Courses
Presents theoretical and methodological frameworks for understanding international politics and the policy decisions that shape global outcomes. Considers major international trends, such as the rise and fall of great powers, cooperation and conflict between states, and the influence of non-state actors on security, economics, and politics. Explores the institutions, interests, and personalities behind international events, with an emphasis on contemporary world affairs.This course is open to enrollment by GPP students only.
Provides a graduate-level introduction to comparative politics. Covers the basic theories and methodologies used to understand comparative political analysis, including theoretical and historical understanding of nation-states; forms of, and transitions between political regimes; contentious politics and conflict; civil society and political participation; institutions of government, including presidentialism, parliamentarism, federalism and legal systems; and characteristics of governance. The course will also compare politics across regions and levels of development. Case and specific country experiences provide foundations for essential concepts.This course is open to enrollment by GPP students only.
The course will examine the basic theoretical models of international trade and discuss their empirical relevance in explaining the observed patterns of trade between nations. The course will also discuss a variety of trade policy issues such as the gains from trade, the use of alternative trade policy instruments and the organization of the international trade system. The course is designed to enable students to understand the gains from trade both domestically and internationally, properly frame issues around protectionism vs. free trade and develop an understanding of trade as an engine for economic development.This course is open to enrollment by GPP students only.
Provides an overview of strategic studies, which deals with the preparation and use of military power to serve the ends of politics. Discusses the development of warfare from the mid-19th century through the present and addresses major theoretical concepts, including those found in Carl von Clausewitz’s On War.This course is open to enrollment by GPP students only.
This course explores American foreign policy and grand strategy by examining various traditions or schools of thought that have shaped U.S. dealings with the world, and then using those traditions to consider key historical debates in American strategy from World War II to the present. The goal of the course is to give students a deeper understanding of key inflection points in American engagement with the world, as well as an understanding of the intellectual influences and debates that structure U.S. policy choices. This will give students a better framework for understanding the major debates in U.S. strategy and policy today.
This course offers an analytical framework to study the functioning of the economy as a whole. Such a study involves analyzing the behavior of several markets and how their interactions affect income, prices, employment, exchange rates, and international financial flows. In addition, the course develops the accounting frameworks to understand and monitor international transactions and central banks’ operations. The course’s framework helps answering various questions of interest: How can monetary policy counteract periods of low unemployment? How are interest and exchange rates determined? What are the consequences for prices, employment, and output of an expansionary monetary policy?
This course serves as a broad introduction to development and integrates economic, political and social dimensions. It introduces students to the multi-faceted and multi-disciplinary nature of development so that they may acquire a better understanding of the theoretical and practical debates around development. The course is underpinned by a discussion of factors driving economic growth and the distribution of income. The prominent role of institutional arrangements is explored including debates about the roles of state, markets and firms. Discussion of the role of individual motives and trust lays the basis for debates on social capital and civil society as well as corruption. Specific examples illustrate the debates such as micro-finance, the provision of healthcare and education, or support for small and medium enterprises. At the same time the examples shed light on popular debates about the “bottom of the pyramid,” “public private partnerships.” or “impact investing.”
Considers the role of treaty law, customary international law and peremptory norms, as well as problems of reconciling national sovereignty and international law. Also looks at dispute resolution, the rise of NGOs and who can bring a claim (states only? diaspora peoples? individuals?) and at problems such as secession, law of the sea, use of armed force, refugees and human rights. Asks whether international law is just a form of politics, or whether it has a logic and discipline of its own.
Examines phases of conflict and techniques that may be introduced at various stages of conflict to halt escalation, minimize violence, and move conflicts towards resolution. This includes an analysis of the prevention of violent conflicts, crisis management, the resolution and/or transformation of conflicts, and post conflict peace-building. The course also analyses the impact of the negotiation process on the outcomes of negotiations in both theory and practice, including the role of individual negotiators, domestic politics, cultural context, and the international environment. Special emphasis will be placed on the role of third parties, such as international institutions, state governments, eminent persons, and NGOs in conflict management.
The global energy landscape is in the midst of fundamental transformation due to strong growth in emerging economies, rapid technological innovation, and growing concern about climate change. These shifts are having profound impacts on global power relationships and are also shaped by international politics and security considerations. In this course we will look at the evolving nature of energy security and the close linkages between energy and geopolitics. The revolution in unconventional oil and gas production in the United States and the consequences of the rapid growth of renewable energy will feature prominently in our analysis.
Recent administrations have published National Security Strategies that have outlined the approach the United States should follow in dealing with various actors who are viewed as challengers to US power in a world of growing political, economic and military competition. This course examines these actors from an economic viewpoint, proceeding from the premise that a national economic base provides the resources from which these nations provide for domestic living standards while at the same time resourcing their national security objectives. The course provides an overview of each nation in context to its regional and the world economy, and in comparison to the US. The course will examine contemporary and projected trends for each nation and relate these to security and strategy. This is designed as an economics course for security professionals who are NOT economists. The instructor will familiarize students with basic macroeconomic concepts and provide a framework for inquiry which the seminar will apply to each of the actors. The seminar will then draw conclusions for strategy and decision makers.
Open to MAGP students only.
The course will review the legal framework, jurisprudence and state practice concerning the international law of the use of force in contemporary international relations. Students will also delve into key conceptual debates relevant to emerging issues in this field. These include discussions on jus ad bellum in novel situations resulting from evolving State practice, challenges posed by the uses of emerging technologies and AI, autonomous weapons systems, the protection of civilians, as well as the discussion of the international law of nuclear weapons ad bellum. Participants will also have the opportunity to analyze cases of the UN Security Council’s practice, landmark case-law by the International Court of Justice and recent debates stemming from events such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the threat of nuclear weapons use, in light of the legal framework of the international system.
In this introductory residency, students learn about the MAGP degree and are exposed to various policy perspectives from SAIS faculty and policy practitioners.This course is open to enrollment by MAGP students only.
In this three-day residency, MAGP students take on the roles of world leaders, as they are presented with a developing international crisis scenario. The residency concludes with teams preparing presentations that outline the situations and courses of action. This residency requires students to stay overnight on the evenings of February 18th and 19th.
By participating in a this residency, students will study the key policy challenges that are currently addressed and discussed in multilateral settings, and examine many challenges of decision-making.
This course will explain how public and private organizations incorporate various forms of risk into their strategic and operational plans. Risk is the probability that any particular situation, event, or action will influence an outcome. It is the product of probability and impact. Politics affects risk on many levels (e.g., international, national, regional, and local), and is the result of the interaction of many different elements. This course starts with an examination of basic issues with regard to risk analysis as well as why forecasts often fall short. It then turns to a specific discussion of country structural fragility, problems with collective action policymaking, and operational breakdowns. Although the course focuses more on the risks that face countries than on how particular risks might impact corporations or NGOs, the latter is also examined. The course concludes with an assessment of how to prioritize and mitigate risk.
The international order is being challenged on many fronts, including the widespread anti-globalization backlash, backsliding European integration, new power dynamics in Asia, catastrophic intra-state conflicts, and historic refugee flows. Developing states find themselves especially vulnerable to many of these trends, as they lack adequate resources and capabilities. Yet exciting progress in other areas, such as technology, holds the prospect for "leapfrogging" to new trade and economic patterns in ways that could offer advantages to late developing states. This course assesses the current global flux from the perspective of developing states and considers policy lessons relevant to the developed world as well.
Hacking is now a tool of statecraft. This course will explore how states hack for offensive and defensive purposes, who the major threat actors are, what kinds of harm can be done, and how key strategic concepts apply to cyberspace.
The increased mobility of people, goods and services across national borders has become an integral part of the modern world. Over the last decades, countries across the world have faced increasing waves of migration, and the combination of these migrations and illicit networks have become a volatile economic and political issue, particularly in the United States, the European Union, and East Asia. The course looks at migration and illicit networks from a comparative perspective, bringing together insights from a variety of social science disciplines including political science, sociology, economics and geography. The course will: i) explore theories of the causes for migration and its interrelation with globalization, which requires to discuss the economic, humanitarian, cultural and security aspects of the phenomenon. ii) draws on European, American, and East Asian examples to zero in how immigration control, political inclusion of immigrant communities, and the linkages between illegal immigration and illicit networks is shaping the current discourse on immigration worldwide; and iii) discuss the role that the (traditional and new) media plays in both reflecting and shaping public opinion on immigration. Overall, this course will offer a global perspective on transnational migration and illicit networks, on the different reasons why people choose or feel compelled to leave their country of origin, and how receiving states respond to migrants’ presence, and the key policy and security concerns that are shaping immigration policy around the world.Open to MAGP students only.
This course examines how politics can affect economic development, focusing on topics such as corruption, media technologies, representation, culture, and ethnic identity.
US intelligence agencies inform and sometimes implement US foreign policy. As such, this course asks the critical question--how does US intelligence oversight work to ensure the best outcomes, what are the politics involved, and what are the trade-offs intelligence oversight makes between secrecy and national security in a global context.
This course is designed to equip policy makers with an enhanced understanding of the interconnected nature of contemporary urban challenges and the tools for an environmental and conflict sensitive practice of urban governance. In the face of rapid urbanization, climate change and significant local and global inequalities, urban policy makers across the world – from city officials to civil society activists – struggle to comprehensively analyze urban dynamics, design and implement policies and programs that address the multiple risk factors and create livable cities. This course surveys a variety of areas of urban disaster and climate risk and conflict as well as tools and approaches to manage them. It will give students a chance to apply new insights through group projects and interactive case studies of cities worldwide.
This course provides an introduction to the study and analysis of both the history and the evolution of the security policy sphere in the Western Hemisphere. This policy sphere is defined in a broad sense—from nation states, to guerrillas and insurgencies, to organized crime, gangs, traffickers, that is, all enemies of the state. The main lens of analysis is the study of the multiple strategies that the US has implemented to confront the evolving conflict and security challenges in Latin America.
This course follows the spirits of Barrington Moore’s Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy to compare the development of civil society, contentious politics, and elite conflicts in mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong/Macau since the end of WWII, with an emphasis on the social base, trajectories, and successes/failures of democratization attempts. The course will also cover the growing literature on the question of authoritarian resilience in mainland China, as well as its implications to the wider geopolitical dynamics of the Indo-Pacific.
This course provides an overview of contemporary issues in Latin America, focusing on political and economic trends, the role of the United States and extra-hemispheric actors, and the search of regional governments for new patterns of global insertion. The course is aimed at non-specialists in Latin American studies who wish to gain a deeper and more precise understanding of the region’s greatest governance and development challenges. The course also aims to situate Latin America in a global context, by exploring the involvement of external powers and the foreign policies of Latin American countries themselves.
Advancements in science and technology have been major drivers for geopolitical shifts throughout history. This course intends to give students the tools to understand, analyze, and integrate emergent technologies (from AI to blockchain and drones to virtual reality) in their understanding of geopolitical trends, of how technologies affect our societies (positively or negatively), international development and relations, as well as the long-term sustainability of corporates and the demands on regulatory institutions.
In the global financial system, billions of dollars flow across borders in fractions of a second, social media fuels bank runs, and anyone can easily trade everything from stocks to crypto tokens on their smartphones. Innovations are testing the mettle of watchdogs and making it crucial that people understand markets and their rules. This course will delve into some of the hot-button policy issues in financial regulation, including how newer technologies like artificial intelligence and blockchain fit into decades-old regulations, the impact of anti-money laundering rules on Latin American banks, and how China and the US are dealing with differing expectations for disclosure to investors. The course will be taught through lecture and feature fulsome class discussion of real-world events, as well as guest speakers.
This course will cover the essential practices of American intelligence, focused on how it collects and analyzes information with both traditional techniques and increasingly available open-source information. Based on that, the course will dig deeply into fields in which all of these approaches come together, such as covert action, counterintelligence, and deception, while looking also at relations with foreign intelligence services. Throughout, the emphasis will be on how all of this informs and influences American national security decision-making. The course will feature a number of practical, hands-on exercises to illustrate these points.
Developments in cyber capabilities have prompted a global rise in malicious online activities. Cyber attacks have remodeled how wars are fought by state and non-state actors. After building foundational knowledge about cybersecurity, students will have the opportunity to engage in contemporary debates, like cyber espionage, cyber warfare, deterrence, compellence and new technologies. This class will also examine the use of information warfare and how the West competes with Russia, China and Iran for perception and information superiority. This course will also focus on the United Nations’ current efforts to establish a new global cybercrime convention. These case studies will challenge students to analyze overarching obstacles to international cybersecurity cooperation, such as the competing interests actors like the U.S., Russia, and China have toward international cybersecurity policy. This is not a technical course, and students do not need a technical background.
The course will examine the major challenges in contemporary African politics by analyzing specific trends including democratization, the role of history, demographic trends, the impact and role of civil society, the impact of political competition, the role of the Internet and emerging technology and the impact of regional and external actors. By examining long-standing and emerging political and economic challenges, the course will analyze some of the key underlying socio-economic and political tensions and factors affecting political trends as the African continent heads into what may be the most consequential decade since independence.
This course examines the guiding principles of security and policy that influence our approach to challenges and opportunities in the space domain. We will look at how the security and other policies of leading world powers influence space activities, behavior, and planning in a rapidly evolving and dynamic environment, particularly influenced by emerging technologies.