U.S. national security policy is at a moment of historic transition. The end of the Cold War removed the organizing principle of U.S. strategy while the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001 sparked a debate that continues to this day about how to tackle new dangers to the United States. However, the reexamination of national security policy has moved beyond terrorism to encompass the ascent of new powers, technological innovation, the rise and fracturing of a global economy, and ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This course will focus on four broad topics: 1) placing the debate about U.S. national security policy in historical perspective, 2) analyzing national security threats that stem from state weakness or asymmetriesterrorism, counterinsurgency, and nuclear weaponsand assessing the means of addressing them, 3) the implications of the shifting of the geopolitical center of gravity away from the Atlantic and toward the Pacific, and 4) the domestic and international national security infrastructure.
