POLS 7230 - National Security Policy of the United States

The aim of this course is to provide students with an understanding of the U.S. national security process and how it develops, executes and implements policy for the issues that face America in the 21st century. We will spend significant amounts of time discussing the major actors in the National Security Establishment (the Presidency, National Security Council, Congress, the Military, the Intelligence community, the judiciary, public and media) and how they participate in a process your textbook author Sam Sarkesian calls “somewhat of a mystery or `muddling through’” (181). Structure and theory are applied to organize, clarify and understand this process, and historical and modern-day examples are used in extensive class discussion to connect process to policy. A semester-long research project affords the student an opportunity to apply this process to a topic of specific interest in U.S. national security policy.

Hours:
3