This course introduces key concepts, theories, and challenges in the study and practice of international security policy. Drawing on historical and contemporary examples, students will examine the causes and consequences of war, the evolution of strategic thought, and the tools available to prevent and manage violent conflict. The course includes the purposes and limitations of military force, alliance politics, deterrence and coercion, weapons of mass destruction, civil-military relations, cyber threats, and the ethical dimensions of security decision-making.

This course equips students for humanitarian, human rights, foreign policy and political risk jobs that require real-time interpretation and analysis of conflict data. The course will introduce students to contemporary open-source data about conflict events, fatalities, forced displacement, human rights violations, settlement patterns in war zones, and much more. Students will learn about how this data is generated, what data reveals, what data obscures, and the choices analysts can make to use conflict data transparently in the face of biases.

This course develops the skills necessary to prepare, analyze, and present data for policy analysis and program evaluation using R. Building on the foundations from Quant I and II—probability, statistics, regression analysis, and causal inference—this course emphasizes the practical application of microeconometric methods to real-world policy questions. (Note: macroeconomic topics and forecasting methods are not covered.)

Pre-req: DSPC IA6000 - Computing in Context, or see option for testing out. In Computing in Context, students "explore[d] computing concepts and coding in the context of solving policy problems." Building off that foundation of Python fundamentals and data analysis, Advanced Computing for Policy goes both deeper and broader.

Pre-req: SIPA IA6501 - Quant II. The goal of this course is to provide students with a basic knowledge of how to perform some more advanced statistical methods useful in answering policy questions using observational or experimental data. It will also allow them to more critically review research published that claims to answer causal policy questions. The primary focus is on the challenge of answering causal questions that take the form “Did A cause B?” using data that do not conform to a perfectly controlled randomized study.

This applied course provides students with foundational skills to analyze and interpret publicly available datasets for public policy decision-making. Emphasizing hands-on learning, the course covers data sourcing, cleaning, research design, statistical analysis, and data visualization using Stata. Students will explore real-world challenges across topics such as poverty, education, housing, and public health, culminating in a data-based policy memo developed through collaborative group work.

This course explores how artificial intelligence is shaping the future of conflict prevention. With case studies and insights drawn from real-world applications, students will examine how AI tools are being developed and used to anticipate political, economic, and military trends. Through critical literature reviews and debate-based discussions, the course engages students in the practical, policy, and ethical questions surrounding the integration of AI into peacekeeping and peacebuilding operations.

The purpose of this half-semester course is to familiarize students with how the Internet and cybersecurity works; to provide a foundation of knowledge for later courses; and to familiarize students with the devices, protocols, and functions of computers, the Internet, industrial control systems, and cybersecurity. This course is not intended to be a computer science course, but to provide the students with the lexicon of cyberspace and the understanding of how hardware, software, and networks fit together to create the Internet experience.

This course explores the strategic, policy, and institutional dimensions of cyber conflict. It focuses on the national security implications of cyber threats and responses, rather than the technical mechanics of cyberspace. Students will examine how cyber operations unfold at both tactical and strategic levels, assess the comparison of cyber power to other domains of conflict, and trace the development of U.S. cyber policy and organizational structures.

This interdisciplinary course explores how technology, policy, and law intersect in addressing complex cybersecurity challenges. Taught by experts in each field, the course examines how different disciplines approach problems such as cybercrime, national security threats, and corporate intrusions. Students will gain foundational knowledge in Internet architecture and computer security, legal frameworks governing cyber activity, and policy strategies for defense and resilience.

This course examines the evolving role of cyberspace in modern warfare. Since the emergence of the Internet, scholars and policymakers have debated whether cyber capabilities represent a fundamental shift in the nature of conflict or a complement to conventional military power. Students will engage key conceptual debates about cyber conflict, assess how major powers including the United States, Israel, Russia, and China develop and employ cyber capabilities, and consider whether cyber operations should be viewed as a distinct strategic domain.

The purpose of this course is to familiarize SIPA students with the function of the internet while focusing on the flaws and vulnerabilities that can be exploited in attacks or impact user privacy.  This course will approach each session in the following manner: discussion of recent cyber events, discussion topic(s) to be covered, and the ramifications when used in the real world.

This course introduces cybersecurity as a business risk, emphasizing its impact beyond IT and into areas such as regulation, governance, finance, and reputation. Students explore core concepts in cybersecurity, risk management frameworks, and the evolving threat landscape. The course examines how leading organizations assess, quantify, and address cyber risk through strategies such as risk mitigation, transfer, and resilience. Topics include incident response, supply chain vulnerabilities, regulatory compliance, critical infrastructure, and cyber conflict.

This course explores the evolving landscape of cyber conflict and cybersecurity across the Indo-Pacific region. Students will examine national strategies, regional cooperation efforts, and the role of major actors such as China, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, ASEAN, and India. The course will cover cyber threats, disinformation campaigns, state-sponsored hacking, digital diplomacy, and the geopolitical dimensions of emerging technologies like AI and quantum computing.

This course examines the role of cyberspace in national strategy and grand strategy, with a primary focus on the United States and select comparative cases. As the United States shifts from counterterrorism and counterinsurgency toward renewed great power competition, questions about the utility of force, alliance structures, economic statecraft, and international institutions are increasingly framed by strategic thinking. Although cyberspace influences nearly all instruments of national power, its role in debates about grand strategy remains underexplored.

Pre-req: DSPC IA6000 - Computing in Context, or see option for testing out. In Computing in Context, students "explore[d] computing concepts and coding in the context of solving policy problems." Building off that foundation of Python fundamentals and data analysis, Advanced Computing for Policy goes both deeper and broader.

Pre-req: SIPA IA6501 - Quant II. The goal of this course is to provide students with a basic knowledge of how to perform some more advanced statistical methods useful in answering policy questions using observational or experimental data. It will also allow them to more critically review research published that claims to answer causal policy questions. The primary focus is on the challenge of answering causal questions that take the form “Did A cause B?” using data that do not conform to a perfectly controlled randomized study.

This course develops the skills necessary to prepare, analyze, and present data for policy analysis and program evaluation using R. Building on the foundations from Quant I and II—probability, statistics, regression analysis, and causal inference—this course emphasizes the practical application of microeconometric methods to real-world policy questions. (Note: macroeconomic topics and forecasting methods are not covered.)

This course examines how viral media, especially user-generated video, can expose human rights abuses, shape policy, and influence global narratives. Students will study real-world case studies, from chemical attacks in Syria to police brutality in the United States, learning the verification methods used by journalists, digital investigators, and human rights advocates. The course also addresses the risks posed by generative AI, deepfakes, and disinformation in a rapidly evolving media ecosystem.

This applied course provides students with foundational skills to analyze and interpret publicly available datasets for public policy decision-making. Emphasizing hands-on learning, the course covers data sourcing, cleaning, research design, statistical analysis, and data visualization using Stata. Students will explore real-world challenges across topics such as poverty, education, housing, and public health, culminating in a data-based policy memo developed through collaborative group work.

This course equips students for humanitarian, human rights, foreign policy and political risk jobs that require real-time interpretation and analysis of conflict data. The course will introduce students to contemporary open-source data about conflict events, fatalities, forced displacement, human rights violations, settlement patterns in war zones, and much more. Students will learn about how this data is generated, what data reveals, what data obscures, and the choices analysts can make to use conflict data transparently in the face of biases.

The conduct of war is central to international security policy. Even when unused, the ability to wage war effectively underpins deterrence and shapes foreign policy. Military organization, training, and strategy are built around this capacity, and the institutions that support it exist largely to ensure effectiveness in conflict.

Technology is central to modern defense debates in the United States and globally. Its assessment underpins core functions across the defense policy and planning community, including budgeting, modernization, intelligence, campaign planning, force design, and program management. In the U.S., this work spans think tanks, Defense Department offices, Congressional and Service staffs, the intelligence community, and the defense industry. These assessments influence hundreds of billions in spending and carry life-and-death stakes in wartime.

Defense policy involves some of the highest stakes in government, often concerning life-or-death decisions. It is also a major employer, with U.S. government agencies, think tanks, and contractors relying on formal analysis to guide decisions ranging from equipment purchases to national military strategy. A large, trained workforce produces these studies, while others must critically assess their findings. Although most robust in the U.S., similar analytic work exists globally.

This graduate seminar analyzes and compares national security strategies, including military doctrine, alliance policies, and foreign economic policy. The course examines how international structure, domestic politics, and leadership psychology contribute to policy outcomes. Students will explore how different strategies serve as stabilizing or destabilizing forces in the international system.

Gender has important implications for international security policy. Gender bias can influence policy choices, distort understandings of military capability—especially among nonstate armed groups with women combatants—and aggravate the causes of war. It can increase internal and interstate violence in settings where women are mistreated or where sex imbalances create instability. Gender also shapes how individuals experience wars and disasters, as existing inequalities are often intensified.

This is a two-day intensive course. Over the past decade, the number of civil wars globally has increased dramatically, driven by a proliferation of non-state armed groups, illicit transnational networks and regional actors. The rise of civil wars has meant conflicts are not only harder to resolve via traditional forms of diplomacy, but also more likely to relapse; in fact, 60 per cent of the civil wars that reached peace agreements in the early 2000s have since fallen back into conflict.

This course examines the evolving role of cyberspace in modern warfare. Since the emergence of the Internet, scholars and policymakers have debated whether cyber capabilities represent a fundamental shift in the nature of conflict or a complement to conventional military power. Students will engage key conceptual debates about cyber conflict, assess how major powers including the United States, Israel, Russia, and China develop and employ cyber capabilities, and consider whether cyber operations should be viewed as a distinct strategic domain.

This seminar critically examines the evolution and current trajectory of Russian security policy, with particular attention to the ongoing war in Ukraine and its broad strategic implications. The course explores the political, historical, and structural factors that shape Russia’s national security outlook, as well as its use of military force, energy policy, diplomacy, and information operations to advance its interests.

This course analyzes the impact of domestic and regional conflicts in the Middle East on global security. Key concepts include: regime change, revolution, civil war, conflict management, security sector reform, arms transfers, nuclear proliferation, counterterrorism, and international criminal justice. These conceptual tools are used for comparative analysis of three sub-regional conflict zones: Saudi Arabia / Iran / Iraq, Egypt / Syria / Lebanon, and Palestine / Jordan / Israel. Each of these regions has galvanized substantial global engagement.

Nuclear weapons are often considered to pose humanity’s gravest danger. Yet despite nuclear threats and crises, states have managed to avoid the deliberate or inadvertent use of nuclear weapons since the end of World War II. Eighty years after Hiroshima, how has nuclear war been avoided? Did the advent of nuclear weapons create a revolution in military affairs that stalemated major powers and dramatically reduced the prospects of great power war by the emergence of mutual vulnerability and mutual assured destruction (MAD) postures?

Pre-req: DSPC IA6000 - Computing in Context, or see option for testing out. In Computing in Context, students "explore[d] computing concepts and coding in the context of solving policy problems." Building off that foundation of Python fundamentals and data analysis, Advanced Computing for Policy goes both deeper and broader.

Pre-req: SIPA IA6501 - Quant II. The goal of this course is to provide students with a basic knowledge of how to perform some more advanced statistical methods useful in answering policy questions using observational or experimental data. It will also allow them to more critically review research published that claims to answer causal policy questions. The primary focus is on the challenge of answering causal questions that take the form “Did A cause B?” using data that do not conform to a perfectly controlled randomized study.

This course develops the skills necessary to prepare, analyze, and present data for policy analysis and program evaluation using R. Building on the foundations from Quant I and II—probability, statistics, regression analysis, and causal inference—this course emphasizes the practical application of microeconometric methods to real-world policy questions. (Note: macroeconomic topics and forecasting methods are not covered.)

This course surveys the politics and history of the five countries of contemporary Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan). In addition to imparting a substantive understanding of these countries, the course explores several conceptual lenses through which the region can be analyzed both over time and in comparison with other parts of the world. The first half of the course examines the political history of the region, with particular reference to how policies and practices of the Soviet state shaped the former republics of Soviet Central Asia.

This intensive two-day workshop examines North Korea’s nuclear program within the broader security dynamics of the Indo-Pacific region. Students will explore how North Korea’s ambitions intersect with U.S.-China strategic competition and the evolving roles of Japan, South Korea, India, and other regional actors. Topics include extended deterrence, crisis escalation, alliance management, economic statecraft, and the linkage between Korean Peninsula security and Taiwan Strait tensions.

This applied course provides students with foundational skills to analyze and interpret publicly available datasets for public policy decision-making. Emphasizing hands-on learning, the course covers data sourcing, cleaning, research design, statistical analysis, and data visualization using Stata. Students will explore real-world challenges across topics such as poverty, education, housing, and public health, culminating in a data-based policy memo developed through collaborative group work.

This course explores how artificial intelligence is shaping the future of conflict prevention. With case studies and insights drawn from real-world applications, students will examine how AI tools are being developed and used to anticipate political, economic, and military trends. Through critical literature reviews and debate-based discussions, the course engages students in the practical, policy, and ethical questions surrounding the integration of AI into peacekeeping and peacebuilding operations.

Intelligence activities are traditionally thought to comprise the activities of a nation state’s intelligence organizations attempting to steal secrets, usually those pertaining to national security, from the organizations of another nation state.  However, intelligence activities have seldom, if ever, been confined to the government sphere.  Most nation states have employed their national intelligence systems to steal privately held economic information from other countries to benefit their economies: many continue to do so.

Instructor permission required. Join the waitlist in Vergil to request registration. This seminar explores the role of intelligence in U.S. national security and foreign policy, focusing on both historic and contemporary controversies. Topics include intelligence failures such as 9/11 and Iraq’s WMDs, challenges in cyber and surveillance, and debates about covert action and interrogation practices. The course also considers the Intelligence Community’s (IC) relationship with policymakers, particularly during election cycles and presidential transitions.

In Writing about War, seminar participants engage with a pressing matter of our age: how to evaluate facts and context and create compelling and precise narratives from the fog of war. This intensive writing seminar explores the special challenges of creating narrative and assessing truth claims in the context of violent conflict. In this course you will grow as a writer through extensive practice reporting, writing, revising, and editing your own work and that of your peers.

This course examines the origins and development of modern terrorism, the challenges it poses to states and the international system, and the strategies employed to confront it. The course explores a wide range of terrorist groups, assessing the psychological, political, socioeconomic, and religious factors that contribute to terrorist violence. Students will also evaluate the effectiveness and ethical implications of various counterterrorism approaches. The course is structured in two parts.

The conduct of war is central to international security policy. Even when unused, the ability to wage war effectively underpins deterrence and shapes foreign policy. Military organization, training, and strategy are built around this capacity, and the institutions that support it exist largely to ensure effectiveness in conflict.

As long as societies have gone to war, commanders have had to consider how they will treat captives. It can be a factor at every stage of a struggle, from negotiations to avert war, tactics and strategy for winning, and post-conflict resolution. And long after the end of fighting, the experience of captivity can continue to shape how people recall and commemorate their history. This course examines how generations of lawmakers, diplomats, military commanders and activists have dealt with the problem of captivity.

This course examines three decades of international peacemaking efforts to assess what has been learned, and what has been unlearned, through major conflicts. Drawing on the instructor’s experience leading UN peacekeeping operations and conflict resolution initiatives, the course explores case studies from various regions, including Rwanda, Bosnia, Libya, Syria, Colombia, Ukraine, and Israel-Palestine. Students will analyze how geopolitical shifts, institutional capacities, and strategic choices have influenced outcomes.

This graduate seminar analyzes and compares national security strategies, including military doctrine, alliance policies, and foreign economic policy. The course examines how international structure, domestic politics, and leadership psychology contribute to policy outcomes. Students will explore how different strategies serve as stabilizing or destabilizing forces in the international system.

Gender has important implications for international security policy. Gender bias can influence policy choices, distort understandings of military capability—especially among nonstate armed groups with women combatants—and aggravate the causes of war. It can increase internal and interstate violence in settings where women are mistreated or where sex imbalances create instability. Gender also shapes how individuals experience wars and disasters, as existing inequalities are often intensified.

This course examines the uses and misuses of historical analysis in policymaking and strategic thinking. Although leaders often invoke historical analogies, they tend to rely on a limited set of familiar episodes. Students will explore the value and limitations of using history to inform decisions about present and future challenges. The course introduces key tools of historical reasoning, including concepts such as continuity and change, contingency, human agency, and structural constraint.

This is a two-day intensive course. Over the past decade, the number of civil wars globally has increased dramatically, driven by a proliferation of non-state armed groups, illicit transnational networks and regional actors. The rise of civil wars has meant conflicts are not only harder to resolve via traditional forms of diplomacy, but also more likely to relapse; in fact, 60 per cent of the civil wars that reached peace agreements in the early 2000s have since fallen back into conflict.

Effective communication is critical to the success of international organizations (IOs). Whether securing funding from member states, raising awareness of global challenges, or countering misinformation, IOs rely on strategic communications to fulfill their mandates. As noted by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, “strategic communications is central to the success of all our work.”

This course examines the United Nations Development System (UNDS) as the world’s most prominent multilateral development actor. Students will explore the governance and funding structures of over 35 UN agencies, programs, and funds, and analyze how they collaborate to achieve country-level results. Topics include joint responses to global crises, UNDS reforms, SDG financing, and partnerships with governments, donors, civil society, and the private sector.

United Nations and Globalization introduces the various ways in which the United Nations affect global governance. Over the last decade, every aspect of global governance has become subjected to review and debate: peacekeeping and peacebuilding, the future of humanitarianism, a new climate change architecture, human rights, a new sustainable development agenda, and the need for a new understanding of multilateralism.

This course introduces students to the theory and practice of risk management in crisis and conflict settings, with a focus on the United Nations’ efforts to deliver on mandates in complex environments. Drawing on UN doctrine and international standards such as ISO 31000, the course emphasizes practical skills and real-world applications across the UN’s peace and security, development, human rights, and humanitarian pillars.

This course examines the sources, substance, and enduring themes of American foreign policy. Part I reviews the rise of American power in world affairs from the 18th Century through the end of the Cold War. Part II provides an overview of the process and politics of American foreign policy making. Part III applies the theory and history of Part I, and the process of Part II, to examine a number of contemporary U.S.

In Conduct of Diplomacy, we will use an interdisciplinary lens to study the strategic and tactical considerations that shape a credible foreign policy and effective international diplomatic engagement.

Drawing examples from U.S. practice, we will explore various forms and attributes of diplomacy, including the international legal framework and the nature of diplomatic missions. We will consider various tools for conflict resolution, including mediation and reconciliation.

This course introduces the study and practice of international conflict resolution, providing students with a broad understanding of the subject and a framework for approaching more specific strands of study offered by CICR. Can a war be stopped before it starts? Is it realistic to talk about ‘managing’ a war and mitigating its consequences? What eventually brings adversaries to the negotiating table? How do mediation efforts unfold and how are the key issues resolved? Why do peace processes and peace agreements so often fail to bring durable peace?

This course explores the challenges and opportunities in international peacemaking, with a particular focus on mediation as a tool for advancing political solutions to violent conflict. Complementing other CICR courses, it offers students the opportunity to deepen their understanding of how various mediators—including the United Nations, multilateral institutions, states, and non-governmental organizations—are responding to shifting dynamics in global conflict and politics.

This course explores how contemporary conflict is changing and how conflict prevention and resolution strategies must evolve in response. Through case studies and practitioner insights, students examine shifting conflict dynamics, the role of international institutions, and a range of peacebuilding tools—from mediation and state-building to justice and sanctions. Emphasis is placed on ethical dilemmas and operational challenges in real-world contexts. No prerequisites are required, though prior exposure to conflict studies is beneficial.

Instructor permission and application required. Join the waitlist in Vergil to request registration.

This course prepares students to engage in peacebuilding practice by developing fieldwork-related competencies rooted in critical reflection, professional strategy, and ethical engagement. Students examine foundational values, frameworks, and dilemmas in the peacebuilding field, while cultivating skills in project design, monitoring and evaluation (MEAL), communication, collaboration, and cultural awareness.

This seminar critically examines the evolution and current trajectory of Russian security policy, with particular attention to the ongoing war in Ukraine and its broad strategic implications. The course explores the political, historical, and structural factors that shape Russia’s national security outlook, as well as its use of military force, energy policy, diplomacy, and information operations to advance its interests.

This course analyzes the impact of domestic and regional conflicts in the Middle East on global security. Key concepts include: regime change, revolution, civil war, conflict management, security sector reform, arms transfers, nuclear proliferation, counterterrorism, and international criminal justice. These conceptual tools are used for comparative analysis of three sub-regional conflict zones: Saudi Arabia / Iran / Iraq, Egypt / Syria / Lebanon, and Palestine / Jordan / Israel. Each of these regions has galvanized substantial global engagement.

This course examines the foreign policy of the People’s Republic of China from 1949 to the present, analyzing the political, strategic, and economic drivers of Beijing’s engagement with the world. Topics include China’s relations with the United States, Russia, Asia, and the Global South; key historical turning points such as the Cold War, reform era, and post-Tiananmen period; and contemporary challenges including cross-Strait relations, great power competition, and global governance.

This course serves as the foundation of the International Fellows Program (IFP), a year-long, interdisciplinary seminar examining the evolving role of the United States in global affairs. Drawing on history, policy, and current debates, the course explores how U.S. leadership has been shaped by ideology, military power, economic interests, and domestic politics—and how that role is being redefined amid global shifts and great power competition.

This course is the second half of the year-long International Fellows Program (IFP) seminar examining the United States’ evolving role in global affairs. Building on themes from the fall, the spring semester focuses on the challenges confronting a new U.S. presidential administration and the strategic decisions that will shape American leadership in a contested international environment. Through a combination of seminar discussions, case studies, guest speakers, and two regional crisis simulations, students will examine U.S.

Nuclear weapons are often considered to pose humanity’s gravest danger. Yet despite nuclear threats and crises, states have managed to avoid the deliberate or inadvertent use of nuclear weapons since the end of World War II. Eighty years after Hiroshima, how has nuclear war been avoided? Did the advent of nuclear weapons create a revolution in military affairs that stalemated major powers and dramatically reduced the prospects of great power war by the emergence of mutual vulnerability and mutual assured destruction (MAD) postures?

This course surveys the politics and history of the five countries of contemporary Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan). In addition to imparting a substantive understanding of these countries, the course explores several conceptual lenses through which the region can be analyzed both over time and in comparison with other parts of the world. The first half of the course examines the political history of the region, with particular reference to how policies and practices of the Soviet state shaped the former republics of Soviet Central Asia.

Economic statecraft, or the use of economic policy instruments in attempts at influence, has become increasingly germane to international diplomacy and security. China has developed from a target of economic statecraft, as seen in sanctions on China after the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989, to an active user of economic statecraft. This course traces that shift, including China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001, increasing participation in multilateral sanctions on other states, and accelerated trade and investments with all regions of the world.

Prerequisite: Course Application. In an era increasingly defined by geopolitical competition, it is more important than ever for future policymakers to understand why and how foreign policy decisions are made.

This immersive, two-day workshop examines the concept of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the lens of historic negotiation efforts, most notably the Camp David Summit (1999–2001). Guided by former Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, students will explore the political, legal, and narrative frameworks that have shaped these peace talks, with particular attention to the components of Palestinian statehood.

Henry Kissinger remarked in the 1970s that "Israel has no foreign policy, only domestic politics." Moshe Dayan, Israel's quintessential general, observed that "Israel has no foreign policy, only a defense policy with international implications." These statements highlight an enduring question for the Middle East: What explains Israeli foreign policy? How do history, security challenges, ideology, and domestic politics influence Israel's position in a globalized world? This question carries special relevance when considering the war in Gaza.

Pre-req: ISDI IA6000 (INAF U6874) - Foundations of Int'l Security Policy. This intensive two-day workshop explores the complex landscape of peacemaking and reconstruction in Ukraine following Russia’s 2022 invasion. Students will examine key challenges associated with ending hostilities, sustaining peace, and rebuilding the state. Topics include Ukraine’s security needs, Russia’s incentives and deterrents, frameworks for international monitoring and verification, economic reconstruction, human reintegration, and the risk of future aggression.

This intensive two-day workshop examines North Korea’s nuclear program within the broader security dynamics of the Indo-Pacific region. Students will explore how North Korea’s ambitions intersect with U.S.-China strategic competition and the evolving roles of Japan, South Korea, India, and other regional actors. Topics include extended deterrence, crisis escalation, alliance management, economic statecraft, and the linkage between Korean Peninsula security and Taiwan Strait tensions.

This course examines the central challenges of climate change policy and diplomacy through three core questions: What should the world do about climate change? Why have past efforts largely failed? How can more effective strategies be developed? Drawing on perspectives from science, economics, ethics, international law, and game theory, students will explore both normative and practical dimensions of global climate action.

This course focuses on climate change adaptation, examining how communities, governments, and institutions manage climate risks and build resilience. Students will engage with key concepts such as vulnerability, resilience, adaptation effectiveness, and climate justice, using a risk reduction framework to analyze real-world challenges and responses.

This course explores the opportunities and challenges presented by Europe’s efforts to lead the global transition to net-zero greenhouse gas energy systems. Centered on the European Union and its member states, the course also considers key geopolitical developments shaping the region’s energy future, including the war in Ukraine, transatlantic relations, and trade tensions with China.

Geopolitics is complicating the already difficult task of moving from a carbon-intensive energy system to one of net-zero emissions. Today’s geopolitical tensions risk slowing the pace of the urgently needed clean energy transition, while some dynamics within the transition itself are exacerbating existing geopolitical challenges. Competition between great powers—a defining feature of the emerging global order—now threatens progress through trade disputes and national security concerns. The uneven global transition is also deepening divides between developed and developing countries.

Pre-req: DSPC IA6000 - Computing in Context, or see option for testing out. In Computing in Context, students "explore[d] computing concepts and coding in the context of solving policy problems." Building off that foundation of Python fundamentals and data analysis, Advanced Computing for Policy goes both deeper and broader.

Pre-req: SIPA IA6501 - Quant II. The goal of this course is to provide students with a basic knowledge of how to perform some more advanced statistical methods useful in answering policy questions using observational or experimental data. It will also allow them to more critically review research published that claims to answer causal policy questions. The primary focus is on the challenge of answering causal questions that take the form “Did A cause B?” using data that do not conform to a perfectly controlled randomized study.

This course develops the skills necessary to prepare, analyze, and present data for policy analysis and program evaluation using R. Building on the foundations from Quant I and II—probability, statistics, regression analysis, and causal inference—this course emphasizes the practical application of microeconometric methods to real-world policy questions. (Note: macroeconomic topics and forecasting methods are not covered.)

International migration’s substantial economic and social effects are at the forefront of today’s academic discussion, international debate, as well as national policy strategies. This course introduces students to the key notions, norms, and narratives of international migration from economic, sociological, legal, policy, international relations, and normative perspectives.

This course provides a foundational understanding of the role of evaluation within international organizations and how it is planned, conducted, and used. International organizations play a key role in supporting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) implementation that advance the cross-cutting issues of human rights, gender equality and environmental sustainability.

This course explores the foundational and advanced dimensions of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), alongside relevant aspects of International Human Rights Law (IHRL) as they apply to situations of armed conflict. Designed for students interested in the legal regulation of contemporary warfare, the course focuses on providing the conceptual and practical tools to identify, interpret, and apply international legal norms in real-world conflict situations.

In many parts of the world, humanitarian actors cannot successfully alleviate and prevent the suffering of people living in areas affected by armed conflict without engaging with armed groups.  The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) estimates that there are over 450 armed groups of humanitarian concern worldwide, over 130 of which are parties to a non-international armed conflict. Africa accounts for over 40% of these groups, with about 20% in each of the Near and Middle East (NAME), the Americas, and in the Asia and Pacific.

In the 21st century, armed conflict continues to put millions of children in harm’s way, exposing them to human rights violations, including recruitment and use by armed forces and armed groups, military detention and ill-treatment, rape and other forms of sexual violence, forced displacement, family separation, and physical injuries. Children also suffer from trauma and other serious and long-lasting psychological consequences resulting from the violence they have experienced.

Education is often the first casualty of crisis—and the cornerstone of recovery.

A surge in violent conflict since 2010 has led to historically high levels of forced displacement. More recently, the war in Ukraine has caused the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since the end of World War II. Globally, there are more than 100 million forcibly displaced people  including refugees, internally displaced persons and asylum seekers who have fled their homes to escape violence, conflict and persecution. 

According to the 2025 Global Humanitarian Overview, humanitarian partners are seeking over $47 billion to assist nearly 190 million people facing life-threatening and urgent needs across 72 countries. These alarming figures are driven by various factors, including conflicts, political instability, climate change, disease outbreaks, poverty, and natural disasters. Additionally, a rise in nationalism is impacting multilateral cooperation, which is essential for the effective functioning of the humanitarian system.

Corruption undermines governance, saps resources and undermines development.  It is also exceptionally difficult to identify, address, and resolve due to the intrinsic opacity of its operative mechanisms, endemic nature inside systems, and persistence.

This course will teach:

This highly participatory course equips students with the tools and frameworks to negotiate effectively, resolve conflict, and build consensus in public and international affairs contexts. Through simulations, students learn to navigate a range of scenarios, including environmental disputes, diplomatic negotiations, and organizational conflicts, using both distributive and interest-based strategies. Core topics include preparation and strategy, cross-cultural communication, power dynamics, consensus building, and coalition management.

Gender equality, and women’s and girls’ empowerment, are now widely accepted as development goals in their own right, and essential to inclusive and sustainable development.    But despite progress in many areas, gender gaps and discrimination persist.  How did gender equality move from the periphery to the center of development discourse, and what difference has this made?

This course aims at familiarizing students with major issues surrounding global economic governance, exploring both the issues that have been or are now subject to current debates, as well as the institutional questions involved.

Instructor permission required. Join the waitlist in Vergil to request registration.

This course introduces the legal frameworks, institutions, and advocacy strategies that underpin the international human rights system. With a practitioner’s lens, students will explore civil, political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights through treaties, customary law, and jurisprudence. Emphasis is placed on understanding where and how the law offers avenues for redress, and the evolving role of human rights advocacy in confronting modern challenges, including corporate accountability, gender discrimination, and climate justice.

This course equips students with practical skills for designing and implementing human rights advocacy strategies. Through a mix of case studies, simulations, and applied writing assignments, students will learn how to identify advocacy goals, analyze targets and power structures, and select effective tactics. The course explores advocacy with governments, legislatures, and UN bodies, as well as the use of media, digital tools, and coalition-building to advance human rights.

In May 2016, the UN Human Rights Council passed a highly contested resolution condemning discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and establishing the first-ever Independent Expert on these issues. The protracted debate surrounding the resolution underscored how lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) rights remain among the most contentious topics in international human rights, law, and public policy.

Over 25 years ago, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security, and since then, it has adopted an additional 9 related resolutions. This agenda marks the first time in the UN’s 80-year history that women’s experiences, particularly their contributions to promoting peace and security in contexts of violent conflict, closed political spaces, and rising extremism, are acknowledged. It is also the first time that the need for women’s protection has been strongly noted.

A seminar on the contemporary history and practice of economic statecraft. The course focuses on how the United States and other countries weaponize economic, financial, and technological interdependence to advance strategic objectives. Topics include economic sanctions and restrictions on trade and investment. Case studies include efforts to use economic statecraft to curb Iran’s nuclear program, counter Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, and check China’s drive for technological supremacy.

This course explores the process of EU policy-making - how and why certain public policies are pursued by the institutions of the European Union - and analyses what the Union is doing to address a number of major policy challenges in today's interdependent world.

This course introduces students to the practice of modern diplomacy through case studies of global and regional crises and the European Union’s responses to them. Students will examine how foreign policy is developed and implemented from the perspective of a professional diplomat.

This course provides an advanced introduction to the politics of the European Union and its member states. It explores the EU as a distinctive political entity shaped by both supranational and domestic political dynamics.

This graduate seminar course provides an overview of modern and contemporary Japanese foreign policy and the strategy behind its engagement with the world. It examines the following questions: What are the key determinants of Japanese foreign policy, and how have they evolved over time?

Prerequisite: Instructor-Managed Waitlist. Propaganda, Russia and the World Information War is a highly current guide to propaganda and disinformation, the geopolitical impact of information, and how false, weaponized narratives threaten the world's news and information environment. 

MIA Policy Skills II Core. This course equips students with the journalistic tools necessary to communicate policy ideas to broad public audiences. Through a combination of seminar discussions and workshop-based learning, students develop fluency in multiple forms of opinion writing, including op-eds, essays, blogs, and newsletters. Weekly writing assignments guide students in translating specialized policy expertise into persuasive, accessible prose suitable for publication in student and professional media outlets.

MIA International Law Core. This course introduces students to the foundational concepts and contemporary practice of public international law through real-world scenarios and current global developments. Each session blends structured legal instruction with scenario-based simulations, helping students connect abstract legal norms to strategic thinking, negotiation, and policy analysis. Designed for students without a legal background, the course emphasizes the practical relevance of international law to global governance, diplomacy, and transnational challenges.

This course explores how artificial intelligence is shaping the future of conflict prevention. With case studies and insights drawn from real-world applications, students will examine how AI tools are being developed and used to anticipate political, economic, and military trends. Through critical literature reviews and debate-based discussions, the course engages students in the practical, policy, and ethical questions surrounding the integration of AI into peacekeeping and peacebuilding operations.

Intelligence activities are traditionally thought to comprise the activities of a nation state’s intelligence organizations attempting to steal secrets, usually those pertaining to national security, from the organizations of another nation state.  However, intelligence activities have seldom, if ever, been confined to the government sphere.  Most nation states have employed their national intelligence systems to steal privately held economic information from other countries to benefit their economies: many continue to do so.

Instructor permission required. Join the waitlist in Vergil to request registration. This seminar explores the role of intelligence in U.S. national security and foreign policy, focusing on both historic and contemporary controversies. Topics include intelligence failures such as 9/11 and Iraq’s WMDs, challenges in cyber and surveillance, and debates about covert action and interrogation practices. The course also considers the Intelligence Community’s (IC) relationship with policymakers, particularly during election cycles and presidential transitions.

Instructor permission required. Join the waitlist in Vergil to request registration. This seminar explores the role of intelligence in U.S. national security and foreign policy, focusing on both historic and contemporary controversies. Topics include intelligence failures such as 9/11 and Iraq’s WMDs, challenges in cyber and surveillance, and debates about covert action and interrogation practices. The course also considers the Intelligence Community’s (IC) relationship with policymakers, particularly during election cycles and presidential transitions.

The collection and use of intelligence have been functions of the state for thousands of years, and an essential element of the national security and foreign policy systems of the modern nation state.  However, it has long been apparent that different states conduct intelligence activities differently.  What accounts for these differences?  Until recently, the secrecy surrounding the activities, structure and impact of the specialized organizations involved in the intelligence process have made them difficult to study on a comparative basis.  Recent advances in the uncla

This course examines the origins and development of modern terrorism, the challenges it poses to states and the international system, and the strategies employed to confront it. The course explores a wide range of terrorist groups, assessing the psychological, political, socioeconomic, and religious factors that contribute to terrorist violence. Students will also evaluate the effectiveness and ethical implications of various counterterrorism approaches. The course is structured in two parts.

Threat Financing and Anti-Money Laundering is a class that provides an overview of the world of money laundering, terrorist financing, and sanctions.

The conduct of war is central to international security policy. Even when unused, the ability to wage war effectively underpins deterrence and shapes foreign policy. Military organization, training, and strategy are built around this capacity, and the institutions that support it exist largely to ensure effectiveness in conflict.

Technology is central to modern defense debates in the United States and globally. Its assessment underpins core functions across the defense policy and planning community, including budgeting, modernization, intelligence, campaign planning, force design, and program management. In the U.S., this work spans think tanks, Defense Department offices, Congressional and Service staffs, the intelligence community, and the defense industry. These assessments influence hundreds of billions in spending and carry life-and-death stakes in wartime.

This is a two-day intensive course. Over the past decade, the number of civil wars globally has increased dramatically, driven by a proliferation of non-state armed groups, illicit transnational networks and regional actors. The rise of civil wars has meant conflicts are not only harder to resolve via traditional forms of diplomacy, but also more likely to relapse; in fact, 60 per cent of the civil wars that reached peace agreements in the early 2000s have since fallen back into conflict.

The purpose of this half-semester course is to familiarize students with how the Internet and cybersecurity works; to provide a foundation of knowledge for later courses; and to familiarize students with the devices, protocols, and functions of computers, the Internet, industrial control systems, and cybersecurity. This course is not intended to be a computer science course, but to provide the students with the lexicon of cyberspace and the understanding of how hardware, software, and networks fit together to create the Internet experience.

This course explores the strategic, policy, and institutional dimensions of cyber conflict. It focuses on the national security implications of cyber threats and responses, rather than the technical mechanics of cyberspace. Students will examine how cyber operations unfold at both tactical and strategic levels, assess the comparison of cyber power to other domains of conflict, and trace the development of U.S. cyber policy and organizational structures.

This course examines the evolving role of cyberspace in modern warfare. Since the emergence of the Internet, scholars and policymakers have debated whether cyber capabilities represent a fundamental shift in the nature of conflict or a complement to conventional military power. Students will engage key conceptual debates about cyber conflict, assess how major powers including the United States, Israel, Russia, and China develop and employ cyber capabilities, and consider whether cyber operations should be viewed as a distinct strategic domain.

The purpose of this course is to familiarize SIPA students with the function of the internet while focusing on the flaws and vulnerabilities that can be exploited in attacks or impact user privacy.  This course will approach each session in the following manner: discussion of recent cyber events, discussion topic(s) to be covered, and the ramifications when used in the real world.

This course introduces cybersecurity as a business risk, emphasizing its impact beyond IT and into areas such as regulation, governance, finance, and reputation. Students explore core concepts in cybersecurity, risk management frameworks, and the evolving threat landscape. The course examines how leading organizations assess, quantify, and address cyber risk through strategies such as risk mitigation, transfer, and resilience. Topics include incident response, supply chain vulnerabilities, regulatory compliance, critical infrastructure, and cyber conflict.

This seminar critically examines the evolution and current trajectory of Russian security policy, with particular attention to the ongoing war in Ukraine and its broad strategic implications. The course explores the political, historical, and structural factors that shape Russia’s national security outlook, as well as its use of military force, energy policy, diplomacy, and information operations to advance its interests.

This course seeks to help students learn how to think, not what to think – we pursue fuller thinking by drawing on the broadest range of evidence from right and left, Arab, Israeli and Palestinian, Jewish and Muslim, and others. No questions are banned: all perspectives are open to challenge. What tools are required to engage, understand and be involved with improving the Israeli-Palestinian issue by acquiring greater intelligence, nuance, and awareness of the claims and sensitivities of both sides?

This course analyzes the impact of domestic and regional conflicts in the Middle East on global security. Key concepts include: regime change, revolution, civil war, conflict management, security sector reform, arms transfers, nuclear proliferation, counterterrorism, and international criminal justice. These conceptual tools are used for comparative analysis of three sub-regional conflict zones: Saudi Arabia / Iran / Iraq, Egypt / Syria / Lebanon, and Palestine / Jordan / Israel. Each of these regions has galvanized substantial global engagement.

This course examines the foreign policy of the People’s Republic of China from 1949 to the present, analyzing the political, strategic, and economic drivers of Beijing’s engagement with the world. Topics include China’s relations with the United States, Russia, Asia, and the Global South; key historical turning points such as the Cold War, reform era, and post-Tiananmen period; and contemporary challenges including cross-Strait relations, great power competition, and global governance.

Nuclear weapons are often considered to pose humanity’s gravest danger. Yet despite nuclear threats and crises, states have managed to avoid the deliberate or inadvertent use of nuclear weapons since the end of World War II. Eighty years after Hiroshima, how has nuclear war been avoided? Did the advent of nuclear weapons create a revolution in military affairs that stalemated major powers and dramatically reduced the prospects of great power war by the emergence of mutual vulnerability and mutual assured destruction (MAD) postures?

This course surveys the politics and history of the five countries of contemporary Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan). In addition to imparting a substantive understanding of these countries, the course explores several conceptual lenses through which the region can be analyzed both over time and in comparison with other parts of the world. The first half of the course examines the political history of the region, with particular reference to how policies and practices of the Soviet state shaped the former republics of Soviet Central Asia.

Economic statecraft, or the use of economic policy instruments in attempts at influence, has become increasingly germane to international diplomacy and security. China has developed from a target of economic statecraft, as seen in sanctions on China after the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989, to an active user of economic statecraft. This course traces that shift, including China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001, increasing participation in multilateral sanctions on other states, and accelerated trade and investments with all regions of the world.

Prerequisite: Course Application. In an era increasingly defined by geopolitical competition, it is more important than ever for future policymakers to understand why and how foreign policy decisions are made.

Henry Kissinger remarked in the 1970s that "Israel has no foreign policy, only domestic politics." Moshe Dayan, Israel's quintessential general, observed that "Israel has no foreign policy, only a defense policy with international implications." These statements highlight an enduring question for the Middle East: What explains Israeli foreign policy? How do history, security challenges, ideology, and domestic politics influence Israel's position in a globalized world? This question carries special relevance when considering the war in Gaza.

This intensive two-day workshop examines North Korea’s nuclear program within the broader security dynamics of the Indo-Pacific region. Students will explore how North Korea’s ambitions intersect with U.S.-China strategic competition and the evolving roles of Japan, South Korea, India, and other regional actors. Topics include extended deterrence, crisis escalation, alliance management, economic statecraft, and the linkage between Korean Peninsula security and Taiwan Strait tensions.

Pre-req: DSPC IA6000 - Computing in Context, or see option for testing out. In Computing in Context, students "explore[d] computing concepts and coding in the context of solving policy problems." Building off that foundation of Python fundamentals and data analysis, Advanced Computing for Policy goes both deeper and broader.

Pre-req: SIPA IA6501 - Quant II. The goal of this course is to provide students with a basic knowledge of how to perform some more advanced statistical methods useful in answering policy questions using observational or experimental data. It will also allow them to more critically review research published that claims to answer causal policy questions. The primary focus is on the challenge of answering causal questions that take the form “Did A cause B?” using data that do not conform to a perfectly controlled randomized study.

This course develops the skills necessary to prepare, analyze, and present data for policy analysis and program evaluation using R. Building on the foundations from Quant I and II—probability, statistics, regression analysis, and causal inference—this course emphasizes the practical application of microeconometric methods to real-world policy questions. (Note: macroeconomic topics and forecasting methods are not covered.)

This course introduces students to the theory and practice of political risk analysis, focusing on how geopolitical dynamics shape markets, investment strategies, and global governance. Students will examine frameworks such as the G-Zero world, J-Curve, and state capitalism, and explore how they apply to real-world risks across countries and sectors. Taught by leading experts in the field, the course emphasizes interdisciplinary tools and methodologies for identifying, assessing, and managing political risk—including scenario planning, risk indices, and game-theory modeling.

Prerequisite: Instructor-Managed Waitlist. Propaganda, Russia and the World Information War is a highly current guide to propaganda and disinformation, the geopolitical impact of information, and how false, weaponized narratives threaten the world's news and information environment. 

This applied course provides students with foundational skills to analyze and interpret publicly available datasets for public policy decision-making. Emphasizing hands-on learning, the course covers data sourcing, cleaning, research design, statistical analysis, and data visualization using Stata. Students will explore real-world challenges across topics such as poverty, education, housing, and public health, culminating in a data-based policy memo developed through collaborative group work.

The conduct of war is central to international security policy. Even when unused, the ability to wage war effectively underpins deterrence and shapes foreign policy. Military organization, training, and strategy are built around this capacity, and the institutions that support it exist largely to ensure effectiveness in conflict.

This course examines how national security and defense policy are developed and implemented in the U.S., focusing on political processes and institutional dynamics. Topics include military strategy, budgeting, force structure, acquisition, personnel policy, and the use of force. Students explore five key dimensions: partisan politics, Congress–Executive relations, civil-military relations, inter-service dynamics, and coordination across federal agencies. While grounded in U.S.

How does, and how should, the United States manage the relationship between elected leadership, the military, and society?

Technology is central to modern defense debates in the United States and globally. Its assessment underpins core functions across the defense policy and planning community, including budgeting, modernization, intelligence, campaign planning, force design, and program management. In the U.S., this work spans think tanks, Defense Department offices, Congressional and Service staffs, the intelligence community, and the defense industry. These assessments influence hundreds of billions in spending and carry life-and-death stakes in wartime.

Defense policy involves some of the highest stakes in government, often concerning life-or-death decisions. It is also a major employer, with U.S. government agencies, think tanks, and contractors relying on formal analysis to guide decisions ranging from equipment purchases to national military strategy. A large, trained workforce produces these studies, while others must critically assess their findings. Although most robust in the U.S., similar analytic work exists globally.

The purpose of this half-semester course is to familiarize students with how the Internet and cybersecurity works; to provide a foundation of knowledge for later courses; and to familiarize students with the devices, protocols, and functions of computers, the Internet, industrial control systems, and cybersecurity. This course is not intended to be a computer science course, but to provide the students with the lexicon of cyberspace and the understanding of how hardware, software, and networks fit together to create the Internet experience.

This course explores the strategic, policy, and institutional dimensions of cyber conflict. It focuses on the national security implications of cyber threats and responses, rather than the technical mechanics of cyberspace. Students will examine how cyber operations unfold at both tactical and strategic levels, assess the comparison of cyber power to other domains of conflict, and trace the development of U.S. cyber policy and organizational structures.

This interdisciplinary course explores how technology, policy, and law intersect in addressing complex cybersecurity challenges. Taught by experts in each field, the course examines how different disciplines approach problems such as cybercrime, national security threats, and corporate intrusions. Students will gain foundational knowledge in Internet architecture and computer security, legal frameworks governing cyber activity, and policy strategies for defense and resilience.