Required Courses (EMIR-ONLY)
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While old paradigms seem to be failing us in war and peace, the creative management of national security challenges are more important than ever. We require new approaches – not reading the same, old texts, or using the same, old methodologies and theories. It is primarily for this reason – the need for imaginative, strategic leaders – that this class uses fiction as the launching point for discussion. As the 9/11 Commission noted in their report, “The most important failure was one of imagination.” Students in this course will use fiction as a springboard will hone several key student skills including creativity, the ability to better empathize with complex situations and potential opponents, understanding unfamiliar or strange cultures in order to consider unseen challenges and potential solutions and, grappling with ambiguity, contradictions, complexity, and ambivalence – entertaining for fiction but critical when considering the real world. Perhaps most importantly, students will hone their ability to ask the right questions – a prerequisite to finding least bad options, which is increasingly their job as they move into higher leadership positions. Finally, students will emerge from this course changed readers – better able to deconstruct (and reconstruct) text, think critically about what is read, and know when, and when not to, apply these frameworks.
PAI 895 | Managerial Leadership | Sean O'Keefe and Jim Cunningham Managerial Leadership | LeAnne Howard (Spring Term)
This Washington DC taught iteration focuses on leadership and strategy in global affairs and is a requirement for the EMIR degree. Students will establish an understanding of the schools of leadership thinking, especially current trends, to practice requisite skills, and to plan for additional learning and development through assessment and action planning. Course readings focus on leadership theory and practice and their application in the changing organizational environment in a global workplace. Case studies, simulations/exercises, and guest speakers will augment group discussion.
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This course is focused on developing an understanding of the dynamics at play and strategies that both public and private organizations are enacting to minimize risks and unintended consequences during a rapid transition towards a new generation of energy, sustainable technologies, and organizational strategies. In addition to interactive lectures, students will engage with invited thought-leaders, work through case studies and be part of a project team working on an applied final project focused on the implications for an economic region, resource, or technology.
PAI 700 | Humanitarian Humanitarian Actions: Challenges, Responses, Results | Jacob Kurtzer (M/W)TBD
Via case studies and a review of relevant readings, assess major humanitarian challenges worldwide since 1992. Disasters caused by nature and man: conflicts and major economic stress. Challenges for women, children, refugees, displaced people. Involvement of government, UN agencies, NGO’s, militaries, donors, press, and others.
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PAI 715 | From Fragility to Resilience: New Approaches to Global Development | Erol Yayboke & Sara RecklessKevin Melton and Julie Werbel
While some countries move up the development ladder on the way to greater economic growth and stability, others struggle with cyclical fragility and the negative repercussions that come with it. The path from fragility to resilience is rarely linear, requiring a mix of security, stabilization, humanitarian aid, and development assistance. This course will look at causes of fragility and examine the non-kinetic tools deployed in fragile states, especially their utility and effectiveness in specific country and regional cases. Primarily discussion-based, the course will also include regular guest speakers who are regional experts and/or practitioners.
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This course is a graduate-level survey of the major issues in contemporary politics in the post-Soviet region in general, and Russia in particular. The seminar will very briefly examine the pre-Soviet and Soviet period, but the primary focus of the course is on developments since 1991. Topics to be examined include the Soviet collapse and transition, the nature of Putinism as a political and economic system, and Russian foreign and security policy, including US-Russian relations and the Russo-Ukraine War. We will meet with multiple guests from the DC area community of Russia and Ukraine scholars and practitioners.
PAI 715 | The Emerging Challenge of Disruptive Technologies| Andrew Whiskeyman
This course will examine how disruptive technology may impact a nation’s approach toward its use of diplomacy, information, military, and economic power to advance national objectives. Students will investigate key concepts and impediments to the adoption of technology by organizations and individuals, make educated predictions regarding the role technology could play in competition in the international arena, and assess ethical factors involved in the use of technology, both old and new.
Hybrid / Online
PAI 738 | US Intelligence Community: Governance and Practice | Robert Murrett
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