Graduate Course Descriptions

IAFF 6101 International Affairs Cornerstone
The International Affairs Cornerstone is required for all incoming students in the Elliott School's International Affairs graduate program. It's two, inter-related parts introduce students to ways of thinking about international affairs, apply these different perspectives to concrete policy areas, and strives to provide a greater appreciation of the range of issues future practitioners in international affairs will grapple with in the 21st century.

IAFF 6102 Global Gender Policy
This seminar provides an analytical review of policies and programs aimed at improving the lives and status of women and girls in four general areas: health, education, rights, and security. The focus is on developing countries, especially fragile states and post-conflict countries. Specific issues explored include access to health-promoting resources such as food and clean water, providing for girls' education in post-conflict situations, the feasibility of conditional cash transfers in fragile states and humanitarian crises, cell phones for women's empowerment and protection, strengthening women's political participation, gender justice, and preventing gender-based violence. Two cross-cutting issues are how international aid (at the global level) and gender capital (at the local level) can be better mobilized to improve the lives of women and girls.

IAFF 6118 Special Topics in International Affairs

Africa in World Politics / Politics of East Africa and the Horn
The objectives of this course are, first, to enable students to understand the fundamental contours of politics in the countries of East Africa and the Horn; and second, to discern what is distinctive about the basic fabric of politics in each country and what each shares in this regard with other countries in the region, with sub-Saharan Africa as a whole, and more generally with the countries of the Global South. The third objective is to deepen students' awareness of a range of critically important, theoretically significant, policy issues, common to the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, as they have manifested themselves in East Africa and the Horn. These include, but are not limited to, the challenges of
1) weak or failing states,
2) advancement of democratization and human rights,
3) socioeconomic development with equity,
4) mediation of ethnic conflicts that are both cause and effect of state weakness and skewed or weak development, and
5) effective engagement with a rapidly changing international political and economic order on each of these challenges.

International Organizations and International Norms
This course is designed to provide students with a clear understanding and appreciation for the normative role of international organizations in establishing international law and a rule-based global system for the conduct of international relations. It examines the historical, institutions, and functional/programmatic development and evolution of contemporary international organizations (IOs) and selected regional organizations (ROs). The course will examine the principles, organizational characteristics, functions, constraints, activities and central role of the United Nations system, as well as the role of other selected IOs and ROs in the global political and security architecture; and will highlight some of the institutional, structural, and operational issues which have a bearing on their level of effectiveness. Throughout the course, United States interest in advancing the norm-setting roles and agendas of IOs will be highlighted.

Pakistan and the Radical Islamic Threat
This course takes an in-depth look at contemporary Pakistan and how it came to be that way, with particular emphasis on the rise of radical Islam and the potential threat this poses to U.S. interests. In explicating Pakistan we will concentrate on three key factors: its obsession with India, the feudal nature of the political system, and the overarching role of the Army. These factors explain both why Pakistan has never become a truly functioning democracy and why political Islam had never caught on as a mass movement, despite the recent rise of radical Islam. That rise can itself be explained in terms of the same dynamic, through a feudal-Army consensus to use the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistani-based jihadists in Kashmir in their zero sum competition with India. The course will draw on contemporary events and personal experience of the instructor.

Reinventing the United Nations
In light of the failures of the United Nations in the management of global affairs, the purpose of this course is to explore what must be done to develop the next generation of international institutions, capable of addressing the global problems of the future. In answering this question, this course will investigate the scope of collective international action, rate the functionality of existing institutions and propose changes and processes that might make the international system more effective.

Research Methods in Global Gender Issues
This course uses a gendered perspective to examine research pertaining to global development. Students will critically consider the best research approaches for different circumstances and will conduct analyses with existing data sets and relevant methods of data collection. 

Rising China & Africa
This course looks at the totality of the China-Africa relationship both historically and looking to the future. There is a special emphasis on the security interests of China in Africa's 54 countries. The course includes both North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. The key text is China and Africa: A Century of Engagement by David H. Shinn and Joshua Eisenman (U Penn Pr, 2012). There are supplemental readings. Each student is asked to write a research paper on an approved topic and make a five to ten minute oral presentation on one of the seminar class topics beginning with the third week.

Women, War and Peace

This course thematically examines gendered aspects of the peace-conflict-peace continuum, with a critical examination of approaches to international peace and security adopted at international levels. Focuses on how the conceptual lens of gender, gender relations and gender equality is critical to understanding the dynamics of war and promoting peace-building and post-war recovery. Covers issues such as: masculinities, femininities and militarization; global laws, policies and normative approaches to international security such as the UN Security Council women, peace and security resolutions; gender issues related to combatancy and demobilization of armed actors; wartime gender-based violence; the post-war context and transitional justice. It will focus on a number of case study contexts globally and will draw on feminist and gender theory while also examining policy and practice approaches to addressing the gendered aspects of war and peace.  Active participation of students in discussion-based classes is expected.

IAFF 6119 International Affairs Capstone

During their last semester, students apply the analytical frameworks, and professional writing, research, and leadership skills acquired during their M.A. International Affairs curriculum in a one-credit capstone course analyzing a contemporary policy issue.

IAFF 6501 Quantitative Analysis for International Affairs Practitioners
This course is designed to further the understanding of the assumptions that underlie quantitative analysis, to disentangle proper and improper uses of statistical evidence, and to ask intelligent questions about the validity of quantitative measurement and statistical methods. The student will become competent in using SPSS to manipulate data sets, graphically represent data and analyses and perform statistical computations such as probability calculations, comparing samples to populations and sample distributions to other sample distributions (use of z-scores and t-tests). Multiple linear regression will also be covered. This course assumes a minimal mathematical background, but will involve little difficult math, despite fairly abstract material.

 

IAFF 6118 International Development Policy

IAFF 6121 Cornerstone Seminar in International Development
A critical examination of various theories and approaches to the study of development, from both historical and contemporary perspectives. The focus is multidisciplinary. Open only to first-year students in the IDS program.

IAFF 6138 Special Topics in International Development Studies

Care of Children in Complex Emergencies
This course is designed to give students, as future policy and field practitioners, a broad understanding of the history of humanitarian assistance provision, as well as, an overview of the critical needs and challenges of serving children in complex emergencies. In exploring these needs and challenges, emphasis will be placed on understanding the nuances of care that accompany a comprehensive humanitarian response from a child rights perspective.

Civil Society and Development
Since the end of the Cold War, academics, international development practitioners and national policymakers have expended a great amount of energy and resources studying and promulgating the idea and practice of civil society. The Enlightenment gave civic organizing a place alongside government in early discussions of democracy and inalienable rights. The end of the Cold War and increased prevalence of international terrorism has ensured that the concept of democracy promotion and support of civil society organizations and activities remains high on both the international development and national security agendas.

Climate Change and Community Development
Among the many developmental and environmental challenges humankind faces, climate change is the most complex. But humankind also faces the challenges of biodiversity loss, of ensuring clean water and adequate sanitation for all, and reducing the health impacts of environmental degradation; for they deepen vulnerabilities and erode development gains made. Ministers and ministries of economic development and of environment in both developed and developing countries cannot address these challenges alone. They need the collaboration of their counterparts in finance, energy, agriculture, transport, and industry, but also the private sector, trade unions, NGOs, and citizens at large. In addition, they need the support of the international community and its institutions. This course will address these challenges and identify and weigh the policies, programs and projects that are being explored today to actively pursue and practice a sustainable development path.

Democracy and Governance Development
This course will provide an overview by examining trends and developing methods and analytical tools suitable for comparative policy research into democratic governance; the relationship between economic and political development; the underlying power sharing institutions most conducive to strengthening processes of democratization; modernization theories of political culture and issues of gender equality, the role of civil society and theories of social capital, questions of ethnic conflict and cooperation. We will conclude by drawing core lessons of good governance for the policy community and answering the following questions: How can democratic governance deliver more effectively? What are the links between democratic governance and human development? Will the spread of democracy gradually contribute towards the welfare of the poor and thus alleviating many of the basic problems highlighted by the Millennium development Goals? To address these issues, this class will present case-studies of practical governance which have been tried and tested in developing countries, in addition to a deeper look into building the Iraqi and Afghan constitutions.

Development in Africa
There have been significant successes since the mid-90s in sub-Saharan Africa in terms of sustained increases in economic growth, better economic management, reduced conflict, expanded political liberalization, and better governance. The growth performance has been reasonably broad based: both resource rich and resource poor countries, accounting for about sixty five percent of the population, have experienced economic growth of 3-to-5-percent per year, posing the question of whether Africa has finally turned the corner. But still, a large part of the population remains extremely poor, caught in a set of "traps", including civil war, a dependence on exports of natural resources, and bad governance. Although efforts to control HIV-AIDS and Malaria have been hiked up significantly, both diseases remain formidable challenges. This course will examine the recent growth performance in some detail, and the challenges to keeping the growth going. It will also examine the reasons for continued stagnation in many parts of Africa, and discuss possible innovative international solutions to their problems. It will also discuss the latest developments in the control of HIV-AIDS, and in foreign aid, international trade, debt relief and international peace keeping. The course will close with a discussion of future prospects.

Development Paradigms in Latin America
This course will examine national and international development policies and actions geared towards promoting sustainable development and reducing poverty. It will also analyze the ongoing disconnect and social, cultural and political divergence among the key actors and stakeholders of Latin American society, and the low level of public trust by citizens for policymakers and public institutions.

Gender and Development
A pragmatic course, focusing on useful frameworks for considering gender, the tools of gender analysis and the experiences of professionals working with gender and development in government agencies (USAID, Millennium Challenge Corporation), multilaterals (World Bank),non-governmental organizations (International Center for Research on Women), foundations (Gates) and for-profits (Chemonics). The class will be run as a participatory seminar, with discussion, visiting experts, interactive exercises and close interaction of professor and students.

Gender, Disaster & Policy
Disasters have high costs that affect different parts of populations. This course will investigate how gender intersects with other constructs of identity within planning, response, and recovery. By taking this course, a student will become familiar with relevant studies from a range of sources and disciplines. More generally, a student will become prepared to critically conduct research and analysis of conditions and data important to global disaster policy and planning. The class will concentrate on events during the past decade across the Americas. However, students may bring to the discussion and within their papers an examination of crises from any time period and global region.

Gender, Tourism, and Development
This class examines tourism’s effects on gender roles and relations within communities and across nations. Even where tourism has been encouraged as a part of economic development and empowerment efforts, it can lead to other changes to the people and communities valued as “attractions,” and to those who are tourists. With particular focus on gender within tourism activities, students in this course will critically examine and consider methods to evaluate various types of tourism, recommend improvements, and propose new forms.

Global Food Security
Today, more than one billion people - nearly one-sixth of the world's population - suffer from chronic hunger. This crisis has devastating and far-reaching effects. Thiscourse will examine how the many actors (both developing and developed countries) will meet the challenge of providing the world's growing population with a sustainable and secure supply of safe, nutritious and affordable quality food. The course will look at the institutions charged with this responsibility including the U.S. Feed the Future Initiative; policy environments; the role of trade and investment; agricultural research and education; sustainable food systems and the environment; food security safety nets; rising global food prices; and more. The class is both highly participatory and interactive.

Human Trafficking
This course will examine the global problem of trafficking in persons, which affects individuals, communities, and countries. Trafficking in persons is a complex human rights violation and international criminal activity that affects countries of origin, transit and/or destination. Factors such as structural vulnerabilities, poverty, the lack of economic opportunities, globalization, weak national laws and policies, corruption, and discrimination — among others — create conditions that allow traffickers to take advantage of individuals and keep them in forced labor situations and commercial sexual exploitation. The course will offer a survey of the trafficking situation in significant countries as a vehicle to examine international trafficking patterns and the impact of national policies on crucial concepts of victim protection, law enforcement and prevention.

Indigenous People and Development
The course examines the complexities of the interaction between indigenous peoples and development in the world today. In doing so, it problematizes both the concept of indigenous peoples and development in order to push students to rethink their interrelationship. In addition to re-examining the definitions of indigenous peoples and development, the course explores the development of policies undertaken by the international community towards indigenous peoples and the growth of transnational indigenous political organizations. Finally, through the examination of several case studies, it provides a critical assessment of how indigenous peoples and international development organizations have interacted in recent history. Through discussions of the case studies, students should begin to formulate their own ideas about how international development efforts can best benefit indigenous peoples.

Local Government, Decentralization, and Development
Is all development local? What constrains delivery of pro-poor services in places with such evident need?  This course critically examines efforts to decentralize government structures in developing countries.  When and how does bringing government "closer to the people" result in improved outcomes? How does practice differ from theory?  How are citizen needs and preferences addressed in different governmental systems, in places with different histories? Transparency, accountability and citizen voice are easy concepts to grasp, but why  has it proven so difficult to advance these policymaking characteristics?  In addition to readings and class discussion students will, in small teams, analyze a particular country situation and develop a strategy for decentralizing or decentralizing a particular service or function, such as health or education. 

Monitoring and Evaluation for Foreign Assistance Programs 
This course will explore basic concepts and theory behind monitoring and evaluation and tools/techniques used for measuring t assistance programs. Throughout the course, we will explore various thematic questions: How can change be measured in complex systems? How should indicators of change be selected? How can evaluators strike a balance between learning and accountability? Are randomized control trials the ‘gold standard’ of foreign assistance evaluation? Can causality be isolated? How can evaluation findings be used?

Violence, Gender and Humanitarian Assistance
The objective of the course is to engage students in developing a practical understanding of the issues, challenges, policies, and interventions around one of the most difficult protection issues in humanitarian emergencies. Gender-based violence (GBV), a multi-sectoral and inter-organizational problem with no easy solutions, straddles the blurry line between "humanitarian aid" and "development".

Youth and Development
The goal of this multi-sectoral course is to provide students with adequate knowledge and tools for understanding and considering the policy and programmatic implications of the intersections between youth and development outcomes. Students will examine the positive youth development approach and different domains of youth transition, as well as explore the various challenges and opportunities youth face with respect to education, economic security, living free from violence or conflict, health and well-being. Students will also look at trends in civic and political engagement, the gender-youth nexus, and technology and innovation. Finally Students will also discuss monitoring and evaluation of youth and development programming, and be exposed to analytical tools currently being utilized in youth policy and program planning; including for example the Development Assets Profile and USAID's cross-sectoral youth Assessment guide.

IAFF 6139 International Development Studies Capstone
The Capstone Project provides an opportunity for second-year students in the International Development Studies Program to undertake field-based research related to a specific problem faced by a development organization. During the Fall, each IDS student team prepared a Terms of Reference for their work with a chosen client organization. During the Spring, each team will prepare for and undertaken field research, typically scheduled for two weeks in March, and then write a final report summarizing their results and recommendations to the client.

 

IAFF 6141 Science, Technology, and International Affairs Cornerstone
This course provides a comprehensive overview of the policy issues related to the support, use, management, and regulation of science and technology. It addresses U.S. domestic as well as international issues, is concerned with governmental policies as well as non-governmental, and it is focused on both the economics and politics of science and technology issues.
*Formerly titled: "Science, Technology, and Public Policy"

IAFF 6142 Technology: Creation and Diffusion
The purpose of this course is to examine the factors that underlie the creation of new technologies and their diffusion throughout the economy. The discussion will cover issues of interest to new technology producers and/or users in the private business sector, universities and government. Although the main focus will be the prevailing environment in developed market economies, developing countries will be dealt with to some extent. We will examine in some depth important recent global developments in technology creation and dissemination and their historical overlaps. And, of course, we will address the implications for policy.

IAFF 6145 U.S. Space Policy
This course is an examination of the origins, evolution, current status, and future prospects of U.S. space policies and programs. It will cover the U.S. government's civilian, military, and national security space programs and the space activities of th U.S. private sector, and the interactions among these four sectors of U.S. space activity. This examination will be cast in the context of the space activities of other countries, and of international cooperation and competition in space. The goal of the course is to give the student an expos re to the policy debates and decisions that have shaped U.S. efforts in space to date, and to the policy issues that must be addressed in order to determine the future goals, content, pace, and organization of U.S. space activities, both public and private.

IAFF 6146 Space Law
Space activities, by the nature of their unique characteristics, operate in an international and global environment. Nearly 50 years have elapsed since beginning of human activity in space. A body of law has evolved that deals with space activity. The foundations of these international legal principles are found in five treaties developed within the framework of the United Nations during the late 1960s. They reflect the governmental nature of space programs of that era. Many nations participating in space activities also have domestic laws that regulate and administer the activities of their citizens who now participate in the growing commercial environment of space.

IAFF 6148 Special Topics in Space Policy

Issues in U.S. Space Policy
This course will address international space policy issues facing the United States and places them in the larger context of technological advances and a changing international strategic environment. The course will address current 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 continued dependence on U.S., European, and Russian space capabilities, developing indigenous space programs, and reliance on commercial space capabilities.

Space and National Security
As shown by military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo, space capabilities have become increasingly important to the U.S. military in recent years. The many broad interrelationships between space and national security have also been under careful examination both domestically and internationally. The 2001 Space Commission Report, for example, found that because U.S. military and economic security has become so dependent on undefended space assets, the nation could face a "space Pearl Harbor." Others argue that the United States should act to establish space control, defined as U.S. ability to access and use space in its interests and to deny such access to U.S. adversaries. In addition, there is a growing debate over the wisdom and feasibility of stationing force application systems — "space weapons" — in orbit. The course uses seminars, short writing assignments, and a focused research paper to examine these and other issues associated with U.S. strategy, policy, and organization for the national security uses of space.

IAFF 6151 International Environmental Policy
This seminar course examines environmental policy and politics from an international perspective, with a particular emphasis on the role of science and technology in policy.  The course will introduce students to the fundamentals of international environmental policymaking processes, such as key policy paradigms, actors, and institutions; familiarize students with critical issue areas including climate change, ozone depletion, international resource conservation, and others; and examine environmental policymaking as it relates to other key international goals like development,e.g. through the Millennium Development Goals.

IAFF 6153 Science, Technology and National Security
This course will examine the effect of globalization and international economic integration on defense industries. It will review the links between national economies, military power and security; consider how globalization affects these links; assess differing national policies for technology and innovation, and consider the relationship between economic and military strength. The course will include discussion of technology transfer, licit and illicit, and the changing nature of defense industries and military power. The context for the class will be competition and the pursuit of strategic advantage among nations.

IAFF 6158 Special Topics in International Science & Technology Policy

Case Studies in Space Science
In this class, students will learn the basic steps of the programmatic process for the life cycle of a NASA mission, including formulation, approval, and implementation, as well as, understanding how this process is tied to the Congressional budget process. We will explore the four key tools used in program and project management: cost, schedule, performance, and risk. Case studies will be used to give students a working familiarity with the techniques of program and project management. As future policy-setters, program managers and senior executives, students will be able to understand the fundamentals of program management and the impact of management, policies and politics can have on successfully completing a space mission.

Cyber Security
"Cybersecurity is emerging as a major new policy area, bringing together security and technology concerns. This course provides an introduction to major debates over cybersecurity, concentrating on the policy rather than the technical aspects. It examines for example, the roles of states and private actors in defending against incursions, the arguments for or against formal international regulation of cybersecurity issues, and the trade-offs between offensive and defensive stances on cybersecurity."

Geospatial Law and Policy
The aim of this course is to familiarize students with legal and policy issues associated with the collection, use, and sharing of spatial and location data. This course will evaluate the societal and economic benefits of spatial and location technology against the potential risks to privacy and national security. Students will be given the tools to understand and evaluate the ability of various legal and policy regimes and institutions to impact emerging technologies.

International Issues in Energy
This course focuses on the international dimensions of energy policy making and implementation. It is structured around the three sets of issues: technological innovation, national security, and environmental protection. Throughout the course, and integrating theme is the role played by science and technology.

Security, Privacy, and Technology: The Current Policy Agenda
Many of the key policy debates surrounding the application of technology seek to strike a balance between privacy and security. In such diverse areas as the proposed collection and analysis by government of databases (the CAPPS II initiative and moribund Total Information Awareness Initiative), new tools for law enforcement authorities (data traffic preservation), the creation of effective and privacy-preserving voting machines and new technologies such as Google's Gmail service, there are continuing controversies over the extent to which individuals should have privacy, and the extent to which their information may be used for commercial or law enforcement purposes. In this seminar class, we will discuss these issues, beginning with a broad overview of the general issues, and moving onto specific examination of how this debate is playing out in different policy areas.

Science and Technology and Development
In this course, we will review a selection of the most influential theories of international development that grew out of the latter half of the twentieth century. These include theories ranging from modernization and dependency theories to world systems theory. In parallel, we will explore the role of technology in development, juxtaposing theories of international development with the challenges facing policy makers, development practitioners and other stakeholders.

Science, Technology and Complexity
This is a course about how the sciences of complexity and associated bodies of theory and practice (especially evolutionary economics) have influenced thinking about and acting on matters of scientific and technological advancement and change. Fifty years ago, our technologies, organizations, and our lives were less complex than today. Things were simpler, and this simplicity became embedded in most of the institutions and processes of most Western industrial societies. This simplicity was especially important for institutions and processes related to science and technology, including technological innovation. This course examines how the sciences of complexity and related bodies of thought have begun to create a radical rethinking of those innovation-related scientific and technological institutions and processes.

IAFF 6159 ISTP Capstone: Multidisciplinary Seminar in Science, Technology, and Global Affairs
This is the capstone course for majors in the M.A. Degree in Science, Technology, and Public Policy. It integrates previous coursework in a flexible format combining the writing of focused policy papers, role playing, simulations, and other relevant exercises and experiences. In addition, the course features a final exam that has the objective of allowing each student to synthesize the literature in the field. Drawing upon the writings of both practitioners and theorists in the U.S. and abroad, the course focuses on ways to redesign U.S. science and technology institutions and organizations, so that they are more interconnected and capable of engaging in more effective knowledge creation, diffusion, and utilization.

IAFF 6505 Elliott School Seminar: NASA Program Management
Today's space science missions are becoming larger and more complicated and now include ambitious missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope and the Mars Science Laboratory. What tools do Program and Project Managers use and how does space policy impact their flexibility? How can a Program or Project Manager influence community expectations and external communications and how does this affect the success of space missions? In this class, students will learn the basic steps of the programmatic process for the life cycle of a NASA mission, including formulation, approval, and implementation, as well as understanding how this process is tied to the Congressional budget process. We will explore the four key tools used in program and project management: cost, schedule, performance, and risk. What leadership skills are required for advocating programs, working across organizational boundaries, obtaining Congressional approval, and resolving conflict? Case studies will be used to give students a working familiarity with the techniques of program and project management. As future policy-setters, program managers and senior executives, students will be able to understanding the fundamentals of program management and the impact management, policies and politics may have on successfully completing a space mission.

 

IAFF 6160 Defense Policy/Program Analysis
One of three required core courses for the Security Policy Studies program. The course provides a very practical view of defense analysis: it stresses analysis as it is actually used in the national security community to help shape policy. The course will give students a firm foundation of defense affairs and issues; critical thinking about them; discrimination regarding analyses of them; and the skills to evaluate and sometimes employ the tools of analysis to help resolve them. Most of the major points of the course are illustrated by case studies of analysis as used in the Pentagon, for Congress, or in the operating forces deployed around the world. Where possible, combat data and its analysis are included. The state of analysis and of modeling of military processes will be covered. Topical issues will also be explored.

IAFF 6163 Transnational Security 
This seminar investigates the many transnational security issues found in the contemporary international system, particularly with respect to the dynamics of globalization. Seminar participants focus on transnational security issues from a wide range of levels of analysis, such as the international system, regions, nation states, sub-groups, other organizational actors, and individuals, as well as in-class exercises. Students examine aspects of convergence and divergence and consider the sources and causes of transnational security issues, the factors that influence them, and what can and should be done to address them. The seminar tends toward a practical approach to transnational security issues, with strong emphasis on terrorism, insurgency, weapons of mass destruction (WMD), organized crime, human security, and related issues.

IAFF 6165 Fundamentals of Intelligence
This graduate-level seminar will focus on the craft of U.S. Intelligence and its role in national security policy. It will examine the changing organizational structure of the Intelligence Community, including its homeland security component; the Intelligence production cycle, including tasking, collection, analysis, covert action, and counterintelligence; and relations between the Intelligence and Policy communities. Successes and failures will be examined using several case studies and class exercises. The seminar will then focus on new missions and agendas fostered by the changing nature of the post-9/11 threat environment, proposals on how best to pursue them, and performance thus far. It will conclude by assessing the extent of executive, legislative, and judicial oversight of the Intelligence Community and the compatibility of secrecy and democracy and other ethical questions, and will also assess selected foreign intelligence agencies. Upon completion of the course, students should have a better understanding of Intelligence as a craft and as a policy input and output; gain new insights into the dynamics of key historical and contemporary issues and the role of Intelligence in shaping them; and improve their analytical and writing skills.

IAFF 6169 Homeland Security
The mission of the course is to develop a better understanding of the present and future direction of securing a nation from many threats. It will undertake a comprehensive investigation of the structure, content and imperatives associated with: preventing terrorist attacks; reducing vulnerability to terrorism and calamities; as well as minimizing damage and recovering from attacks and calamities that do occur. Major factors, including state and non-state actors as well as forces that shape the homeland security process such as economics, politics, laws, sovereignty, suzerainty and technology, will be discussed.

IAFF 6171 Introduction to Conflict Resolution
This course provides students with an introduction to the field of conflict analysis and resolution. It is intended to provide a solid foundation for further inquiry and application. The course will introduce students to the major concepts and issues currently animating the field, explore the main strategies for responding to conflicts, and help them recognize the assumptions upon which these strategies rest. This is not primarily a "how-to" course nor does it delve extensively into the fields of community and neighbor mediation. Instead, this course considers the "upper end" of the conflict spectrum, focusing on inter-state disputes, contemporary civil wars, complex political emergencies and other forms of violent conflict. 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 have some understanding of current thinking about 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, research and case study review of real events.

IAFF 6173 Security and Development
This course aims to consider the relationship between security and development over a number of issue areas. It reflects the fact that there is growing interest from the security field in issues that have traditionally been the purview of development, and vice versa.

IAFF 6175 Nuclear Weapons
This course is designed to provide students with a basic orientation to the technology and politics associated with nuclear weapons. It begins with a discussion of the ways in which nuclear weapons are argued to be unique game-changers technologically and politically. The underlying technologies of the nuclear fuel cycle, production and accounting of nuclear weapons-usable fissile material, and the life cycle of nuclear weapons are discussed. Nuclear strategy and deterrence are discussed, 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, and counter-proliferation are compared and contextualized in the broader effort to control and reduce nuclear weapons through diplomacy and the means of verifying arms control and reduction agreements. Efforts to defend against and mitigate the effects of a nuclear attack are considered. Finally, we consider the prospects for current efforts to move toward a world free of nuclear weapons.

IAFF 6186 Special Topics in Security Policy Studies

Biological Weapons
The national and international security implications of biological weapons are addressed. The history of biological weapons both from a state and non-state actor perspective is examined, as well as, the impact of the biotechnology revolution on the bio-threat. The effectiveness of international arms control, nonproliferation, and regulatory efforts are assessed along with U.S. domestic preparedness programs to detect and respond to a BW attack.

The Chinese Military
This course examines the history, missions, strategy, organization, doctrine, and capabilities of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA). Additionally, the course will explore the domestic, regional, and global influences on the PLA, and how China's military modernization program is assessed by other states.

Conflict Prevention and Early Warning
This course explores two major areas that precede the outbreak of armed conflict: early warning signals and the ability to prevent a conflict from crossing the violence threshold. On the early warning side, the course focuses on the evaluation and assessment of conflict situations and their likelihood of escalating into a new phase of violence. Early warning models will be discussed in class to facilitate our theoretical understanding of how to improve our ability to predict the outbreak of political violence. The class will also analyze important concepts such as the conflict phases, structural indicators, accelerators, and conflict triggers. After identifying potential indicators of armed conflict, the course explores theories and practical examples of what could be done to prevent conflicts from becoming deadly. In particular, we will discuss which conflict prevention tools seem to work and under what circumstances (e.g. negotiation, mediation, and other forms of third party intervention); and to what extent these efforts have been successful in containing, managing, or preventing conflict escalation. In particular, the roles played by international, regional, government, and non-governmental organizations will be examined.

Counterintelligence
Counterintelligence is broadly concerned with denying information to those who seek it through illegal means. CI includes aggressive activities to thwart all forms of collection targeted to acquire the information as well as policies and programs to ensure the trust in those who have the responsibility to protect it. This seminar explores the varied disciplines of counterintelligence including counterespionage, operational security, and deception; it will also address related areas of personnel, information and facilities protection. Students will develop familiarity with both foreign intelligence organizations and the US CI Community. The seminar combines lectures, discussion, practical exercises and simulations as well as student research and presentations. Drawing both on historical cases and on the most contemporary challenges of espionage and terrorism, seminar participants will navigate through a world where "all is not as it seems" and grapple with the thorny challenges of securing ourselves against hostile collection while maintaining the principles of the open society we seek to defend.

Covert Action and National Security
Covert action describes an operation designed to influence governments, events, organizations, conditions, attitudes or behavior in another state or territory in ways that cannot necessarily be attributed to the sponsor. It is a specialized instrument for implementing foreign policy. Covert action is sometimes confused with clandestine intelligence collection, or espionage. Covert action may employ similar methods, but its function of policy implementation is distinctly different from the function of gathering information. Variations on covert action are often employed in wartime.

Energy Security
Energy plays an important role in shaping economic and societal development, as well as political and commercial relationships. How countries manage the economic, political, commercial, social, technological and environmental impacts of energy production and use, and engage with one another toward the cooperative or competitive management of these issues, has significant geopolitical and geostrategic implications. The coming decades are expected to exhibit greatercomplexity in terms of policy choices and implications, increased competition, technological innovation and marked changes in efficiency improvements and fuel choices. For a variety of reasons the current patterns of energy production, transportation and use look increasing unsustainable. Recognizing this trend, most countries seek to transition to a more secure and stable energy trajectory. This transformation is already under way, and managing the transition may be society's greatest challengeover the coming decades. This course will provide an overview of the emerging geopolitical trends as they relate to various fuels, technologies, and regions.

Environmental Security
Scholars and analysts have long used the concept of international security to describe the motivations for interactions between states. In a post-Cold War era characterized by globalization, international security has been increasingly applied to interactions between humans and their environment. This application has both expanded and changed conventional understandings.

Implementing Peace Agreements
After a civil war, the over-arching goal of a peace agreement is to plant the seeds for durable peace. However, in nearly half of all cases, the peace agreement unravels and the country returns to war. This grim statistic reflects the fact that the period following a peace agreement is notoriously fragile and poses many challenges for the post-conflict state. After a civil war, governments must contend with signatories to agreements who are unable or unwilling to fulfill promises; new interest groups that appear and press new demands on the government; and the need to rebuild economic, political, and social networks.

Intelligence (Advanced Seminar)
This course will examine successes and failures in intelligence, organizational & operations practices of U.S. and foreign intelligence, using a case study approach. The objective of the course is to apply these "lessons learned" to the challenges facing the US Intelligence Community today. The case studies will include Pearl Harbor, 9/11, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Yom Kippur War, WMD, other proliferation issues, and Cold War Counterintelligence.
**Students are expected to have completed previous coursework on intelligence (such as "Fundamentals of Intelligence") or relevant experience. Please consult the professor if you have any questions about this prerequisite.

Intelligence in the Middle East
This course will provide students with an understanding of intelligence activities in the Middle East. Specifically, the course will focus on the different intelligence services in the region, including Israel, Jordan, Syria, Hezbollah, Palestinian Authority/Hamas, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Additionally, we will examine the activities of foreign intelligence services in peacemaking efforts in the Middle East and discuss the primary intelligence issues in the region including nonproliferation and counterterrorism

International Organized Crime
International Organized Crime (IOC) 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. IOC is an area of expanding interest by many research communities, making its proper study multi-disciplinary — crossing over the intellectual theories and practices of international affairs, sociology, geography, regional and cultural studies, anthropology, law, history and politics. IOC is a phenomenon as old as pirates and thieves. However, it has functioned largely as a footnote or an anecdotal account throughout most of history because of the clandestine nature of the social behavior associated with its activities and the violence associated with those who told too much about illicit activities. The survival and expansion of the activities grouped together under IOC is based on both of these ingredients, along with personal greed, resistant politics and informal social networks. The course will be organized by key themes that intersect many viewpoints of the issues and regions concerned with IOC. Each member of the seminar will be required to read, write, brief and engage in an open dialog around the many issues we will cover in our short time together. Participants will help create a learning environment in which they will explore and examine how IOC relates to global politics in a rapidly changing social environment.

International Peacekeeping
This course surveys the political debates surrounding contemporary international peace operations. The role that foreign military deployments can play in implementing peace agreements and protecting human rights in cases of genocide and ethnic cleansing has been hotly disputed. This course will introduce students to the crucial political and organizational dynamics as well as some of the major contemporary debates concerning international peace operations with a focus on the post-Cold War era. It will thereby enable students to critically assess the strengths and limitations of contemporary peace operations. Part 1 explores several fundamental questions about peace operations: What are they? What are they for? Who conducts them? How should we evaluate them? Part 2 then addresses some of the principal ongoing debates that are shaping contemporary peace operations around the world. The topics covered include the role of regional security organizations and private security companies, gender issues, policing, and civilian protection. The course will also encourage students to develop a realistic empathy for the constraints that confront decision-makers in complex environments characterized by uncertainty and limited resources. This will be achieved through several methods including detailed study of ongoing missions as well as a role play exercise. The learning and teaching objectives of the course are thus subject specific and general. The latter include the development of oral and written skills through class discussion and written assignments.

Methods of Defense Analysis
Course will cover methodologies for quantitative defense policy analysis. Major developments in aggregate and disaggregate combat modeling; selection of appropriate metrics, models, and scenarios; emphasis on research design, problem- formulation, and their importance for analytical findings. The focus throughout will be  on the requirements of sound analysis in a professional policy advisory setting.

Military Power and Effectiveness
This course explores what makes the militaries of some states highly proficient fighting machines, whereas others seemingly cannot execute the simplest tasks. The main part of the course assesses the theoretical and empirical literature, classifying how various works define military effectiveness, what levels of analysis they address, and how well they explain effectiveness. We will devote most of our attention to conventional military operations, but at the end of the course we will also consider counterinsurgency and the effectiveness of rebel organizations.

Military Technology Assessment
Survey of the basic technologies of conventional warfare, with applications for defense program analysis. Sensor systems, propulsion, armor and armor penetration, stealth; emphasis on the concept of design tradeoffs and measure-countermeasure dynamics.

National Security Priorities
This course examines how ideas, national interests, and policy processes shape national security decision making from the White House to the departments and agencies that inform and implement national security policy. National security priorities are defined broadly to include issues associated with roles and missions, resources, strategy and doctrine. The course will examine America's role and engagement in international politics and security through a synthesis of national security concepts and practice.

New Proliferation Dynamics
This course will address how the forces of globalization are altering proliferation risks and the implications of these changes for nonproliferation, especially in the area of nuclear and biotechnology. A brief primer on the existing nonproliferation regimes will be followed by surveying different aspects of globalization and transnational threats, such as the rapid advances and diffusion of technology, illicit networks and the rise of non-state actors. We will then analyze how existing regimes and policy approaches to prevent proliferation must adapt to address these changing dynamics. Course requirements will include a midterm, abstract and seminar paper as well as a presentation to the class.

Non-State Actors
This course will focus on the transnational impact of non-state actors on international policy and security.

Nuclear Proliferation and Nonproliferation
This course focuses on weapons of mass destruction and their proliferation to state and non-state actors. It seeks to understand the changing nature of the weapons proliferation problem, its implications for national security and international stability, and policy responses in the areas of nonproliferation and counterproliferation. It links the proliferation issue to broader themes in security studies and thus covers a diverse set of military, technical, political, and economic topics.

Political Risk Analysis
Political risk analysis is a multidiscipline field of study which analyzes, measures, manages and mitigates the impact of political risk to foreign and domestic businesses and investments, organizations, and individuals. Political risk emanates from the (in)actions or reactions of stakeholders within a political system to events.

Politics of Peace Agreements
This course is about the methods, strategies, and objectives associated with implementing a peace agreement. Through an array of case studies and different peace agreements, the course explores topics such as confidence-building and cooperation between stakeholders; power sharing arrangements; disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration; social reconciliation and transitional justice; child soldiers; refugees and internally displaced persons; and transitional administrations. The course is meant to equip students to integrate the contents of a peace agreement and the political, economic, and military environment in which it is being implemented in order to evaluate the progress or the likelihood of its implementation. Students will be challenged to understand why certain aspects of a peace agreement might succeed, while others might fail.

Responses to Terrorism
This course will focus on the responses to terrorism by governments, particularly in the area of policy and decision-making. The course will be divided into several sections designed to delineate between individual (and tactical) responses to terrorism and broader counter-terrorism strategies. These will include case studies of successes and failures, including the use of military force, public diplomacy, economic aid, covert and intelligence action, and information and influence operations.

Stabilization and Peacebuilding
This course aims to provide students with a solid introduction to the theory and practice of contemporary stabilization and reconstruction missions. It will help students analyze state fragility and failure, develop a shared understanding of the many elements and challenges in stabilization-reconstruction missions as well as well as basic requirements for a successful mission. Theories and concepts will be tested by examining disparate cases during the course.

The Science of Nuclear Materials
The Science of Nuclear Materials will be a combination of lectures and hands on experiments designed to teach the fundamental principles of nuclear materials, as well as the nuclear fuel cycle in general to non-technical individuals within the nuclear arena. We will explore the origins of radiation, manufacture and detection of nuclear materials, and in addition to weapons and power issues, also explore medical uses and environmental issues. We will utilize lectures for dissemination of science fundamentals, followed by hands-on laboratory experiments that reinforce lecture content. It will be assumed that students will have little scientific background prior to this course — a high school chemistry or physics course is sufficient. Moreover, there will be some mathematical exercises/activities wherein instructors will guide students through more challenging problems.

Strategic Planning for the 21st Century
This course focuses on strategic planning from a conceptual and practical point of view. Its primary area of interest will be global-level national security planning by the U.S. government (USG), but we will look at other types of strategic planning as well. To do our subject justice, we will systematically work our way through a seven-step analytic process. This process will include a look at near- to mid-term environment from both general and agency-specific perspectives; examine the levels of risk the USG might be willing to accept in the policies it pursues and the capabilities it seeks to develop; explore how the USG might harness its vast, but not always well-organized power to operate most effectively in international affairs; and scrutinize how three leading departments are pursuing capabilities-centered reforms to improve on the process. Using this foundation, the course will look at specific planning procedures, templates and/or models that can be used by assorted organizations, including security ones, to ensure their continued viability and success. Finally, we look at specific strategic planning issues that are of significance to security specialists in the near to mid-term (including energy distribution, environmental issues, changing demography, insurgencies and terrorism, transnational strategic planning, etc.) through directed class discussions and student presentations.

IAFF 6189 Security Policy Studies Capstone

The Security Policy Studies capstones change every semester. Students take them in their final semester in the SPS program. Usually the program runs two capstones in the spring and one in the fall. The aim is for students to work on a policy-relevant topic and to use the research and professional skills they have developed while in the program. Some of the capstones will involve working with a "client," and many involve creating a publishable product.

IAFF 6198 Special Topics in International Trade and Investment Policy

21st Century Trade Issues and Strategy
This course discusses changing strategies (bilateral, regional and multilateral), investment agreements (BITS and TIFAs), and new issues associated with trade agreements. We examine how the scope of trade agreements has expanded beyond commercial policy to broad governance agreements, including human rights, labor rights, CSR, environment, and corruption.

Advanced Quantitative Methods
A course in applied regression modeling. ANOVA, Multivariate Regression, Logistic Regression. The statistics package Stata will be used.

Corruption, Development, and Governance
This class uses case studies, debates, guest lectures, and items from the news to examine how corruption can affect effective governance at the national and international levels and its trade spillovers. It also examines how new technologies and strategies (from cell phones to the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative) can reduce corruption and improve governance.

International Climate Change Policy
Following a very brief review of the science of climate change, this course will examine economic analyses of policy options for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, review the history and status of international negotiations and agreements on climate change, and consider the political and institutional challenges of agreeing on and implementing policies to mitigate climate change.

IAFF 6208 Special Topics in Global Communication

Public Diplomacy
This course examines concepts, practices, institutions, and critical issues in public diplomacy. We will explore the global debate on its meaning and scope in the context of today's information environment and changes in the conduct of diplomacy and foreign policy. We will study how public diplomacy is understood and practiced by other countries, multi-national organizations, and non-state actors. Much of the course will focus on U.S. public diplomacy and include the evolving roles of the State Department and American embassies, educational and cultural exchanges, policy advocacy, international broadcasting, and activities of other public diplomacy stakeholders in government and civil society. Our learning will draw on the experiences of public diplomacy practitioners and a growing body of academic and practical literature in the U.S. and abroad.

IAFF 6209 Global Communications Capstone
The global communication capstone course aims to enhance your ability to produce professional-quality analyses of current issues involving communication and international affairs. It will test your ability to address a policy problem using the analytical, research, writing, and other professional skills you have acquired during your course of study.

 

IAFF 6302 Taiwan – Internal Development and Foreign Policy
The rise of China, US power and influence in Asia and the Pacific, and Taiwan assertiveness have made Taiwan a focal point of US and international policy concern as the main international hot spot that could lead to great power military conflict involving the United States. This course explains the background, status, and outlook of the China-Taiwan-US triangular relationship. It gives special focus to political, economic, social, and intellectual trends on Taiwan, how they affect Taiwan's standing in the triangular relationship, and what this means for both China and the United States.

IAFF 6318 Special Topics in Asian Studies

International Relations of South Asia
This course will consider a number of conceptual and policy questions, and explore how the South Asian region (comprising India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal ), has been transformed in the contemporary period with its globalized economy and resurgent ethnic wars, in the context of nuclear weapons and connections to global and local terrorism. It will analyze the ways in which the political and social infrastructures of the countries in the area affect their national and regional security calculations and foreign policy perspectives. This course will give special attention to how India and China are set to fundamentally influence the emerging regional and global balance of power.

Society, Culture, and Politics of South Asia
Discussions of contemporary South Asia often focus on the disciplines of political science or international relations, but politics never occurs in a cultural vacuum: a development which seems incomprehensible to a casual observer might make perfect sense when viewed in its full social, religious, or ethnographic context. This course will use the tools of anthropology, history, and the study of religion (along with poli sci and IR) to explore South Asian political issues from a fresh angle. Topics to be examined include revolutions in Islamic thoughts; re-imagining of Hinduism and caste; tribal traditions in modern settings; and the constant tug-of-war between local, regional, and global identities.

IAFF 6319 Asian Studies Capstone
The Asian Studies M.A. capstone is a 1-credit simulation course and the content has varied over the years. In recent years, however, it has centered on a simulation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in which students' research and debate SCO issues such as regional security, energy and resources, and human rights.

IAFF 6338 Special Topics in European and Eurasian Studies

Colloquium: Europe & Eurasia
Overview of contemporary Europe and Eurasia, with exposure to various analytical approaches. Required for first-year EES students; open to other MA candidates with the instructor's permission

European Union Foreign Policy
This class will present an analysis of the foreign, security, and international economic policies of the European Union (EU) and its Member States. Topics include the EU's relations with its European Neighborhood, the United States, Russia, China, the Middle East and the developing world. Assignments include brief reports, a research paper and an oral briefing, with an emphasis on developing professional analytical, writing and presentational skills.

Grand Strategy of NATO's Future
The course aims to provide students with the intellectual tools necessary to develop their own, independent understanding of current shifts and future trends in the Transatlantic alliance. Consistent with the outlook typical of a foreign ministry's policy planning staff, the approach will be multidisciplinary, including history, economics, and security studies; it will delve into the interface of history — with an examination of legacies that drive present evolutions; policy analysis — aiming to shed light on current developments; and longer-term anticipation of future trends. Lastly, it will combine "high-plane" observations of global dynamics with more focused analyses of specific case-studies.

History & Politics of Modern Scandinavia
The course considers aspects of the history of the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden), focusing particularly on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as background for a detailed discussion of modern political institutions, political parties and electoral systems, social and economic models, foreign and security policies, and contemporary political issues in those countries.

Nordic and Baltic Security and Diplomacy
This course provides a forum for the discussion of regional and national security concerns in the Nordic-Baltic area and analysis of the diplomacy associated with them conducted by guest speakers and panelists drawn who are specialists from study centers and government agencies (speakers will discuss Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania).

Security in Russia/Eurasia
This course is a seminar on regional security issues in post-Soviet Eurasia with a focus on the relationships between three sets of interactions: those between Russia and other post-Soviet states; those between Russia and the United States/Europe; and those between other post-Soviet states and the United States/Europe. The course will explore the evolution of political security, and economic relations and institutions in the post-Soviet space in interaction with broader global and Eurasian security developments.

Turkey's Place in Europe
This course is designed to explore the historical, social and geopolitical significance of the Turkish Republic as the bridge between the Occident and the Orient. The ways in which Turkey has conflated the major components of Islamic and Western values will be examined. The social constructs that are essential in the making of the Turkish identity such as nationalism, religion, culture and ethnicity will be examined in depth within a historical continuum throughout the course of the semester. An overview of the Turkish reigns, their contributions to the Islamic civilization, will set the foundation for discussion of the rise of modern Turkey. The focus will be on enhancing student's ability to analyze some of the contemporary issues pertinent to security, civil society, nature of governance in Turkey, today. The dynamics that shape the Turkish political tradition, institutions of democracy, sine qua nons of the state's westernization project will be explored in that process. The overarching goal of the course is to attempt to respond to some of the questions germane to Turkey in current international politics and test the validity of the argument that propounds a 'European' Turkey. Tackling this test will have two phases: we will first examine, if Turkey can be rendered the potential role model to the Muslim world that avers Islam's compatibility with democracy. In the second phase, we will evaluate if Europe is prepared to accommodate a Muslim Turkey with a visceral Islamic cultural heritage.

Transatlantic Relations in the 21st 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, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the age of globalization and the internet, the character of the transatlantic relationship has changed fundamentally. Instead of focusing inside Europe, the transatlantic Allies now must focus on working together to address an array of complex global challenges that span a political, economic and security spectrum. This graduate seminar examines the origins of the transatlantic relationship and the perspectives of key institutions and states; the role of values and strategy; the political, economic and security changes that have taken place since 1989; and the difficulties the transatlantic community now faces in working together to deal with the challenges of a rapidly changing 21st century world.

IAFF 6339 European and Eurasian Studies Capstone
In this class, students will integrate and deepen the substantive knowledge and skills they have acquired through the EES M.A. program by applying them toward a real-world research project under the mentoring of a team of professionals from the U.S. State Department. The primary aim of the class is to guide students as they make their first efforts to mobilize their new intellectual assets to produce original analytic works in the policymaking and scholarly fields.

Undergraduate Courses

IAFF 3187 Special Topics in Latin American & Hemispheric Studies

Cuba in the Global Arena
This course examines Cuba's growing role in hemispheric and world affairs. The United States is slowly warming to the island, but remains behind the hemispheric consensus of full relations with Havana. There are even serious discussions of readmitting Cuba to the OAS. At the same time, Asian nations like China and India have increased commercial interactions with Cuba, and Moscow has raised the possibility of renewed commercial and military ties.

Latino Migration
The aim of this course is to understand the push and pull factors that have contributed to the human mobility (migration) that has transformed the Americas. The class is divided in two parts: Latin American immigration and Latin America migration to the United States. The readings in this seminar will draw principally from the research of geographers, historians, anthropologists and demographers. We will be interested in studying both the demographic shifts that have occurred and the theories that help explain them. The themes that will be addressed are the history of migration within Latin America and to North America, the impact of this migration on both sending and receiving countries, and the various policy strategies and debates concerning migration. In order to capture the social and cultural consequences of modern mass migration, films and novels will be used to supplement the themes of the course.

Mexico Since Independence
The purpose of this course is to survey the economic, social, political and cultural development of Mexico in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including economic development, poverty and inequality; social movements, rebellion and revolution; race, gender and ethnicity; U.S.-Mexico relations; and literary and intellectual movements. Students will be required to take two exams that cover lecture topics and are encouraged to pursue a variety of in-depth research topics, such as the role of the Catholic Church, narcotics trafficking, environmental issues, and labor issues.

Political Economy of Latin America
This course examines the political dynamics of economic behavior and conditions in contemporary Latin America. It follows a thematic approach, focusing on how actors (politicians, entrepreneurs, workers, migrants) produce economic decisions in the context of institutions (legislatures, political parties, international organizations) and other circumstances (international system, level of economic development). By the end of the course, students have a grasp on many of the most relevant areas and debates on contemporary Latin America's political economy.

Graduate Courses

IAFF 6341 LAHSP Cornerstone
Required for first year LAHS students
The two main purposes of the cornerstone course are to provide an interdisciplinary foundation for LAHSP students and to introduce GW Latin Americanist faculty. In some sessions GW faculty will be guest lecturers, so the instructor will act not only as a lecturer but as a coordinator as well. The course is organized in four sections. First, we briefly sketch the region's colonial history and independence. The second section focuses on international relations, security, and democracy. The third section deals with specific issues of immigration, public health, education, economic development, and coca and cocaine. And finally, we appraise integration efforts in the region and prospects for the future.

IAFF 6342 Drug Trafficking in the Americas
The course provides an overview of drug trafficking in the Americas in relation to globalization, foreign policy, peasant economy, social movements, guerilla warfare, law enforcement, corruption, human rights and national development. The course takes a historical and comparative country approach for understanding the evolution of drug trafficking networks and smuggling strategies and the public policies to combat them in Latin America and the Caribbean. The material includes in-depth country cases of Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Panama, Mexico and the Caribbean.

IAFF 6358 Special Topics in Latin American and Hemispheric Studies

Brazil in the Global Arena
This course examines the implications of Brazil's recent rise in the world stage by exploring the various facets of the country's interactions after the consolidation of democracy and economic stability, under the governments of presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The course reviews Brazil's history and the premises of the country's strategies to gain international recognition, its relations with its immediate neighbors and various parts of the world, and the domestic and international issues at the heart the country's international engagement: social inequality, climate change, environmental preservation, and renewable energy; food security, land use and agriculture; innovation, trade and competition policies.

Migration, Remittances, and Development in Latin America
This class provides an overview about the relationship between migration and development from the perspective of migrant family remittances to Latin America and the issues that inform such impact. The class consists of three main sections, determinants of migration and economic development, regional and country remittance trends and remittances in relationship to development. Students will learn about the analytical and policy issues shaping these trends.

Indigenous Social Movements of Latin America
The course will focus on indigenous movements as important political actors in Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama and Brazil. The impacts of Western modernization, cultural integrationist and neo-liberal national and rural development policies led indigenous social movements to rise up to challenge and alter them. The course will examine political empowerment, protest tactics, movement demands, organizational alliances, political ideologies/discourses and impact on public policies of economic development, national laws and international conventions. The role of political decentralization, local political autonomy, territorial rights and transnational linkages within nation-states and sub-regional cases will be assessed. Social and political conflicts and related policy changes over control of land, forests, illicit crops and the extraction of minerals and hydrocarbons figure prominently. Indigenous movement impact on the political processes of multi-cultural nation-building fostering more inclusive democratic citizenship rights will be a crosscutting thread running through the course.

Inter-American Development Bank: History & Operations
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) was established in 1959, but the idea of a bank for the Americas has a long history behind it, going back to the 19th Century. The IDB became a model for other regional development banks that were created subsequently. Today, the IDB is the oldest and largest regional development bank. It has also been the main source of multilateral financing for economic, social and institutional development projects as well as trade and regional integration programs in Latin America and the Caribbean. The course tries to provide an understanding of the operations of this institution, while placing it within the broader historical and socio-economic context of the LAC region within which the Bank operates.

Mexico in the Global Arena
The course looks in depth at Mexico's role in the world as it has shifted from a largely defensive foreign policy that emphasized resisting U.S. power to a more assertive foreign policy that is driven by a desire to insert Mexico in the global economy and institutions. A significant portion of the course will be dedicated to Mexico-U.S. relations, including challenging issues like migration, security, and economic integration, although the course will also look at Mexico's relationship with Latin America, Europe, and Asia, and its engagement with international institutions.

Security in the Americas
The nations of North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, spanning from Canada to the tip of Chile, are home to massive resource deposits, some of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities, and numerous hubs of innovation and growth. Nonetheless, the Americas remain dogged by some of the highest homicide rates and inequality levels in the world. Whether as a result of narco-traffickers dueling for turf on the US-Mexico border or gangs extorting small businesses in El Salvador, public security has become the number one concern of the region’s citizens and—as the region closest to the US—tremendous cause for concern for policymakers from Washington to El Paso. This course will explore the origins of today’s high levels of crime and violence, its role in and impact on societies, a review of U.S. security assistance efforts, prospects for enduring policies to provide durable solutions, and an exploration of the future threat environment.

IAFF 6359 LAHSP Capstone
The Latin American and Hemispheric Studies capstone seminar offers students the opportunity to apply and adapt what they have learned over the previous three semesters to a research project within a Latin American country. Forming teams and working in collaboration with clients within the Latin Americanist community in the Washington area, students will explore an issue about which they are already informed and gain real-life skills and experiences, usually in Latin America, that are likely to enhance their future professional opportunities. The seminar is a bridge from academic study to professional research and analysis.

 

IAFF 6364 Religion and Society in the Middle East

Islam performs many roles in the contemporary Middle East: focus of identity, cultural idiom, system of religious belief and practice, guide to politics and public morality. For governments of the Middle East, Islam can serve as a basis of political and ideological legitimation domestically and abroad, a source of legislation, or a driver of friction between state and society. Likewise, “Islam” itself is a contested inheritance for Middle Eastern Muslims, who exhibit a diversity of theological interpretations, ritual practices, and social enactments. This course examines the varieties of Islamic expression and contestation among Arabs, Turks, and Iranians, with a particular focus on the past two decades. The emphasis is on the sociocultural and spiritual, as a pathway to the political.

IAFF 6378 Special Topics in Middle East Studies

Arabic for International Affairs

The Arabic for International Affairs course is designed to provide students with the vocabulary specific to international affairs, to include issues of politics, economics, media, business and finance. Students will read and listen to primary source materials including government documents, official speeches, literature from international organizations, and other material that a practitioner of international affairs is likely to encounter. This course is for students at the high-Intermediate level; Arabic is the only instructional language used in class.

Lebanon and Syria

This course explores the inextricable link between Syria and Lebanon — from the time these territories were part of the Ottoman Empire until the present. In the process, the course focuses on the different political and economic trajectories the two states followed upon gaining independence from France; the domestic and external sources of their respective foreign policies; Lebanon's slide towards civil war in 1975 and Syria's intervention to end it; the politics of Syria's domination of Lebanon and, ultimately, its withdrawal from the latter.

Oil: Industry, Economy & Society

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 industry issues.

Political Economy of the Middle East

This course is designed as a seminar to introduce students to the present day political economy of the Middle East, or the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) as it is generally called, a region stretching from Morocco to Iran. Starting with an overview of the historical and political challenges facing economic development in the MENA, students will apply such insights to present day issues in the region.

Politics of North Africa

The goal of this course is to examine the post-colonial government and politics of the Maghreb — Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia — and other select states of the North African region, including, Libya and Mauritania. The course will consider the role that history and geography have played in shaping contemporary North Africa, and critically, the influence of nationalism and state-building in the aftermath of colonialism. Also central is the development and impact of domestic actors (e.g. the military, political parties, and civil society), political and economic liberalization, and how North African states have managed broader international relations and regional conflicts. The course will also explore the development of political Islam across the Maghreb and the emergence of other competing ideologies and identities, such as Berberism. As this course will adopt a comparative perspective, we will assess political change across states, change in traditional structures, and the governmental and non-governmental sources of change. These themes will also be compared with processes in the Middle East and developing world.

Religion and Politics in Post-Revolutionary Iran

This course will address the political and social dynamics of contemporary Iran. After a brief review of Iran's modern history, we will discuss the roots of the Islamic revolution, the establishment of Islamic theocracy, the Iran-Iraq war and its major consequences, the emergence of a new generation of religious intellectuals, the rise and the decline of the reform movement, and the ascendance of the ultra-conservative politicians. We will also tackle other critical issues such as gender, human rights, the youth bulge, ethnicity, and the media. We then move to an examination of Iran's defense and foreign policies. We will focus on Tehran's stance towards the peace process in the Middle East, its nuclear ambitions, and Iran's love-hate relationship with the United States.

Turkish Politics and Society

This graduate level course offers in-depth knowledge on Turkish domestic and foreign policy as well as a multi-faceted perspective on dynamics of the contemporary Turkish society. Topics will include current Turkish foreign policy ,its dynamics, domestic, regional and international drivers and implications, Turkish political parties and their ideological stance, socio-economic, ideological and cultural cleavages in Turkish society, relations between civil-military and secular-traditional Islamic forces and their impact on Turkish politics. At the end of this course, students will have an in-depth understanding of contemporary issues in Turkish domestic and foreign policy and be able to interpret these issues with a well-informed and sound analysis.

United States Foreign Policy in the Middle East

The course focus is on U.S. policy towards the Middle East. It will begin with an inventory of U.S. foreign policy basic principles and bureaucratic tools. It will then survey the Middle East as a whole to identify commonalities of importance to American policy makers. It will then focus on individual countries of importance (Israel, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey), and critical issues (Islam, Terrorism, the Arab Spring, Use of Force).

United States Foreign Policy in the Middle East

On March 19, 2003, forces of the United States and coalition countries opened military action against Iraq. Since that date, U.S. military operations in Iraq and U.S. involvement in regional diplomatic activity have dominated public debate in America. Yet, the coalition's war with Iraq was neither the beginning nor the end of U.S. engagement in the Gulf – a strategic body of water whose very name is under dispute. This course focuses on the evolution of United States foreign policy in the Gulf from the end of World War II to present, examining both its causes and effects. The Cold War, Arab nationalism, Islam, oil, and regional rivalries will be looked at as factors impacting U.S. decision-making and actions.

United States Security Policy in the Middle East

This course is intended to give you information and insight into the formulation of U.S. foreign policy and security strategy toward the region known as the Middle East. It will examine the factors that have shaped and will continue to influence the making of American foreign and security policies in a region important for its geo-strategic location, energy resources, and propensity for weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, and autocratic governance. Moreover, it is a region that houses the epicenters of 3 of the world's great religions- Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. All of these issues are flashpoints for U.S. foreign and security policy interests. This course is meant to enhance your ability to analyze these issues; understand them in their geographic, cultural, and historical context; and consider how to formulate policy. In the process, you will be asked to defend or criticize topics and countries, some of which may be familiar and important to you, and others that may be unfamiliar and even unpopular with your customary perceptions of a political system, a religion, and some important themes in modern history, politics, and culture. The focus will be on security issues, the nature of governance and civil society, and issues that are significant for U.S. policy planning. If you have strong biases or views on any of these issues, please leave them at the door and come to class with an open mind.

The Arab Uprisings: A Critical Introduction

The events known in the West as the revolutions of the Arab Spring include a series of uprisings in the Arabic-speaking Middle East that were sparked by the Tunisian revolution of 2011, but which eventually spread throughout the region, leading to actual or attempted regime change in countries as diverse as Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, and Syria. Much debate and analysis has surrounded the Arab Spring: from whether the terms “spring” and “revolutions” are even appropriate, to how one should assess the complex implications of these events, let alone whether they have “succeeded” or “failed.” Perhaps the most important lesson one can take from these developments and debates, however, is the danger of trying to reach definitive conclusions based on only short-term changes. As events continue to unfold, the fallibility of premature declarations about what the Arab Spring means has become increasingly evident.

This course explores the Arab Uprisings and studies their political, social, economic and cultural roots. Through a critical inquiry embedded in political science, history, and sociology, this course will unpack the underlying factors, forces, and processes of these events. It will also consider specific themes through which one can navigate these events, such as gender dynamics, the role of the military, and the growing influence of social media.

This critical introduction to the Arab Spring Revolutions is divided into four parts. The first part is a basic introduction to three key issues: a discussion of authoritarianism in the Arab world; the sociology of social movements and revolutions; and introducing the Arab spring revolutions themselves. In the second part of the course, we will examine the specific case studies of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, and Syria, and we will analyze the resilience of Arab monarchies. In the third part, we will focus on thematic topics within the Arab uprisings such as the role of the Arab militaries, Islamists, women and youth in these uprisings in addition to the impact of social media.

Sectarianism and Communal Politics in the Middle East

Why do the people of the Middle East seem so prone to communal religious violence? Sectarianism is one of the most recurring problems in the Middle East, yet it remains one of the least understood. This course introduces the religious and ethnic diversity of the so-called ‘Islamic World’, exploring the social implications of identities such as ‘Sunni’ or ‘Shia’. Students learn not to take religious conflict as given, but to ask what generates sectarianism in the contemporary Middle East, weighing the relative importance of religious thought, legacies of colonial minority politics or Ottoman legal frameworks, modern state structures, international politics, and globalization. Various kinds of solutions will be discussed, with a focus on making explicit the debate’s underlying assumptions about Arab society and state.

 

IAFF 6504 Advanced Proficiency: Arabic 
This seven-week course is intended for students at the Advanced-Mid/High levels of proficiency in Arabic. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are equally emphasized and the authentic instructional materials selected for this class will focus on the following topics: The prevailing political culture in the Arab world, Arab relations with the West, Women’s issues and women’s rights, Role of religion and religious movements in Arab & Muslim societies. Students in this class will participate in listening activities requiring note taking skills, in the speaking activities, they are expected to develop debating presentational skills, in their reading they are expected to read between the lines and make inferences. In their writing, they are expected to write coherent multi-paragraph essays.

IAFF 6504 Advanced Proficiency: Persian
This six-week course is intended for students to prepare them for the Advanced mid levels of proficiency competency. The course will focus on understanding various advanced level texts and audio clips related to Iranian politics, history, and current news. Students will also be able to express their ideas and analysis in coherent and consistent form in both written and spoken Persian.

IAFF 6504 Intermediate Proficiency: Arabic 
This seven-week course is intended for students at the intermediate-Mid/High levels of proficiency in Arabic. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are equally emphasized and the authentic instructional materials selected for this class will focus on the following topics: The prevailing political culture in the Arab world, Arab relations with the West, Women’s issues and women’s rights, Role of family in Arabic Society, Differences between Arab Culture and American culture. Students in this class will participate in listening activities requiring note taking skills, in the speaking activities, they are expected to develop debating presentational skills, in their reading they are expected to read between the lines and make inferences. In their writing, they are expected to write coherent multi-paragraph essays.

IAFF 6504 Intermediate Conversation: Russian
The IA program offers Intermediate Conversation courses in Russian, Spanish, French and German. These courses are intended to improve the student's language skills through a variety of interactive activities, including discussion groups, listening to and reading the news and doing translation exercises.

IAFF 6504 Intermediate Proficiency: Chinese
This is an advanced Chinese language course designed for senior students majored in diplomacy/international affairs. The objectives of the course include: (1) Helping students to improve their Chinese language skills; (2) Helping students to understand the economic, political, cultural, and social aspects of China today.

IAFF 6504 Intermediate 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 channels as well as to discuss topics in French. Class time will be devoted to reading, discussion and vocabulary building activities.

IAFF 6504 Intermediate Proficiency: Portuguese
In this class students will perform an intensive study of the Portuguese grammatical construction — in both oral and written form. The principal aim, then, is to gain confidence and mastery in expressing oneself and eventually composing in Standard Portuguese at a higher level, i.e., as an educated native. By means of a thorough review of all the peculiarities and nuances of Portuguese grammar, students will gradually learn how to compose, produce, and, most importantly, understand the intricate mechanism of a spoken language as it translates itself into a written language. Exercises and written assignments are thus intended to deepen the knowledge of the Portuguese language so that students can use it in their future careers with competency and accuracy, covering both the formal and the informal linguistic registers.

IAFF 6504 Intermediate Proficiency: Spanish
This is a topics in international affairs course taught in Spanish. It meets once a week throughout the semester. Students who register for the course are expected to have studied Spanish previously for two or more years at the college level. Those who come into the course with less Spanish will probably find discussions to be difficult to follow and participate in actively. Weekly attendance and frequent participation are essential for grading purposes (based on the quality of participation/relevance of comments).