Bombs and Rockets: National Security Policy

Catalog description

This course introduces students to the basic concepts and issues of security in the contemporary world. The primary focus is on policy issues related to the use of force between and within countries. The goal of the course is to provide you with the analytical tools and factual knowledge that you will need to identify and assess current and future threats to national security. This is not a course solely on U.S. national security, but much of the material deals with the specific problems of the United States. Students are encouraged to apply what you learn in this course to the security concerns of other nations in the international system. After briefly reviewing the historical development of war, the course examines deterrence, alliances, collective security, conventional war, and the nuclear revolution. The course then analyzes emerging transnational threats such as terrorism, the challenges of the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, the tensions between economic globalization and the imperatives of homeland security and the technological changes giving rise to new weaponry such as military robotics as well as the prospects of cyber warfare. CR: So. stdg.