Master of Arts in National Security Studies

RECOMMENDED AS FIRST PROGRAM COURSE. REQUIRED AS ONE OF FIRST THREE PROGRAM COURSES. Learn basic research methods skills for addressing security and intelligence studies problems and issues. You focus on the detailed procedures for conducting qualitative case studies, which is the foundation for most basic security and intelligence research conducted in academic, government, and business circles. You become well versed in research planning, secondary data collection, and qualitative data analysis methods and how these methods relate to the larger field of social science research. You will also learn the analysis of competing hypotheses approach to research design. You are also introduced to basic social theory which supports security and intelligence research. The course prepares you for later learning intermediate and advanced security and intelligence methods.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED AS YOUR SECOND CLASS in National Security Studies. The course will cover the roles, missions, organization, capabilities, unique cultures and strategic purposes of the President, the Departments of State and Defense, Congress, National Security Council, Armed Forces, intelligence community, and NGOs, as well as how these actors interact to formulate national security strategy. Students will examine some of the successes and failures of the interagency process and will gain an appreciation of the capabilities, limitations and organizational cultures of the players in the national security community, as well as providing an overview of legal and ethical issues that impact on the development of national security policy.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED AS YOUR THIRD CLASS in National Security Studies. Students will appraise the contributions of classic philosophers to security strategy and assess the theoretical explanations for the causes of war and peace. In addition, they will compare differing strategies for the conduct and termination of war and appraise just and unjust war doctrines in light of international law. Students will also assess deterrence strategy and its use in the nuclear age; compare differing doctrines for guerrilla war, revolution, and terrorism; and assess strategies for peacekeeping and peacemaking. The student will complete a number of small writing assignments and a final research paper that develops contemporary strategy and operational art for some aspect of national security.

This course assesses the major concepts of strategic thinking that underpin the national security decision making process in the U.S. Students analyze the fundamental nature of power in the international arena, how national security objectives are determined, grand strategies available to attain national security objectives and the ways in which the elements of national power are applied to achieve desired objectives. The course surveys national security policies since the end of the Cold War, examines regional security concerns to the U.S., covers the concept and principal components of national security strategy and evaluates the most important theories that explain how states and non-state actors interact in the international arena. The student examines current challenges to U.S. national security interests, especially terrorism and the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, and evaluates future national security policies and challenges.

During this course, the student analyzes the domestic and international contexts that shape the behavior of state and non-state actors, and which affect the formulation of national security policies. The course provides an assessment of major social, cultural, political, military, economic, technological, and historical issues that influence the international context; the roles and influence of international organizations and non-state actors; and the key transitional challenges to national security such as weapons proliferation and terrorism. The student will examine the issues and national security interests of the U.S. in regions of the world, how the U.S. has carried out its foreign policy in those regions to protect its national security, and the security interests of the nations in those regions. This course will prepare the student to conduct strategic assessments of selected organizations, regions, states, and other actors on the international stage.

Students will learn to analyze a state’s foreign policy and security decision-making. Students are introduced first to advanced case study analysis procedures used in analyzing foreign policy and security issues and then learn to explain and predict decisions and behaviors using models drawn from political psychology, rational choice theory, and game theory, which are the mainstays of foreign policy and security analysis. Students use the models introduced in the course to analyze foreign policy and security decision-making and behavior in a number of crisis and non-crisis situations. Prerequisite: NSEC500 Research Methods in Security and Intelligence Studies or other AMU 500-level graduate research methods course

Explores the theory, practice, challenges and prospects for securing America against terrorist attack and protecting citizens and resources from the consequences of natural disaster, with special emphasis on how policy makers are resolving this dilemma. The primary focus is on fundamental challenges to the American political order and the strategic issues raised by the prospect of a long war against terrorism, and the dedication of significant resources for responding to catastrophic disasters which may come into conflict with the resources needed to fight a long-term War on Terrorism. The course draws heavily on current events and emerging policy solutions.

This course explores the boundaries of this 21st century national security mission by examining the threats, the actors, and the organizational structures and resources required to defend the American homeland. It examines how we have shifted the emphasis to protect the US homeland from the defensive measures taken during the Cold War to both reactive and proactive actions against the wide variety of asymmetric threats posed by Global Terrorism.

This course explores the threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) as a new phenomenon. WMD, possibly wielded by terrorists, is the ultimate nightmare of a world society which likes to think of itself as having moved to a new plane of conduct. The U.S. government takes the matter seriously and it is presently devoting tens of millions of dollars to prepare for an incident. This course explores this new potential threat and the various responses to prevent, prepare, and respond to its use.

This course traces the history, emergence, and growth of paramilitary and terrorist groups within the United States. Students will assess various groups' intentions, capabilities, and activities within contexts of and ramifications on political, national security, and legal paradigms.

This course will survey the critical importance of ports to trade, their vulnerability to disruption and attack, and defensive measures to mitigate risk focusing on international cooperation and legislation. Special emphasis will be placed on defensive measures to protect ports from disruption or asymmetric attack, international cooperation, and national legislation.

Learn how to improve interagency relationships among security, defense, and intelligence agencies. This course introduces the student to theoretical and practical material for understanding the behavior of individual organizations and what can be done to make organizations work more closely together at the federal, state, and local levels. Students are introduced to theoretical material on organizational cultures; bureaucracy; social trust; individual, group, and organizational decision-making; and interagency collaboration. Emphasis is placed on explaining why organizations act the way they do and how to improve interagency coordination. Prerequisite: INTL500 Research Methods in Security and Intelligence Studies or other APUS 500-level graduate research methods course.

Examines intelligence community responses to threats to the U.S. homeland from transnational and domestic terrorists, including the employment of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Threats to the U.S. borders, including illegal immigration, narcotics smuggling, money laundering, commercial smuggling, and other organized crime activities are also covered.

Students in this course examine a top national intelligence priority, weapons of mass destruction, and some of the intelligence techniques used against them. Topics include scientific and technical intelligence and its emergence since World War II, sessions on each of the four dominant WMD (chemical warfare, biological warfare, nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles) and important issues related to monitoring and verification. Capabilities and outlook provided in the open literature will be employed to improve familiarity with issues and impact on national security strategies.

Comprehensive final examination for students in the Master of Arts in National Security Studies program. The "Comprehensive Final Exam" is tailored specifically to each program and must be taken after students have completed 36 hours of study (i.e. during the semester following the final course) and successfully completed before the award of a degree. The course number for the exam will be the Area of Study or Major, followed by (i.e. for Strategic Intelligence, the Comprehensive Exam course number is INTL698, for Management, the Comprehensive Exam course number is MGMT698).