within an intersectional and interdisciplinary framework, we will built upon an introduction to gender analysis, and use it to discuss topics such as the political participation of women; femicide/femicide; reproductive rights; ethics of care and domestic labor; and queer rights.

IAFF 6361 Middle East Studies Cornerstone

This course is intended for MES graduate students only.

IAFF 6377 Middle East Studies Capstone

This course is intended for MES graduate students only.

IAFF 6378 Iran in the Middle East

Iran has long played a critical role in the international relations of the Middle East –historically one of the most tumultuous regions in the world. In this graduate course, we will critically discuss Iran's foreign and security policies, against the backdrop of its controversial nuclear program and its contentious relations with other regional players, especially Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Israel. The aim of this course is to familiarize students with goals, characteristics, and evolution of Iran’s regional policies and the daunting challenges it faces.

IAFF 6378 China in the Middle East

China is an increasingly influential actor across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This course examines the pillars of Sino-MENA engagement and explores the economic, political, and sociocultural implications of growing Chinese involvement in the region. Students must consider these implications across various levels: government-to-government, firm-to-firm, and people-to-people. The course proceeds along two-week-long thematic modules consisting of regional and country case studies, while weekly classes focus on readings addressing key topics impacting Sino-MENA relations. This course structure enables students to situate major themes and concepts within specific geographic and institutional contexts. Students must submit a longer comparative analysis incorporating two or more country case studies as part of the review section at the end of the course. Beyond providing a scholarly foundation for better understanding Sino-MENA relations, the course offers students the opportunity to engage directly with academics and policymakers involved in this expanding and important field of study.

IAFF 6385 Rising China in Africa

This course looks at the totality of the China-Africa relationship historically, currently, and into the future. It is based on research for a book that I co-authored with Josh Eisenman published in 2012 by the University of Pennsylvania Press and titled China and Africa: A Century of Engagement and a second book that focuses on the China-Africa political and security relationship that will appear in 2022. The course covers both North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. It draws on a significant number of specialized readings from academic, policy, and journalistic accounts. Students write two 10-12 page research papers, give one oral presentation, and are expected to participate in discussions of the required reading.

IAFF 6385 Transnational Security Threats in Africa

IAFF 6378 The Politics of the Gulf

This course examines the evolving politics and international relations of the Gulf region, with an eye to illuminating the current moment of uncertainty in US-Gulf ties. It adopts a multifaceted approach, grounding these relations in 1) changing geopolitical contexts (the Cold War, the War on Terror); 2) transitions in global markets (Decarbonization); and 3) internal political dynamics within the Gulf states themselves (the Arab Spring). Students will draw upon new texts and ideas as they debate the US impact on and posture towards Gulf monarchies that are becoming more assertive and more adaptive within an increasingly multipolar region.

IAFF 6502 Negotiation Skills

IAFF 6502 Mediation

IAFF 6502 Formal Briefing

IAFF 6502 Writing for International Policymakers

Clear, concise and persuasive analytic writing is an essential skill for international affairs professionals. Effective analysis for policymakers succinctly assesses matters in ways that provide information, context, and insight and makes useful recommendations. Key characteristics include focus, relevance, brevity, and readability. This course will involve short written assignments, as well as group discussions and peer critiques, aimed at developing the writing and analytic skills necessary to support, inform, and influence policymakers and implement policy.

IAFF 6502 Cross Cultural Communications

This is a graduate-level skill course designed to help you better understand and analyze the dynamics of communication across continents. This is a unique time to delve into CCC principles and practices because the COVID-19 pandemic and its variants, persistent conflicts and wars, are changing the way the world is communicating across cultural barriers, and also and more importantly, these events and developments are hence posing new CCC challenges not seen before. The latter will most certainly change the way people from different cultures relate to one another in their quest to enhance collective cooperation and coordination to confront new threats and vulnerabilities whether at a personal or mass level. Furthermore, my CCC graduate seminar is designed to give you, the students and global citizens and future leaders, unique skills to manage and manage and resolve conflicts whether personal, private, or public. This course/seminar will utilize my academic and professional international security and foreign policy experience to enhance your CCC skills in more ways than one.

IAFF 6502 Global Communications

This course explores the elements of effective communication for a global audience. Topics include: Rhetorical strategies for written or oral communications; understanding bias and how to leverage it to advance your communication objectives; examining disinformation and how it is used online; the changing nature and future of news in the digital environment; and strategic communications plans and visual organizers.

IAFF 6502 Courageous Leadership and Change

Uncertain times call for courageous and adaptive leadership. Global systems are failing. Human rights violations are prevalent. People continue to face discrimination. Poverty is spreading. Nationalism is on the rise. And domestic violence thrives worldwide. The list goes on. It is easy to feel overwhelmed and powerless, or to feel outrage at how big the “mess” really is and how little progress is being made.

This high-impact skill course is designed to equip current and emerging leaders with the mindset, frameworks and tools to navigate the uncertainty and politics of change in order to solve pressing social, environmental and developmental issues. This course draws on real-life examples of current global issues to help leaders better understand how to navigate challenges and maximize their impact. Students will learn how to challenge assumptions, explore new mental models and develop the grit needed to sustain the political and social pressures of creating change.

IAFF 6503 Ethical Decision Making

This course will introduce students to the 13 ethical dilemmas. This requires an exploration of ethical issues in a rational, pragmatic, responsible, and decisive manner. The objective is to prepare students to effectively resolve the myriad of ethical challenges they will face in their personal and professional lives. The foundation for being able to do so is critical thinking. Critical thinking is the ability to address issues from both sides, to evaluate the best arguments of each side, and to arrive at a conclusion based on a systematic analysis of those arguments. Critical thinking requires students to discover biases, viewpoints, and perspectives that affect the accuracy and persuasiveness of oral or written arguments, and to uncover reasoning errors or logical fallacies. Accordingly, effective use of critical thinking skills allows one to defend viewpoints, evaluate issues, analyze new information, and reach ethical conclusions – exactly what today’s environment demands from leaders.

Responding to ethical dilemmas is difficult and complicated. Once students are aware of the complexity of various issues, they will have a greater tendency to be more deliberate in their decision-making and therefore more intentional in their results. Students will evaluate, individually and collectively, dozens of real-life scenarios that require them to make hard choices in ambiguous situations. The course seeks to enhance students' confidence and competence in contributing to ethically-challenging decisions on a range of national and international issues.

IAFF 6503 Leadership and Teamwork

IAFF 6503 The Role of Defense Contracting

This course will provide students with an in-depth understanding of the role of government contracting in National Security and its role in ensuring military superiority. It will benefit students interested in entering government service or the defense and national security consulting/manufacturing world. Students will learn about the development of requirements for critical space, land, sea, air, and cyber assets and understand how industry translates these requirements into military assets and capabilities. They will gain practical insight on how to analyze, shape and bid on solicitations within the Department of Defense and associated entities. There will also be a simulation of how industry works to help the DoD meet current and emerging threats in the current European security environment. In addition, they will learn about the often-hidden external considerations such as congressional pressures and inter-service rivalries that play a role in influencing the selection of a particular contractor.

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency - Russian

Intermediate Proficiency Russian is intended to improve the students’ skills in Russian (speaking, listening, reading and writing) through different activities - students’ interviewing each other, working in discussion groups, watching Russian TV news program, listening to the news in Russian, reading newspaper articles from Russian press or Internet, doing translation exercises on the vocabulary studied and the grammar reviewed, performing dialogues etc.

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency - French

A short, intensive 1-credit course designed to develop professional French language skills for international affairs students.

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency – Spanish

A short, intensive 1-credit course designed to develop professional Spanish language skills for international affairs students.

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency – Arabic

A short, intensive 1-credit course designed to develop professional Arabic language skills for international affairs students.

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency – Chinese

A short, intensive 1-credit course designed to develop professional Chinese language skills for international affairs students.

IAFF 6898 Capstone Workshop

First part of two-semester sequence that addresses a concrete policy problem or issue in international affairs. In small teams, students refine the policy question of the capstone project, develop a research strategy, select appropriate research methods, and begin research. Continued in IAFF 6899.

IAFF 6899 Capstone Course

Summer 2022

IAFF 6138 Development Project Implementation

IAFF 6138 Social Enterprise & Development

The concept of social entrepreneurship is gaining increasing traction within the international development sector. Social enterprises are being promoted as the means to make growth strategies more inclusive and social service delivery more accessible. For its proponents, social entrepreneurship is at the vanguard of creating efficient and sustainable models for addressing major challenges ranging from empowering marginalized communities to contending with the threat of climate change. Social entrepreneurship, with its aims of simultaneously creating economic and social value has its critics too. These critics point to the inherent difficulties in using a market based approach to addressing structural inequalities. As the traditional lines blur among nonprofits, government and business, it is critical that students of international development understand the opportunities and challenges facing social entrepreneurship. This course will equip students to understand and assess the range of current approaches being used to harness the potential of social entrepreneurship in developing countries around the world. The class will be in seminar format, and students will be expected to participate actively in class discussions.

IAFF 6138 Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption in International Development

President Biden made anti-corruption and rule of law top priorities of his administration. For the first time, the U.S. government will have a government-wide anti-corruption strategy. Weak rule of law and rampant corruption undermine national security and hamper development of market economies and democracies. Foreign policy, national security and foreign assistance experts understand the destabilizing role of corruption and come up with solutions that counter corruption. In this class we will explore corruption as a mobilizing force for change in fragile societies and how anti-corruption activities and thinking can be integrated into sound development approaches. Weakness of the rule of law undermines effectiveness of democratic institutions and threatens democratic transitions in developing countries. Students will explore the nexus between the rule of law and anti-corruption and learn how foreign assistance and foreign policy professionals integrate these concepts into their work. This class will work on honing a practical understanding of the rule of law, good governance and anti-corruption and the ways to design foreign assistance programs in different development contexts. We will cover various geographic regions and students will prepare a research paper on a country of their choice.

IAFF 6163 Transnational Security

IAFF 6186 Insurgency and Counterinsurgency

IAFF 6186 Who Will Rule the 21st Century?

Today, we are witnessing a period of even greater American economic travails, greater national debt relative to the size of the economy, and the concern that less friendly powers—especially China and Russia—may be poised to benefit from the relative decline of the United States in specific and the West in general. The Sanders and Trump phenomena of 2016 are perhaps the most dramatic manifestations of these concerns—and the election of Donald Trump as president could be the most consequential manifestation of such anxieties since the beginning of the Cold War, or at least the end of the Vietnam War. But beyond immediate electoral changes, what do these shifting economic realities, as well as broader changes in global demographics and developments in technology, bode for the future of American power and ultimately the security of this country and its allies?

This course, informed by both historical and technical perspectives, will wrestle with such broad questions about the architecture of the international power system. It will consider the relative decline of the United States and many of its major western allies that many consider to be already underway, and only likely to accelerate. It will examine the promise of the rising powers, together with the structural constraints and other impediments that they will have to face themselves as they seek greater stature, clout, and prosperity in the 21^st century. It will also consider plausible war scenarios and other threats to civilization and the planet.

IAFF 6186 Emerging Threats

This course surveys emerging risks and challenges that threaten human, national and global security. It does so by paying special attention to a range of military and non-military issues where science and technology play a major role. Topics covered include how to think about the concepts of risk and securitization; revolutions in military affairs and "grey zone" conflict; the challenges of nuclear security and terrorism; conflict in cyberspace; the uses and consequences of robotics, drones and autonomous weapons systems; military developments in biotechnology; artificial intelligence; as well as non-military issues related to demography, urbanization, public health, the environment, and outer space. For each issue, the course examines the politics of scientific and technological evolution by identifying the key drivers of change; the nature of threats at the local, national, and global levels; and how existing security policies should be reformed in response. A technical background is not required but will enhance one’s understanding.

IAFF 6186 Cybersecurity

This course will provide an overview of current issues in the realm of cybersecurity, focusing on cybersecurity strategy, threats, conflict and policy. We will begin with an understanding of the power inherent in cyberspace and consider the policy issues facing the civilian, military, intelligence and private business sectors in dealing with offensive and defensive cyber activity. Through the use of case studies, we will examine previous and ongoing cyber conflicts to understand their impacts on international relations. We will analyze the roles of several different types of actors in cybersecurity including state actors, non-state actors such as criminal and terror groups and private sector responses. This course will also examine the issue of cyber deterrence, and the unique aspects of offensive and defensive cyber activities by all cyber actors.

A technical background is not required and basic aspects of cyber operations will be discussed in the introductory class sessions.

IAFF 6186: U.S. National Security

IAFF 6186: Transnational Security & Corruption

This class focuses particularly on the relationship between corruption and transnational security challenges. It examines the sources, processes and outcomes related to corrupt activities and how these enable the emergence and strength of criminal actors, as well as the growth of illegal activities that pose serious threats to the security of states, and the stability of the international system. The class explores these dynamics in regards to issues such as money laundering, tax evasion, environmental crime, drug trafficking, global health, and international terrorism, among others.

We will address questions such as why does public corruption continue to afflict countries in the modern world? What are the factors that help explain the existence of, and fluctuations in the levels of corruption in different contexts? What role can key economic agents play in driving and/or as curbing corruption? How are legal definitions established, and what interests intervene in this process? And what, if any, are the best policy options to address this latent issue?

IAFF 6186 Military Power & Effectiveness

What explains victory and defeat in war? Answering this question is vitally important to the course of history and the survival of nations. It is also important to affairs beyond war, like the outcomes of international negotiations, alliance structures, and the preservation of peace. Traditionally, this question has been estimated by simply determining who had the most soldiers and resources. However, some militaries, like the Mongols in the 13th Century or the Mujahideen in Afghanistan in the 1980s, have frequently bested militaries with more soldiers and resources. What explains this variation? Violence, or the threatened use of violence, is often the primary currency in the international arena. Understanding military power and effectiveness is vitally important for anyone seeking to understand the affairs of states in the international arena.

This course is an overview of military operations and strategy and the ways in which war and politics intersect to determine outcomes. This course will survey the fields of study in political science, military strategy, and policy analysis that illuminate this interaction: military effectiveness, Civil-military relations, military tactics and logistics, and foreign policy, among others. This course then explores innovation in military affairs and the limits of the application of military force in international relations.

IAFF 6186 International Organized Crime

IAFF 6186 Economic Tools for Global Policy

In this course, MIPP Online students will analyze economic issues and concrete economic policy problems. This course examines questions such as: How does economic policy affect technology and immigration - and vice versa? What are the implications of various trade policies on the global economy? How has globalization and rapid spread of high-tech communication influenced the US economy?

IAFF 6358 Racial & Ethnic Politics in Latin America

This course explores the changing and complex interactions between racial and ethnic politics and hegemonic power in Latin America. It begins with a historic background and it asks questions such as: what are the strengths, weaknesses, and strategies of afro-descendent and ethnic social movements? Why do they succeed or fail? Why are they strong or weak in different countries? Why do we have successful indigenous political parties in Bolivia and Ecuador but not in Peru and Guatemala, nor successful black movements in Colombia and Brazil?

By examining questions such as these, located at the intersection of ethnic and racial movements and social and political power, the course aims not only at explaining the nature of the link but also at addressing the question of what type of activism and legal-institutional changes are more likely to advance the cause of diversity and inclusion in Latin America.

IAFF 6385 Peace and Conflict in Africa

IAFF 6502

Analyzing U.S. Foreign Assistance

The course is a graduate level, project-based class where students will have the opportunity to develop and justify their own proposal for foreign assistance resources for a country that they choose. This course will give students highly sought after hands-on, practical experience. For students interested in careers at the Department of State, USAID, or non-profit organizations that implement U.S. foreign assistance, this will be a great course taught by Cyndee Pelt and Homa Hassan, who have extensive international development experience. Professors Pelt and Hassan have served in the past three Administrations in various capacities both in Washington D.C. and overseas at the State Department and USAID – together they have over thirty years of experience working on U.S. foreign assistance programs.

IAFF 6502 Deconstructing Disinformation

A functional democracy requires the public to trust the information they rely on to make decisions. While numerous types of problematic information – including disinformation, misinformation, and propaganda – have always existed, networked technologies make it easier for media manipulators to spread inaccurate, misleading, and hateful information. In 2018, thirteen Russians were indicted for waging a three-year disinformation campaign to disrupt American democracy. Non-state actors also sought to incite partisanship and strategically suppress participation in the 2016 election. Extremist groups and partially automated accounts (“bots”) run by foreign state groups both propagated false rumors and conspiracies after a school shooting to shape the political reaction. The stock market lost over $130B in 2013 when a false tweet claimed that Barack Obama was injured in an explosion. And researchers are now confirming common sense about such damaging gossip: false information spreads faster than the truth. This course will use domestic and international case studies to critically examine the key components of disinformation. It will then analyze potential interventions by governments, technology companies, and civil society organizations. In addition to deconstructing the problem of disinformation and critically analyzing potential solutions, students will learn how to conduct scenario planning exercises.

IAFF 6502 Development and HA Funding

This course will provide an introduction to international development and humanitarian assistance (HA) funding streams, donors, and agendas. An emphasis will be placed on USAID grant and contract management. Students will learn basic grant and contract management skills and common compliance issues that implementers face. Special attention will be given to the analysis of USAID humanitarian assistance grants and development contracts. Students will simulate how to respond to different scenarios that impact development and humanitarian projects and funding. The course will also provide an overview of the systems and regulations that govern donor grants and contracts.

IAFF 6502 Formal Briefing (Instructor: Molly Bauch)

Of the many modes of communication in Washington, perhaps the most common is the formal briefing – presentation of information in a predefined setting and a given audience, for the purposes of achieving an outcome or an action (a sale, awareness, policy support, decision endorsement, etc.). Many people give presentations; few well. The art and science of formal briefing centers on storytelling – designing and delivering narratives, tailored to an audience that inspire, resonate, and compel. Mastering the art of formal briefing affects credibility, influences professional advancement, and powers persuasive deal making. Over three sessions of four hours each, we’ll cover the essence of designing, developing, and delivering TED-talk level presentations that cut to the ‘so what, why should we care’ chase and set you apart as a persuasive, effective speaker.

IAFF 6502 Leadership and Teamwork

This course explores the dynamics of teambuilding, communication, and leadership that will increase managerial and leadership effectiveness. Topics include: communication and conflict, decision-making and problem-solving, group dynamics, consensus, team building, and leadership. Students participate in experiential exercises that provide them with the opportunity to learn critical skills needed to improve teamwork and be effective organizational members. Students will learn how to apply effective decision making and problem-solving skills in teams; manage and resolve conflicts with the appropriate communication skills; identify and evaluate their own assumptions and behaviors related to leadership and group dynamics in organizations; apply the principles of the BART system (Boundaries, Authority, Role, and Task) to understand and improve team and organizational effectiveness; and integrate and apply their understanding of teamwork and leadership in varied personal and professional contexts.

IAFF 6503 Non-Violent Communication (NVC) and Structural Change: supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)

In an age of virulent civic discourse, avoiding conversations about dominance, systems, power, race, gender, or sexual identity is no longer an option. When emotions surface and stakes are high, this course will equip students with the tools to respond in a way that draws people into a conversation using Nonviolent Communication (NVC) and brings about systemic changes to support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)

NVC is a set of ideas and practices based on the empathic and relational nature of human beings that can also be used to impact institutional policies. In the second part of the course, students will apply NVC to systems change and look at practical processes that can be put in place to open access, increase agency, and foster a sense of belonging for all.

IAFF 6503 Negotiation Skills

IAFF 6503 International Supply Chain Fundamentals

This course will introduce students to the fundamental operations of global supply chains across manufacturing, digital, commodity and service industries. Through readings and recent case studies students will learn the essential components of supply chains; evolution of supply chains; wholly owned versus unrelated supply chains and the stakeholders in supply chains. In addition to building a foundation in supply chain operations, each case study will demonstrate the supply chain's relevance to current policy issues in security, green energy transition, trade, area studies and international relations.

Upon completion students will be able to research/map a supply chain, interpret articles and news sources about supply chains and assess their relevance to geopolitical events and policy. No prior business or economics background is necessary.

IAFF 6503 Cross-Cultural Communication

This is a graduate-level skill course designed to help you better understand and analyze the dynamics of communication across continents. This is a unique time to delve into CCC principles and practices because COVID-19 and its variants and persistent conflicts and wars are changing the way the world is communicating across cultural barriers, and also and more importantly, these events and developments are hence posing new CCC challenges not seen before. The latter will most certainly change the way people from different cultures relate to one another in their quest to enhance collective cooperation and coordination to confront new threats and vulnerabilities whether at a personal or mass level. Furthermore, my CCC graduate seminar is designed to give you, the students and global citizens and future leaders, unique skills to manage and manage and resolve conflicts whether personal, private, or public. This course/seminar will utilize my academic and professional international security and foreign policy experience to enhance your CCC skills in more ways than one.

IAFF 6503 Political Risk Analysis

Political risk – broadly understood as the possibility of politically related uncertainty affecting an objective – has the potential to shape outcomes along a spectrum of domains. This specific type of risk emanates from various sources and is increasingly becoming recognized as an essential consideration for entities with interests (commercial or otherwise) in the international sphere. Political risk is often an ambiguous subject that can be analyzed using various methods.

As such, this course takes a multi-disciplinary approach drawing from international relations theory, economics, risk management, intelligence, and strategic communications and applies it to relevant, real-world problems. Emphasis is placed on strategies that measure and mitigate political risk in a range of environments at the macro and micro levels. This course connects theory, research, practice, and empirical evidence in order to address the complexities of political risk analysis and it draws on academic literature while also focusing on the development of practical knowledge and skills that are applicable to both the public and private sector.

IAFF 6504 Intermediate Conversation - Russian

Intermediate Proficiency Russian is intended to improve the students’ skills in Russian (speaking, listening, reading and writing) through different activities - students’ interviewing each other, working in discussion groups, watching Russian TV news program, listening to the news in Russian, reading newspaper articles from Russian press or Internet, doing translation exercises on the vocabulary studied and the grammar reviewed, performing dialogues etc.

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency - Arabic

IAFF 6504 Intermediate Conversation - French

IAFF 6504 Intermediate Conversation - Spanish

Students with intermediate-level proficiency may take these courses to improve their language ability and to prepare for the language proficiency examination that will take place at the end of the course. In order to enroll in these courses, students must first take the online diagnostic test in the corresponding language and achieve a score in at least the intermediate-level range.

The course is based on the premise that linguistic competence and cultural knowledge are equally necessary in order to advance in your acquisition of the language. Thus, it aims to increase your overall Spanish language proficiency as well as your cross-cultural competence and awareness, i.e. your ability to critically understand, reflect on, and analyze political, social, and cultural events and manifestations of Spanish speaking societies, and to relate them to your own society and culture.

IAFF 6504 Intermediate Conversation - Chinese

IAFF 6378 Sharia and State in Egypt

The course would consider the interaction of the structures of a modern state with the Islamic legal heritage: How does a complex state with an array of bureaucratic and legal structures to cover education, resource allocation, criminal law, family life, etc--but also a state that proclaims Islam the official religion and the principles of the Islamic sharia as the main source of legislation--handle religion? The course would examine the questions raised comparatively and then focus specifically on the Egyptian experience. Parts would be conducted in conjunction with a similar class at AUC through teleconferencing and zoom. Joint parts would involve small group interaction, including a week-long simulation at the end in which students from the two institutions form teams to draft suggested reforms to Egypt's family law, the area where the most contentious debates about religion and state focus.

Spring 2022

IAFF 6108 International Development Policy

This course examines the scope and nature of international development assistance and the challenges currently facing development agencies. It surveys development theory since Bretton Woods and the Marshall Plan and considers how changes have been reflected in the operational strategies of leading bilateral and multilateral donors. Then the focus of the course will shift to the methods and tools that characterize the work of principal donors, from needs assessment and project design to evaluation. The effectiveness of development assistance will be an important theme of this course, in particular how mixed results have brought methods and concepts into question and how agencies are responding to this challenge.

IAFF 6118 Nuclear Security Policy

This graduate seminar course introduces students to major themes and debates in the contemporary study of nuclear security, from a wide array of perspectives, including historical, theoretical, practical, and international. It provides students with the technical and conceptual tools needed to understand the role nuclear weapons play in international politics. It includes a historical overview of the nuclear age, including a discussion on the evolution of nuclear strategy and the introduction of a new nuclear lexicon, the global nuclear arms race, and the development of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime. The course covers a wide range of contemporary nuclear challenges, including nuclear security/terrorism, non-state actor nuclear challenges, Iran, DPRK, and the role of nuclear weapons in international politics, paying particular attention to future U.S.-Russia/U.S.-China relations, and India-Pakistan-China relations.

IAFF 6118 Data Analytics for International Affairs

Analytical thinking is essential to evidence-based policymaking. This class will teach you how to critically evaluate arguments based in data, as well as run your own basic analyses to develop well-informed policies. This course is quantitative in nature but does not require advanced mathematical knowledge or programming skills. However, the course necessitates the time, effort, drive, and initiative associated with acquiring a new hard skill.

IAFF 6118 The Ethics of Foreign Aid

IAFF 6118 Global Energy Markets

This course will explain how global energy markets work and influence energy prices, energy infrastructure investments, and international affairs. Students will quickly learn that energy markets are far from static. The course will cover the physical and financial markets of oil, refined petroleum products, natural gas, coal, liquefied natural gas, natural gas liquids, petrochemicals, and electricity will be covered in-depth. The course will also discuss how seasonal and long-term changes like climate change, Covid-19, and geopolitics affect energy prices of fuels and metals in global and regional energy markets.

Students will learn the differences between physical and financial energy markets and the interplay between each concerning prices. The instructor will also discuss forward transactions and how energy derivatives (futures, options, and swaps) can hedge physical energy prices and manage market volatility. Energy traders, exchanges, price discovery, liquidity, market manipulation will also be covered. Students will pursue their interests in energy markets at the regional or country level through group presentations and individual papers.

IAFF 6118 Special Topics in Intl Affairs International Law

This course will cover the fundamental underpinnings of international law, with a focus on Public International Law, and address specialized topics ranging from environmental law to the law of war. At the end of the course, students should be conversant with the international legal order and have a strong understanding of the law’s applicability to international issues.

IAFF 6122 Development Policy & Practice

This course is restricted to students in the International Development Studies Program. It focuses on the practice and policy of international development and is tailored toward preparing students for their Capstone applied research projects with international development organizations. By the end of the course, you will have developed your own development project proposal. Throughout, we will be considering what types of approaches make the most sense in different circumstances, what constraints exist, and how to be ethical, adaptable, and responsive in our work. In the first half of the course, topics covered include the project cycle, gender, social inclusion, ethics, and developing theories of change. In each case, we will be both learning the mechanics of these processes while also critically analyzing them. We will also be considering complexity in development, the role of civil society organizations and investigative journalism in advancing positive change, and the forms that US international development assistance takes. In the second half, the course interjects a review of the architecture of international development, including foundational agreements guiding development practice. We will build upon the practice of the first half by including exercises in developing logical frameworks, budgeting, and monitoring and evaluation, as well as exposing ourselves to examples of development policy implementation by non-traditional donors. The course will end with an opportunity to pitch your project to your colleagues for feedback prior to submitting your final assignment.

This course is intended for first year IDS students only.

IAFF 6138 Democracy & Governance Development

Does democracy matter? Promoting democracy, human rights and governance has been one of the highest priorities for international development agencies like USAID since the 1990s; the US budget for democracy assistance is now more than $2 billion/year. At the same time, the global wave of democratization peaked in about 2010; since then there has been a steady increase in the number of authoritarian regimes and their influence around the world. This course examines the origins, manifestations and implications of this authoritarian shift for developing countries and development agencies, with an emphasis on developing practical professional skills that prepare students for careers in development agencies and international organizations. Lectures and readings will be based on current issues in development and democracy assistance; with assignments focusing on the design of programs in various sectors of democracy assistance. Guest lecturers currently working in relevant private, public and non-profit organizations will be featured in approximately half of the class sessions.

IAFF 6138 Gender and Development

IAFF 6138 Private Sector Development

Almost every government in the world would now say that: “the private sector is the engine of growth”. Yet in some countries, the private sector thrives, while in others it struggles in a poor enabling environment. Some private sectors contribute vibrantly to social objectives, while in other countries increases in inequality seem to be accompanying private sector development. So what does it take to encourage effective and ethical private sector development in developing countries? What can governments and development partners do to encourage such development, and what mistakes from past lessons should they avoid? Can foreign investment make a positive contribution to growth and public revenues and can it support the expansion of social services as well as economic development? What should governments do with accumulated assets from a previous era dominated by state-led strategies – privatization, sales of shares, management contracts? Is the history in this area encouraging or alarming?

IAFF 6138 Gender & Economic Development

This course examines contemporary economic development and its ties to gender. Within economic development, gender and other categories of identity such as ethnic group, disability status, age, and educational level link both to inequalities and responses to them. To study gender and economic development, this course will explore: workforce opportunity, resource access, policy funding, asset ownership, care work distribution, and trade liberalization as well as related policy and decision-making. Students in this course become familiar with recent analyses of the relationships between gender and economic development from a range of sources and disciplines, as well as the relationship of economic to social development. Students also learn to provide their own recommendations concerning policies, programming, and practice.

IAFF 6138 International Development Management and Tools

International Development Management: Processes and Tools is designed to socialize students into international development management. It gives students opportunities to learn and apply skills and tools specifically developed for international development. It will challenge the origins and definitions of international development. The course investigates key theories, perspectives and approaches, and provides students with training in specific international development management tools and processes through team projects with international development organizations.

IAFF 6138 Violence, Gender, & Humanitarian Assistance

IAFF 6138 Localizing Humanitarian Action

In 2016, the United Nation’s Grand Bargain articulated a vision that humanitarian action should be “as local as possible, as international as necessary.” Localization refers to putting local actors and crisis- and conflict-affected populations at the center of humanitarian action. Localization is a cross-cutting issue that affects humanitarian policy, coordination and financing, and practices such as accountability, capacity-building and participation in humanitarian action. Despite a stated commitment to the goal of localization, institutional, political, and practical factors hinder its full policy implementation. In this course, we will examine the multi-dimensional nature of localization, analyze factors that impede its full realization, unpack assumptions and biases about local actors and localized response, and explore the effectiveness of localization in cases where localized aid delivery has been piloted. Our approach will be to examine humanitarian action from the bottom-up, by considering the roles, responsibilities, and effectiveness of local actors, such as refugee-led organizations, and regional actors such as Africa CDC and area-based humanitarian coordination hubs. Students will work on a research project that analyzes and assesses how localization has been implemented in COVID-19 responses.

IAFF 6139 IDS Capstone

Over the course of the spring, each team will need to complete any unfinished work from the fall, including the completion of the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the work to be done for their client. In addition, the teams will need to plan, implement, and write up their research. The professors will develop a regular schedule with each group to be updated on the team’s progress (in person and by email) and also to provide feedback. In particular, professors will work with teams to ensure that they have a viable research plan and methodology and that they implement the plan and methodology accordingly. By the end of the semester, all groups will have completed the equivalent of an international development consultancy for an organization engaged in the field.

This course is intended for graduating International Development Studies MA students only. Registration restricted to graduate students only. See department for meeting time and location.

IAFF 6143 Science and Technology Policy Analysis Seminar

Many of the most important and salient policy decisions taken by governments—whether for war or peace, whether they address everyday needs or long-term global grand challenges—involve science and technology. S&T is at the heart of debates regarding climate change; immunization against diseases such as COVID-19, measles, and rubella; decisions involving nuclear weapons; space exploration; cybersecurity and the generation and diffusion of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and gene-editing technologies like CRISPR; the widespread use of robotics, nanotechnology, 3-D printing, and advanced energy storage technologies; the internet of things (IoT); advanced manufacturing and the oncoming of the 4^th industrial revolution (I4.0); energy policy and the transition to a carbon neutral economy; and many more. The second in the sequence of required core courses for the ISTP program, this seminar course offers the opportunity to go deeper and ask more probing questions about select contemporary policy topics like those listed above. The course will take an international perspective and provide opportunities for comparative analysis across both developed market economies and emerging economies.

IAFF 6141 is a prerequisite for this course.

IAFF 6146 Introduction to Space Law

IAFF 6153 Science, Technology, and National Security Policy

A broad, complex, and multidimensional set of factors contribute to the ability of states to use science and technology to advance their national security. This course examines how effectively states, and the United States in particular, develop policies designed to translate science and technology into strategic advantage. To assess these factors, the course addresses a range of issues including innovation, revolutions in military affairs, globalization and international economic integration, technology transfer and export controls, changing global security dynamics, and the impact of emerging technologies on defense industries and military power.

While there is general agreement on the fundamental contributions of science and technology to national security, the field of security studies still lacks a coherent and foundational body of literature that addresses these interrelationships in a systematic and comprehensive way.

Our analysis begins with the interwar period, considering how effectively the great powers adapted to rapidly changing technology and assessing analytical frameworks for addressing these issues. The course subsequently addresses many of the key historic and current science, technology, and national security policy issues including science and technology in World War II, developing thermonuclear weapons, missile and satellite technology, airpower, counterproliferation, robotics, cyberpower, and governance of science and technology. Because there is no accepted canon of literature in this field, your readings for this course are quite wide-ranging and will require your focused attention and active engagement to synthesize.

IAFF 6158 Space Economics

IAFF 6158 Issues in Space Policy

This course will address international space policy issues facing the United States and provides an overview of common tools (e.g., orbital mechanics, cost estimation, regulation) used in space policy making and implementation. The course will address current policy and regulatory issues facing U.S. space programs with regard to dual-use technologies, including export controls, spectrum management, and licensing of commercial remote sensing systems. The course will involve student team presentations of important space functions such as space launch, remote sensing, environmental monitoring, missile warning, satellite navigation, and communications. Short problem sets (requiring basic algebra) will be used to illustrate the physics of the space environment. The class will conclude with a group exercise involving the interaction of diplomatic, intelligence, military, and economic interests in a hypothetical space conflict.

IAFF 6162 Security Policy Analysis

This course is intended for first-year Security Policy Studies graduate students only. Also register for one discussion section: IAFF 6162.30-.35.

IAFF 6163 Transnational Security

This course focuses on transnational security issues and considers how many of these myriad challenges constitute threats to global peace and security. The combined effects of such transnational security issues as drug, weapons, and human trafficking, piracy, acts of terrorism, infectious diseases, and deliberate environmental destruction, along with such critical enablers as corruption, and money movements, are not strangers on the world stage. What is new is their global reach and destructive potential. As a result, these issues have made policy makers consider different conceptions of security and, at times, to move beyond sole considerations of state sovereignty into the realm of human security.

IAFF 6169 Homeland Security

IAFF 6171 Intro to Conflict Resolution

Conflict is an integral part of who we are as people. It can be destructive as seen in countries like Rwanda, Mali, Venezuela, Haiti, and South Africa, but it can also be constructive by creating spaces for social and political changes. Therefore, it is imperative that we understand the drivers of conflict and the mechanisms to resolve them. In this course, students will examine different approaches to analyzing the root causes, dynamics, and consequences of conflict, and subsequently, design interventions with the aim of resolving conflicts. We will approach this topic through both theory and practice; the theories will allow us to contextualize our studies within the larger debates and driving questions in the field, while the practice will allow us to ground our studies in real-life examples to ensure that our ideas are practical and implementable.

IAFF 6173 Security and Development (Cormier)

What is the impact of war on society and how can outsiders work together to help communities and states build back better? Fragility is multi-dimensional; a myriad of challenges emerge during conflict and in the immediate aftermath and solutions must be equally holistic to be effective. Transitional states are crowded places as local, regional, and international actors rush in to help, profit, gain influence, and or spoil reform efforts. With distinct values, capabilities, and perspectives, these external inputs must be balanced with and adjusted for local realities, capacities, and aspirations. Through this course, you will learn and apply a set of practical tools to develop international development interventions that first and foremost do no harm and at their best achieve sustainable, demand-driven impact that positively transforms the lives of those who have lived with war. Equipped with field-based case studies, a real world professional experience, and practitioner critique; you’ll have a credible basis for pursuing a career in a transitional environment.

IAFF 6186 Great Power Competition

This course examines the past, present, and future of how the most powerful states in the international system—the great powers—compete and cooperate in international relations. It begins by introducing different ways of defining and measuring relative power, and covers the key theoretical models of great power competition. It then examines various facets of great power competition, including its relationship to geography, technology, economics, ideology, ideas and identity, and the global “periphery.” The course also examines the foreign and national security policies of individual great powers in detail, including those of the United States, the People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation, and a number of near- or potential-great powers, such as India, Japan, and European states. The course closes by looking forward to some emerging present and future challenges in great power competition. Through this course, students will gain a thorough understanding of how the great powers protect their security and pursue their interests in international politics.

IAFF 6186 Cyberspace, Conflict, & War

This course examines the relationship between cyber technology, conflict, and war. After introducing key concepts regarding cyber technology, strategy, and policy, the course will examine the relationship between information technology and various aspects of domestic and international conflict and war. These include offense and defense in cyberspace, cyber conflict and escalation, deterrence and compellence, espionage, conventional military operations, nuclear weapons, popular mobilization and repression, and terrorism, among others. These various aspects of cyberspace and conflict will be highlighted through in-depth examinations of key academic and policy debates as well as crucial contemporary case studies. Through this course, students will gain a thorough understanding of how cyber technology is shaping domestic and international conflict.

IAFF 6186 Emerging Threats

This course surveys emerging risks and challenges that threaten human, national and global security. It does so by paying special attention to a range of military and non-military issues where science and technology play a major role. Topics covered include how to think about the concepts of risk and securitization; revolutions in military affairs and hybrid warfare; the challenges of nuclear security and terrorism; conflict in cyberspace; the uses and consequences of robotics, drones and autonomous weapons systems; military developments in biotechnology; artificial intelligence; as well as non-military issues related to demography, urbanization, public health, the environment, and outer space. For each issue, the course examines the politics of scientific and technological evolution by identifying the key drivers of change; the nature of threats at the local, national, and global levels; and how existing security policies should be reformed in response. A technical background is not required but will enhance one’s understanding.

IAFF 6186 Illicit Finance & Security

Transnational illicit non-state actors, corrupt state officials, and governments conducting illicit activity all exploit the international financial system to move and hide funds, raise revenue, or procure and pay for goods. The illicit dimension of the globalization of finance has sparked states and international organizations to develop systemic regulatory frameworks and expand and refine the use of targeted sanctions. This course will examine the operations, mechanisms, and vulnerabilities of illicit financial networks and U.S. and multilateral efforts to counter them, highlighting the key role of the private sector in contributing to the success or failure of financial measures. The course will also examine the use of finance as a foreign policy tool in support of security interests such as resolving conflict or influencing decision making.

IAFF 6186 U.S. Grand Strategy

IAFF 6186 Insurgency & Counterinsurgency

IAFF 6186 Countering Violent Extremism

Violent extremism is not a new phenomenon, but it has grown to become a serious threat to international peace and security over the past two decades. The attack on the US Capitol on June 6^th, 2021, made it abundantly clear that the threat has long been an American problem as well. By promoting, supporting, or committing acts which may lead to terrorism, violent extremism and leads to terrorism in driven political aims and often seeks to defend an ideology by advocating racial, national, ethnic, or religious supremacy while opposing core democratic principles and values. Prof. Alistair Millar’s course focuses on governmental and nongovernmental efforts to prevent and counter violent extremism. It provides students with an introduction to a burgeoning academic literature. The course charts the evolution of these efforts to prevent and counter violent extremism (P/CVE), particularly over the past fifteen years or so. This course also offers an opportunity to critically examine and discuss domestic and international P/CVE policies and programs around the world. The course will be useful for anyone with an interest in counterterrorism and/or preventing violent conflict, as well as a wide array of disciplines and issues including diplomacy, development assistance, peacebuilding, criminology, psychology, sociology, and political science. The course will connect theory to practice through discussion, research, and examinations of several case studies throughout the semester.

IAFF 6186 Nuclear Strategy

With the end of the Cold War, nuclear weapons receded into the background of international politics. A quarter century later, Russian revanchism, expansionist Chinese claims, and North Korea’s expanding nuclear arsenal have raised the salience of nuclear weapons in US defense policy.

This course provides an advanced survey of nuclear deterrence theory and practice. It begins with the basics of nuclear weapons design and effects, and fundamental nuclear strategy. Second, the course surveys major developments in nuclear strategy, including assured retaliation, flexible response, the evolving technology of the late Cold War, nuclear ethics, and finally contemporary nuclear force structure and deterrence policy. Third, the class will examine contemporary theory for deterring aggression and nuclear use, including the integration of nuclear and nonnuclear forces, arms control, counterforce planning, and debates about whether and how the United States should reduce its reliance on nuclear forces in the future. Last, the course will examine the nuclear policies of Russia, China, and North Korea and US policies for deterring each.

Because the course covers academic deterrence theory, primary policy documents, and empirical readings about policy and practice, the reading requirements are high.

IAFF 6186 Future Crimes

This graduate course seeks to understand the interplay of Internet technology and criminal activity. While offline violent crime is usually linked to cities, and more specifically, to definite spaces in cities, future crimes in our online space reach all of us everywhere, even if we don’t do anything, simply because we are connected (and interconnected) online. Technology is a double-edged sword: as much good as it brings, it can also create unprecedented possibilities for crimes — many of which may be new and un-thought.

Given the freshness of this phenomenon, this course will seek to identify the relevant questions rather than give definitive answers. As such, it will profit from the fact that many of the ‘students’ may actually be the most knowledgeable in terms of niche aspects of the Internet, its access, and its social media applications. This means that students will have ample opportunity to use their ‘wired’ minds to be creative and innovative — perhaps sharing aspects of their online experiences to enrich the class and enlighten their fellow class members.

Some of the questions that the course will explore and refine include: Are our current understanding and existing theories of crime and crime prevention approaches, appropriate to deal with the new wave of future crimes linked to technology? Will technology increase crime exponentially, mirroring the famous ‘Moore’s Law’ of advances in computing capability? What type of crimes are we, and might we, end up dealing with as a society? Are our current legal and justice systems in the United States capable of dealing with these new crimes? Has the Internet revolution already created the path for irreversible crimes? 

Most of the topics that we discuss will be approached in an interdisciplinary manner, to stimulate students’ broader interests, as well as their analytical skills. 

IAFF 6186 Maritime Security and Threats

The aim of this course is to develop awareness and higher-order thinking of national and international security related issues involving the maritime sector. This course examines the economic significance of the world’s oceans and the global supply chain as it pertains to maritime security and threats, including piracy, smuggling, natural resources, maritime critical infrastructure, disasters, terror and cyber-attacks. Students will analyze how economic prosperity depends on the safe and efficient transportation of raw material and goods, and the impact of supply disruptions caused by natural or man-made events. The course is designed to introduce students to international law, national security strategies, and policies used to claim and compete for natural resources in highly disputed waters and control important sea lines of communication.

Maritime security is a global issue built into every thread of our daily existence. The ocean is the dominant physical feature on earth covering more than 70% of its surface. Less than 20% of the seabed has been mapped and less than 5% explored. It is the world’s largest habitat, influences weather and climate, and provides sustenance. Trade by sea connected the world for thousands of years and modern day shipping supported, if not created, globalization. The ocean and humans are inescapably interconnected with the majority of the world’s population living within 200 miles of the ocean. The high seas belong to no one and its sheer expanse is difficult to govern and police. Threats from state and non-state actors create a persistent risk for economic and societal disruptions. National and international strategies to mitigate risk involves complex relationships spanning governments, agencies, non-government organizations, and private industry.

The course is a comprehensive investigation of the challenges and threats to the security and sustainability of all things on, in, and under the ocean. Topics covered have sufficient breadth to warrant individual study and more in-depth research. This is a multi-disciplinary course and proper introduction on subjects that are interrelated with shared impact and consequences for the future.

IAFF 6186 Military Power & Effectiveness

In international relations theory, military power is often argued to be the primary determinant of international outcomes. But what is military power? Traditional realist theory treats it as an amalgam of several indicators of states’ aggregate power, such as population size, industrial might, and number of troops and weapons. Newer realist theories add factors such as the offense-defense balance, determined by variables like military technology and geography. Yet there are many cases where the materially stronger or better armed side did not prevail. The reversal in the outcomes of insurgency wars over time—from the stronger side winning about 90 percent of the time in the mid-nineteenth century, to the stronger side failing to win 75 percent of the time since 1975—should be enough to convince skeptics that victory (to paraphrase Napoleon) does not always go to the big battalions.

This course explores what makes the militaries of some states highly proficient fighting machines, whereas others seemingly cannot execute the simplest tasks. Although the effectiveness of navies and air forces could also be examined, the focus of this class (following the bulk of the literature) is on ground forces. We will examine their usage in conventional operations as well as non-conventional ones such as counterinsurgency and special operations.

IAFF 6186 Cybersecurity

This course will provide an overview of current issues in the realm of cybersecurity, focusing on cybersecurity strategy, threats, conflict and policy. We will begin with an understanding of the power inherent in cyberspace and consider the policy issues facing the civilian, military, intelligence and private business sectors in dealing with offensive and defensive cyber activity. Through the use of case studies, we will examine previous and ongoing cyber conflicts to understand their impacts on international relations. We will analyze the roles of several different types of actors in cybersecurity including state actors, non-state actors such as criminal and terror groups and private sector responses. This course will also examine the issue of cyber deterrence, and the unique aspects of offensive and defensive cyber activities by all cyber actors.

A technical background is not required and basic aspects of cyber operations will be discussed in the introductory class sessions.

IAFF 6186 U.S. National Security

This course examines the problems and issues confronting American national security policymakers using a combination of empirical information and conceptual analysis. The course content includes conceptual definitions of national security, policymaking processes and debates, national security institutions and organizations, relationships between foreign, economic and defense policy, and civil-military relations. The course presumes familiarity with American politics and U.S. history and encourages students to keep up on relevant world events by reading legitimate news sources. At the end of the semester, students should be able to critically engage, understand, articulate and explain ideas and arguments about the U.S. national security process and the complexity of American strategic interests and decision-making processes.

IAFF 6186 International Peacekeeping

This course analyzes contemporary international peace operations, including those conducted by the United Nations and regional organizations such as the African Union and European Union. It examines the political and organizational dynamics shaping these operations, as well as some of the major contemporary debates about them. Part 1 explores several fundamental questions about peace operations: What are they? What are they for? Who conducts them? How should they be evaluated? Part 2 then addresses the main policy debates shaping contemporary peace operations around the world. Topics covered include force generation, the role of regional security organizations and private security companies, gender issues, policing, use of force, civilian protection, organized crime and partnership peacekeeping. The course will enable students to critically assess these operations and to develop a realistic empathy for the constraints that confront decisionmakers in complex environments characterized by uncertainty and limited resources.

IAFF 6198 The Economics of U.S.-China Trade

The U.S. and China are the world’s two largest economies and have had a complex economic relationship for decades. While mutual dependence and competition have been defined this relationship since the late 1970s, new economic tensions, decoupling initiatives, and the pandemic have introduced even greater strains in recent years.

This course will provide students with an understanding of core issues underlying this consequential and dynamic relationship, focusing on developments within the Chinese economy that have affected bilateral trade, investment, and competitiveness conditions. Emphasis will be placed on developments that have unfolded in the past four decades, starting with the China’s 1978 economic reforms and concluding with contemporary trade tensions. This course will encourage students to craft original positions by applying their course learnings, knowledge of international trade, and research and writing skills to contemporary U.S.-China trade issues. It will also provide students the opportunity to critically evaluate the literature and policy positions, draft original policy briefings, and debate issues that are likely to impact future U.S.-China trade conditions.

Students must have taken ECON 6283 or have permission from the instructor.

IAFF 6198 Rising Market Powers and 21st Century Globalization

IAFF 6198 Macroeconomic Policies: A Case Study Approach

The course makes use of macroeconomic theory and international practice to analyze real world policy questions and country cases. We will develop a simple and flexible macroeconomic framework within which a number of policy issues will be examined, including: evaluating monetary, exchange rate, and fiscal policies in different economic contexts; identifying economic and financial vulnerabilities; analyzing policy spillovers between countries; and designing economic policies for countries in or near crisis. We will also consider the macroeconomic impact of the ongoing COVID crisis and its implications for macroeconomic policies going forward. Relevant country cases will be presented and discussed in class. Students will also make group presentations on country case studies.

IAFF 6208 Communication and Modern Diplomacy

This course examines the expanding public dimension of modern diplomacy. We will explore how diplomats and political leaders communicate in a world of rapid globalization, new diplomatic actors, complex policy issues, digital technologies, increased risk, and uncertain boundaries between foreign and domestic. During the semester, we will also discuss behind the scenes diplomacy of internal government foreign policy communications, meetings with foreign diplomats and leaders, and negotiations. This seminar is designed to serve the interdisciplinary interests of students in global communication, international relations, and media studies.

IAFF 6212 Strategy and Leadership

The MIPP Strategy and Leadership course focuses on major issues in international affairs confronting policymakers in the United States and around the world, and it explores the evolving nature of international leadership in the twenty-first century. We examine the diverse ways in which power is exercised on the international stage not only by large organizations such as nation states and transnational corporations, but also by “micro-powers” including activists, insurgents, and entrepreneurs who are shaking up the global order. Through discussions with academic and policy experts, the seminar intends to integrate insights from the participants’ other coursework as well as the participants’ own diverse experience and knowledge.

The course also explores lateral leadership – a leadership approach that is critical for managing expert, networked teams on complex problems that require adaptation and learning. That is, it is an emerging leadership style for the current century where power is diffused and global challenges are complex and transnational. Students will put into practice horizontal leadership by researching and designing a policy proposal, submitting class exercises, and presenting their final class project.

This course is the first section in a two-course MIPP leadership sequence. The second semester will focus on implementing the strategic leadership project that addresses a critical issue in a student’s professional field, using lateral leadership skills to build alliances and buy-in. Where the first semester emphasizes the fundamentals of theories of leadership and how to design leadership studies, the second semester emphasizes the skills needed to pursue and put into effect a full project proposal.

IAFF 6213 Leadership Capstone

IAFF 6222 Advanced Data Analytics

In this course, students will further their knowledge and understanding of how to use advanced statistical analyses to test theories and hypotheses in the field of international affairs. This course builds on basic linear regression models to include an introduction to various multivariate models that require added specifications and considerations. Such models include maximum likelihood models, logit and Probit models for binary dependent variables, event count models, survival models, and an introduction to time series.

By the end of the course, students will be able to adequately describe how and when to use these models, and produce a research paper that employs one of these models to test theories found in the study of international affairs.

IAFF 6222 International Security Politics

EHS 6227 Introduction to Human Health in Space

With the development of commercial space-capable manned launch systems, human access to outer space is becoming more broadly available for research, commercial and recreation purposes. As access expands, feasibility of new and proposed ventures should be assessed from the lens of human productivity (and survival). This course introduces aerospace medicine concepts relevant to human spaceflight, in the context of next generation human space exploration. We will discuss human physiology and the effects of the space environment on human health and performance, review current areas of research relevant to human performance in space, and explore the gaps between current capabilities and exploration mission systems requirements. No prior medical background is required. Taught by Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine Claudia Ranniger.

IAFF 6318 Current Issues in East Asia

This course will focus on several interlinked current major issues in East Asia, which due to their contingent nature are difficult to incorporate into regular curricular offerings. The course will examine how US policy towards four key players in the region, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China, has evolved during the past 20-some years, and how interactions with the other players is affecting these policies.

US policymakers responsible for these countries and diplomats from these countries will be invited as guest speaker to the class in order to elaborate on a current issue facing their respective bureaus. Students will then be asked to develop responses to these requests, and present approaches to resolve these issues through their papers and class presentations.

The course will examine the policy questions against the background of some of the overarching themes. These often don’t drive the debates on the issues of the day, but are important in the understanding of the background and the broader perspective. 1) Taiwan’s transition to democracy and its implications for today. 2) Japan’s rise as a responsible stakeholder, and its uneasy historical relations with some of its neighbors. 3) The tension between South Korea’s emergence as a regional power and its quest for unification. 4) China’s rise and its implications for the East Asia region as a whole.

IAFF 6338 Transatlantic Relations

This graduate seminar examines the origins of the transatlantic alliance and key institutions; the role of interests and values; the impact of political, economic and security changes since the end of the Cold War; and the prospects for cooperation on the global challenges the transatlantic community faces in the 21^st century. For decades after World War II, the alliance between Europe and North America was critical to global security, prosperity, and expanding democracy. With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the transatlantic agenda shifted to a broad range of global challenges from climate change to violent extremism. Since then, Russia’s annexation of Crimea, China's growing global influence, and electoral victories by populist leaders in the United States and Europe have renewed questions about the fate of the transatlantic alliance. This seminar will analyze challenges and opportunities for cooperation and prospects for the future from a policy perspective and develop skills to write persuasively to influence policy debates.

IAFF 6338 Ukraine and Georgia between Russia and the West

The annexation of Crimea and the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War has regional and global ramifications, as did the 2008 Russo-Georgian War. The course examines these conflicts and places them in the wider context of Russian-Western relations, relations between Russia and its neighbors, and the relations between the West and Ukraine and Georgia. The policies of the relevant parties are analyzed against the backdrop of processes and issues such as global and regional security orders, the continuing turmoil after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, NATO and EU enlargement, the “post-Soviet” countries’ aspirations to define their national identities and roles in a wider European security order, Russia’s changing foreign policy, energy security, and domestic politics (including issues such as democratization, corruption, and the rule of law). The course combines a historical perspective with application of International Relations theory on issues such as national security decision-making. The course focuses on the time period since the end of the Cold War and discusses future scenarios.

IAFF 6338 Central Asia: Regional Environment and Domestic Evolutions

This class offers an introduction to today’s Central Asia by looking at how the broader region—the five post-Soviet republics, Afghanistan, Mongolia, and Xinjiang—has been developing both domestically and on the international scene. While focusing mostly on the post-Soviet space, it will tackle the issue of the new Taliban regime in Afghanistan and the future of Uyghurs under Chinese domination. The class will explore the region’s status as a backyard of the new Russia-China condominium and the place left for the US in this configuration. Central Asia illustrates the rise of a post-U.S. unilateral order dominated by Beijing and Moscow but also featuring regional powers such as Turkey or the Emirates. The class will then turn to analyze both the challenges of economic development for low- to middle-income countries and the long-term environmental, water-related, and climate-related transformations. It will also discuss political (authoritarian mechanisms, regime changes and social contestations, and rise of populism and nationalism) and societal evolutions, especially in relation to Islam/Islamism.

IAFF 6338 Populism and Illiberalism in the Broader Europe and in the United States

This course introduces students to the rise of populist and illiberal movements in the broader Europe and the US. It comprehensively explores the multifaceted challenges faced by liberal democracies today, such as global democratic backsliding; the rise of authoritarian leaders; the electoral successes of far-right parties and movements; the emergence of illiberal governance and its political economy; the role of gender issues; and the central place of social media in spreading disinformation, hate speech, and conspiracy theories. Students will develop skills in reading and analyzing quantitative and qualitative research at the intersection of the social sciences and international affairs, and will enhance their ability to identify the structural changes that challenge democratic institutions.

IAFF 6358 Latin American Geopolitics and Geoeconomics

IAFF 6358 Human Rights Systems: Interamerican, UN & EU

This course will examine the origins, structure and functions of the United Nations human rights system and the main regional human rights systems (the Inter-American and the European systems). It will focus on their work in protecting and promoting human rights and their respective procedures, effectiveness, and challenges. Special attention will be given to the legal instruments and to analyzing how human rights standards and diplomatic practices have evolved and have been institutionalized in international relations. The course will also focus on the political conditions under which these systems developed and how they have led to a reinterpretation of the principles of sovereignty and non-intervention.

The objective of the course is to enable students to understand human rights systems and their different procedures and remedies. Students should be able to identify the legal instruments for each system and to analyze their application and their effectiveness in protecting human rights.

IAFF 6358 Economic Development in Latin America

This course will examine the economic development of Latin America, with special emphasis on why it displays some distinctive characteristics and a weaker economic performance in recent history. Starting with broad foundations of economic growth, the course will approach the growth contribution of the region’s natural resource base, factors underlying low productivity increases, macroeconomic instability, income inequality, and the shape of its economic integration with the rest of the world. The course then examines the regional sub-par macroeconomic performance in the aftermath of the global financial crisis and the end of the super-cycle of commodity prices. Finally, the course deals with the consequences of the evolving global economic order on Latin America’s development and policies appropriate to boost inclusive growth in the region. Besides understanding how Latin America fell behind other regions in terms of inclusive growth, the course wants to provide students with tools to approach those and other related issues.

IAFF 6378 Religion & Society in the Middle East

Religion intersects deeply with social and political life in the Middle East, but in ways that vary considerably over time and place. In this course we will consider the relationship between religion on the one hand and law, social life, political regimes, political participation, authority, and public and policy debates on the other. There will be a strong intra-regional comparative focus but also an attempt to draw comparisons with other regions.

IAFF 6378 Arabic for International Affairs

This course is designed to enable students of international affairs to pursue successful careers in the Foreign Service, government, private or international agencies, as well as in fields such as politics, economics, media, business and finance. The course is designed to help students develop their communicative abilities and expand knowledge about Arabic for international affairs, customs, traditions and ways of life, to the extent that they will be able to perform tasks that a native speaker carries out in formal and informal situations. This course is for students at the high-Intermediate level and focuses on conversation skills, speaking, listening, writing, reading comprehension, continued vocabulary acquisition and terminology related to international affairs.

IAFF 6378 Oil: Industry, Economy, Society

Petroleum is one of the largest and most controversial industries worldwide, and affects the fortunes of companies and nations. Many of the largest firms in the world are in petroleum. This course takes a multidisciplinary approach (primarily political economy and management) to oil and its effects on business, nation-states, and the world economy. The first half of the course adopts a top-down viewpoint, examining the global oil environment. The second half is more bottom-up, using cases to grapple with issues such as governance, transparency, and security. The course is conducted in a mixture of seminar and lecture formats. A group proposal, paper, and presentation, as well as active class participation are expected, and constitute over half the assessment.

IAFF 6385: Security in the Horn of Africa

This course examines the complex political and security landscape of the greater Horn of Africa, including Sudan and South Sudan, Somalia, and Ethiopia. It will explore crises but also opportunities. Students will assess the policy choices confronting African governments, regional organizations, and international actors as well as the role of civil society as countries face critical transitions and threats ranging from internal conflict to the COVID-19 pandemic.

IAFF 6502 Formal Briefing

This course explores the why, what, and how of creating and presenting information to an audience. It will start with why briefings are an important mode of expression, and why storytelling is the single most important consideration in conceptual design.

IAFF 6502 Public Speaking

IAFF 6502 Negotiation Skills

As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, communication across cultures becomes critical to understanding the globalized workplace. This course will examine practical approaches to understanding culture and effective communication strategies through scholarly work, discussion, interaction, and presentation.

This course helps students hone in those aspects of their negotiating style that stand in the way of maximizing their negotiation outcomes. It is based on classic Interest-Based negotiations theory with a focus on practical application and self-reflection. It is a highly interactive course composed almost entirely of a series of group exercises with varying degrees of complexity and then debriefing of those exercises. Presentation of materials will be minimal while the bulk of the work in class will be in applying the theories and principles that students have studied before coming to class. It is therefore not suited for blended or hybrid learning. In addition to the assigned book, we will be using proprietary materials from the Harvard Law School Program On Negotiations in class. Students will therefore need to pay $6 in class for these materials.

IAFF 6502 Principles of Financial Statement Analysis

IAFF 6502 Public Opinion/Sentiment Analysis

IAFF 6502 Writing for International Practitioners

Complex problems, rapidly changing conditions, and unexpected obstacles require national and international security decision-makers to respond in real-time. Their ability to make informed decisions depends on the timely delivery of clear and concise written products to inform and influence their thinking. Successful writers create a foundation for decision and action by efficiently providing context and logically presenting evidence. Effective policy writing anticipate a leader's needs and identify challenges, present options, and uncover opportunities. If you are considering a career in national and international security policy, this course will provide you with the tools to produce efficient and effective written communication. We will use short written assignments, exercises, and tailored feedback to hone the skills of accuracy, brevity, and clarity. Specific skills include the ability to start with your bottom line, explain complex information, assess confusing and conflicting sources, develop recommendations, and write with proper syntax and grammar.

IAFF 6502 Introduction to R

This course will help you familiarize yourself with the R programming language and RStudio integrated development environment (IDE). R is a free tool primarily used for statistical analysis. R is open source and benefits from several contributions (“packages” or “libraries”) made by independent researchers. Statistical analysis is critical for effective, evidence-based policy making, and R counts itself among the highly sought-after skills in the policy realm. In this class you will learn the fundamentals needed to create effective R scripts, run basic analyses, and troubleshoot (or debug) your code. You will also acquire the tools necessary to further develop your R skills to attain advanced-level programming knowledge.

IAFF 6502 Role of the Embassy in Foreign Policy

United States foreign policy abroad is conducted abroad through the U.S. diplomatic mission in a given country, usually an embassy headed by an ambassador and staffed with officials from a variety of U.S. Government agencies. This course is designed to familiarize students with the structure of the embassy, its authorities, and its activities in support of U.S. interests. They will develop their understanding through a role-playing model in which each student will assume the role of one member of the Embassy team with the instructor playing the role of the ambassador and the class dealing with hypothetical issues based on real events in the professor’s experience.

IAFF 6502 Research Design for International Affairs

IAFF 6502 Communicating Global Policy Issues

This course is designed to help students improve their communications, media and advocacy skills. Knowing how to convey compelling messages to targeted US audiences is key to strengthening America’s global leadership in the US and around the world. This hands-on communications, media and message training “PowerTalk” workshop will help students become more effective spokespeople and advocates with the media, policymakers, engaged public and other key stakeholders. Learn communications and media techniques, including: preparing a basic communications and advocacy strategy; developing and delivering effective messages; preparing for media interviews and briefings; anticipating and managing difficult questions and situations; using stories, visuals and facts for maximum effect; and avoiding common pitfalls. Students will also explore the basics of how to amplify their message via social media, strategic partnerships, influentials, and other best practices.

IAFF 6503 Alternative Analysis: Red Team

Members of both the 9/11 Commission and the WMD Commission expressed concerns that the U.S. intelligence community lacks imagination, does not "think outside the box," or challenge prevailing assumptions when analyzing threats to national security. Alternative analysis—often referred to as "red cell" or "red team”—uses various analytical methodologies to provide a more complete picture of issues than traditional analysis alone. Students will also be introduced to various methods or war gaming formats in which red teaming is applied. Students will be required to apply a variety of techniques used in red teaming and participate in a multi-sided war game.

IAFF 6503 Formal Briefing

IAFF 6503 Developing Effective Proposals

The course will provide students with the nuts and bolts of developing effective, winning proposals, including overview and management of the proposal development process, including project design and field assessments, analyzing a procurement opportunity, preparing a technical proposal and budget, developing a monitoring and evaluation plan, and planning project staffing. The course will explore ways to work in partnership with local organizations, stakeholders, and the project’s ultimate beneficiaries. Team work is an essential aspect of developing successful proposals. Practitioners will gain a better understanding of ways to create better development projects, anticipate challenges, work with a variety of stakeholders, and address challenges effectively.

IAFF 6503 Negotiation Skills

This course helps students hone in those aspects of their negotiating style that stand in the way of maximizing their negotiation outcomes. It is based on classic Interest-Based negotiations theory with a focus on practical application and self-reflection. It is a highly interactive course composed almost entirely of a series of group exercises with varying degrees of complexity and then debriefing of those exercises. Presentation of materials will be minimal while the bulk of the work in class will be in applying the theories and principles that students have studied before coming to class. It is therefore not suited for blended or hybrid learning. In addition to the assigned book, we will be using proprietary materials from the Harvard Law School Program On Negotiations in class. Students will therefore need to pay $6 in class for these materials.

IAFF 6503 Writing for International Policymakers

This course will involve short written assignments, as well as presentations and discussion, aimed at developing the writing and analytic skills necessary to support, inform, and influence policymakers. The emphasis will be on clear, concise and persuasive analytic writing. Students will write policy memos, press statements, talking points, prepared Qs & As, a Radio Address, and an Op-Ed.

IAFF 6503 Structured Analytic Techniques

IAFF 6504 Intermediate Proficiency in French Language

A short, intensive 1-credit course designed to develop professional French language skills for international affairs students.

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency - Russian

A short, intensive 1-credit course designed to develop professional Russian language skills for international affairs students.

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency - Arabic

A short, intensive 1-credit course designed to develop professional Arabic language skills for international affairs students.

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency - Spanish

A short, intensive 1-credit course designed to develop professional Spanish language skills for international affairs students.

IAFF 6504 Int Proficiency - Chinese

A short, intensive 1-credit course designed to develop professional Chinese language skills for international affairs students.