South Asian Politics and War

Catalog description

This course is for students who want to become experts in South Asia, develop an additional regional specialty, or want some exposure to political risk, prediction, and strategy. You will learn about the individual politics of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Nepal as well as the regional politics of South Asia. Through an intellectual investigation of a range of qualitative data and a simple risk framework, you will then understand current conflicts and where we can expect conflict domestically and regionally. Where will South Asia face war today & in the next decade? How can state (eg local government, superpowers) and non-state actors (eg civil society, tech companies, activist billionaires) prevent conflict? You will cultivate your research, strategic thinking, and communication skills while developing country/region-specific expertise through your coursework. This will prepare you well for a career as an analyst at a policy think tank (e.g. CFR, RAND), political analysis firm (e.g. Stratfor, Oxford Analytica), a research division at a bank (e.g. Citigroup) or government agency (e.g. US State Dept). Past guest speakers included a former prime minister, a consultant, think tank expert, and the head of a nonproliferation foundation.