Course Listing For Political Science Courses

This introductory course focuses on the era of the American Founding and examines documents, ideas, and institutions that formed the American government—including the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and several of the Federalist Papers. This course also examines the three primary branches of government, as well as the institutions that influence public policy development.

This three hour course examines the confluence between 20th Century societal changes, historical events, and popular music. Using a wide selection of music from early Blues to Jazz, Rock n’ Roll, World, Soul and Hip Hop, students identify, analyze and relates themes in music to historical events and movements in American society including racism, sexuality, anti-war movement and dissent against government. Students will use a textbook, online articles and videos to better understand historical American eras and that music that reflected these times. This course entails a close examination of the politics, history, and cultural contexts of a wide body of recordings. Course Prerequisites: None

This course introduces students to national security as a concept, strategy, goal, and challenge. It examines the dangers and threats that exist domestically and internationally and analyzes how the United States attempts to deal with those challenges using strategies that range from diplomacy to military force.

This course introduces students to intelligence and counterintelligence as concepts, processes, and careers. It elaborates on historical and contemporary approaches to I/CI. The process of intelligence collection, analysis, research dissemination, consumption, and feedback is examined. Students are exposed to the diverse IC community and the responsibilities of its various members.

This course introduces and engages elements of theoretical and ethical analysis to empirical topics and subject matter. Some of the issues covered will include war, weapons of mass destruction, humanitarian intervention, globalization, and spying. This course explores the deeper underlying philosophical issues within national security.

This course introduces the subfield of geostrategy. It takes a holistic approach to the study of geopolitics and foreign policy when guided by geographical factors. It examines how geography can inform, constrain and affect political, economic, and military planning. Topics covered include how a country's resources, position, and physical factors can change and determine its geopolitical objectives and how geography is sometimes inextricable from strategy.

This course promotes the understanding of tactical and strategic thought at the introductory level. The course explores how theory and strategy help form policy by identifying the implications and shifts in long-term strategic patterns and trends. Security culture, use of force, international law, grand strategy, and just and unjust war will be major aspects of course study.

This course gives students an in-depth understanding of how science and technology impacts national security and intelligence. It examines how important hard science and technology is in developing areas of national security and intelligence. This includes analyzing cyber-security and cyber-warfare, the emerging relationship between the IC and IT, space reconnaissance, and high-tech espionage.

This course analyzes transnational crime and corruption issues within global politics. Focus is given to potential national and international responses to transnational threats. This course examines the increasing relevance of criminality and governmental corruption and how it becomes a major aspect of national security policy.

This course examines how democratization projects around the world succeed or fail and the international dynamics that flow from that success/failure. International threats that emerge from the problems and flaws of implementation are investigated in depth. Case studies are used as teaching tools about international involvement and difficulties with that engagement. This upper-division course aims to make students competent in the long-term national security objectives of establishing peaceful, stable, and prosperous democracies and aware of the problems in accomplishing that goal.

This course analyzes issues of leadership and statehood that run contrary to international norms and democratic standards. Students will investigate key case studies and examine how they offer challenges to the global community and international security. It acquaints students with problem areas and issues in world politics and gets them thinking of conflict-resolution strategies that are both short and long-term. How these strategies are employed within US foreign policy and their likely efficacy is also examined.

The study of Eurasia (defined as Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan) with an emphasis on understanding the different political cultures and security issues across the region. Topics covered include individual domestic concerns, international positions, national security/economic interests, and alliances/conflicts between countries within and beyond the region.

This course investigates the various forms and differences of internal/domestic conflict. Students will be exposed to the global context of civil war and insurgency. Numerous case studies will be analyzed, exposing students to the nature and characteristics of revolution. Understanding the changes in our concepts of old/new wars and how that impacts international peacekeeping and global intervention will be highlighted. Students consider transnational issues that emerge within domestic conflicts and how democracy emerges as both a cause and effect within rebellion.

This course examines various fundamentalist movements around the globe and considers the revival of religious radicalism in the 21st century. Students evaluate how various ‘fundamentalisms’ impact domestic and global political processes. The process for morphing religious radicalism into political violence is examined. How various international factors can ameliorate/exacerbate extremism is examined.

This course is not just a theoretical examination of the concepts of power, ideology, and legitimacy in international relations. It applies these concepts explicitly to global affairs and international security, so as to link scholarly theories with empirical real-world application. Its thematic coverage includes norms, law, and legality across civilizational and international contexts; war and the use of force in geopolitics; power, hegemony, and polarity in terms of global world orders; competing visions of legitimacy between the West and non-West; and sovereignty within the fight against terrorism. Particular attention is paid to how concepts influence countries and how governments end up interpreting and repositioning concepts while interacting with other state and non-state actors.

This course examines Latin America with an emphasis on understanding the different political and intelligence cultures and security issues across the region. Emphases will focus on individual domestic concerns, international positions, national security/economic interests, and alliances/conflicts between countries within and beyond the region. Particular attention is paid to non-state, transnational security threats, domestic corruption and the various political/social philosophies prominent across the entire region. This intensive course adds to the upper-level Comparative Politics section of the program and allows for the development of a specific regional specialization, which is advantageous to the overall program objectives and future career opportunities.

This course examines the Middle East with an emphasis on understanding the different political cultures and security issues across the region. Emphases will focus on individual domestic concerns, international positions, national security/economic interests, and alliances/conflicts between countries within and beyond the region. Particular attention is paid to non-state, transnational security threats and the interplay between secular and religious factions across the entire region.This intensive course adds to the upper-level Comparative Politics section of the program and allows for the development of a specific regional specialization, which is advantageous to the overall program objectives and future career opportunities.

This course provides an overview of disinformation and misinformation in democratic and non-democratic contexts. Discussions will focus on domestic and foreign disinformation tactics and techniques to manipulate public discourse, threaten the national security infrastructure, and subvert democracy.

This course examines the application of national security into the global arena and how complicated transnational threats represent unique dangers to American interests.

Examines in comparative perspective the intelligence communities of various important states around the globe, including both allies and adversaries of the U.S.

This course examines how and what happens when states fail, the challenges and debates surrounding rebuilding conflict-ridden states, the methods available to achieve such objectives, and the criticisms and opponents of peacekeeping. The course exposes students to aspects of military intervention, economic and political reconstruction, and diplomatic engagement in terms of establishing peaceful and stable societies.

This course defines, analyzes, and compares foreign policies across the globe. The materials review internal and external factors that influence and complicate the formation of foreign policy as well as consider the various norms and theories that exist about foreign policy construction within the global environment. Finally, numerous case studies are examined in terms of divergence and variety across states and regions. This course is designed to make students familiar with the foreign-policy thinking of countries that are both allied with and adversarial to the United States.

Disinformation is false information created to deliberately mislead an audience; its purpose is to support its perpetrator’s goals through deception. This course examines several types of disinformation, including “fake news;” how it overlaps with propaganda and misinformation but is also unique; how and why disinformation works; its incentives and consequences (some of which are unintentional); several historical examples of disinformation (including who perpetrated them and why); some sophisticated techniques used in creating disinformation; and how the individual and also society can guard against disinformation but may never completely eliminate it.

This course examines an increasingly important aspect of 21st century conflict: green conflict, based on ecological, natural resource and demographic crises. It will assess how changing factors in the environment can alter and impact states and transnational relations. The geopolitics of energy and other natural resources will be a major emphasis of the course.

This course examines hard and soft power as concepts, theories, and consequential implications in global politics. It will estimate the applications of diplomatic and military strength and the proper context and applicability of each in given complex foreign dilemmas.

This course examines the underlying philosophy behind the most prominent terrorist groups at the international level and the controversies and contradictions entailed within said groups. Students will become aware of contrasting perspectives and the debates raging within political Islam, challenging the idea that it can be considered monolithic.

Examines the complexity of international political economy, its manipulation, misuse, and role in the elevation, continuation, and worsening of conflict around the globe.

This course examines the various and diverse forms, philosophies, and political arguments made around the globe for going against American policy and interest. It will analyze the different theoretical approaches used to study anti-Americanism and delve into the various international and domestic factors impacting the phenomenon.

This course examines deterrence in a comprehensive fashion, giving not only an historical grounding in the concept but also its evolution and likely transformation into the future as it applies to American interests.

This course examines strategic deterrence across various case studies – individual states, various crucial regions, and the larger global context. It will assess how states work within their own regions, to impact not only other states but also transnational relations with major powers. The evolution of deterrence as a concept, both in the classical strategic environment and in the new modern context, will be important. Constraining deterrence and/or utilizing it through diplomacy will also be examined and considered. Finally the course will look at deterrence from a future strategy perspective, asking if there are new variations and differentiations that can be foreseen and addressed.

This course examines what has become a key buzzword of 21st century security: cyber warfare and deterrence. The various forms and complexities of cyber war will be examined, including aspects of non-state actors, international law, financial flows, and state capabilities. Understanding how states try to protect themselves (and develop their own cyber weapons), in addition to comprehending the legal and ethical complications, will be a major element of the course. Finally the concept of deterrence will be evaluated, namely the various state attempts to produce it and the counter-arguments made against the concept overall.

This course examines the African continent to expose the implications of democratization, ethnicity, and development. It will analyze various democratization projects occurring throughout the continent; consider the development of African political thought; domestic and party politics within various countries; and consider the complex consequences to war and conflict in Africa today. Finally, theoretical, empirical and philosophical debates about international relations, foreign aid, grassroots activism and radicalism will be investigated, to provide greater depth and subtlety to the more commonly examined issues of economic development.

This course examines Asia from the perspectives of democracy, political economy, and human rights. It will assess how political and economic factors in the region impact not only individual states, but also transnational relations with other regions like North America and the European Union. How the region’s ongoing economic and political transformation influences governance will be examined. How power interplays with other states on issues pertaining to conflict and human rights will be important. Finally, the course will look at all of these issues from a theoretical and philosophical perspective, asking if culture impacts some of the variations.

This course examines the Greater Middle East (from Morocco to Iran) to expose the issues of democratization, gender relations, and political/economic reform. The material reviews various democratization projects occurring throughout the region, comparing and contrasting strengths and weaknesses, while drawing general conclusions about democracy in the Middle East writ large. The complex and evolving role of women in this process, from the political, economic, and cultural perspectives, is emphasized and used to ascertain future potential trajectories. Theoretical and philosophical debates about Islam, democracy, and civil liberties are investigated.