The US Constitution structures and defines the powers of the United States. However, constitutions, almost by definition, do not always provide the details for how the various powers that are created are to be used in practice. At various junctures in American history, responses to security threats, both traditional and non-traditional, have created constitutional dilemmas for the US Government. In this course, we will explore how the US Supreme Court has attempted to resolve the constitutional conflicts over how foreign affairs are conducted by the United States. We will examine the justifications for the specific constitutional powers of both the legislative and executive branches and the potential sources of conflict that these powers create. Finally, we also explore the ways in which the presence of armed conflict or security crises shape constitutional law within the United States.

Countries such as the US, China, and Russia that once were separated by great distances are now connected by cyber at the speed of light. This change requires us to rethink what we know about security, international relations, and war. To complicate matters, the Internet has instantiated differently in different States due to bureaucratic, political, cultural, and economic factors and has shaped each State in different ways. Understanding these cyber-differences is critical for understanding the role of networks in Security for each State and the role of "attribution", "retaliation", and "deterrence" in State-relations.

This course provides an overview of the role of intelligence in the formulation and execution of US national security policy. It will include a detailed look at challenges facing both the analysis of intelligence information and the introduction of that analysis into the national security policy process, and will also entail close reading and discussion of selected declassified intelligence documents.

Policy and strategy development is perhaps the most critical function of the national security apparatus. The results of the policy process provide the blueprint for the array of agencies and departments that execute U.S. national security. Strategy can be narrowly defined in military terms or expanded into grand strategy integrating all of the elements of national power (Diplomatic, Information, Military, Economic, Finance, Intelligence, Law Enforcement). A review of classic strategists including Clausewitz and Sun Tzu will build a foundation upon which modern strategists like Mao Tse-Tung and Schelling add insurgency and nuclear game theory. This course will examine the definitions of policy and strategy, survey the structure and players at the top of the U.S. national security system, and provide the analytical tools for strategy development. Finally, the course will examine the strategy behind the Cold War containment of the Soviet Union and contrast it with the War on Terror strategy which has had suboptimal results. Throughout the course, students will work together as an interagency team to develop a strategy that addresses a current U.S. national security issue. Leveraging an understanding of the nature of strategy and the structure of the national security system, students will build practical experience culminating in the presentation of their strategy.

Capstone project, in which students develop a portfolio that overviews their academic work in the context of their professional goals. This should be taken as the final course of the ISS M.A. degree.

This course considers the national interests, issues and conflicts, relations, and influence of domestic politics in interstate relations in East Asia.

This course addresses the political causes and consequences of the use of terrorist violence as well as the variety of methods employed by the state in response to this violence. Graduate-level requirements include reading three additional documents and critically reviewing them as instructed,

Capstone project, in which students develop a portfolio that overviews their academic work in the context of their professional goals. This should be taken as the final course of the ISS M.A. degree.