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Institute for Politics and Strategy Graduate Course Offerings

2020-2021 Courses: Spring, Summer, and Fall

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84-600 Acceleration: A Global Security War Game in the Age of Pandemic

This micro-course will expose students to the multi-faceted nature of key twenty-first century security challenges through the lens of a war game. The value of war games is increasingly recognized by scholars and practitioners due to their ability to make us think…

84-602 Judicial Politics and Behavior

This course is a survey of research and insight into one of the most unique American government institutions: the judiciary. Rather than exclusively reading case law (as one would do in a Constitutional Law class), this course examines court structure, rules of law and,…

84-605 The Future of Warfare

Warfare is constantly evolving. Long gone are the days of set-piece battles involving conventional military forces. In the contemporary conflict environment, hybrid actors and proxy groups wage war in an asymmetric and irregular manner, relying on ambiguity, strategic…

84-606 Latin American Politics

The world's most unequal region is an area of contrasts. Ethnically diverse, stable and tumultuous, young and old, urban and rural, learned and illiterate, prosperous and poor, independent yet dependent. The social and material disparities that have characterized the…

84-608 Political Economy of Latin America

For most of its history, Latin America has been home to political and economic experiments. Revolutions, coups, military dictatorships, democratic and authoritarian regimes have coexisted with dramatic oscillations on economic policies regarding the size and functions of…

84-610 International Political Economy

This course explores how political institutions, process, and actors influence economic interactions both domestically and internationally. During the semester, we will address two key questions: 1) how do governments collaborate to regulate, and stabilize, the…

84-620 Global Perspectives on International Affairs

International Relations as a field of study is, ironically enough, not very international. Having originated in the United Kingdom and United States in the early 20th century, it still draws mostly from American and European experiences and philosophies, and focuses…

84-622 Nonviolent Conflict and Revolution

Conflict and revolution are usually associated with armed struggle and violence. But over the course of the last century, nonviolent conflict has become an increasingly prominent source of institutional change and political revolution around the world, from Gandhi's salt…

84-623 War and Peace in the Contemporary Middle East

This course examines the drivers of war and peace in the contemporary Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The course is structured around five major types of armed conflict that plague the region today - civil wars, insurgent and terrorist campaigns, enduring…

84-625 Contemporary American Foreign Policy

This course provides a survey of American foreign policy since World War I. We will cover topics such as America's entry into the Great War, the League of Nations and America's role in global self-determination movements, the perennial battles between isolationism and…

84-652 Representation and Redistricting

What does it mean to be represented? Who is represented, who isn't? What is the nature of that representation? In practice, does the norms of representation result in policy congruence? In this course, we will explore the concept of representation, what it means in…

84-661 A4 Leaders and International Security

This course will investigate different approaches to studying the role of leaders in international security. We will cover approaches that draw on political psychology, biographical analysis, and decision-making theories, among others, to examine how individual leaders…

84-662 Diplomacy and Statecraft

Diplomacy and statecraft are the driving forces behind foreign policy and international politics. The class first surveys the evolution of great power politics from the Peace of Westphalia to today and examines the history and practice of different types of statecraft,…

84-664 Comparative Presidential Behavior: Leadership, Personality, and Decision Making

Presidents receive universal attention for good reasons. As the most powerful politicians in the 49 countries that they govern, their behavior and decisions have enormous consequences. Given the vast amounts of energy dedicated to understanding presidents, one would expect…

84-665 Psychology and International Relations

This course will explore psychological approaches to international relations. We will discuss rationality, heuristics and biases, learning, motivated reasoning, emotions, personality, and social identity. Students will learn about contemporary academic debates, apply…

84-669 Decision Science for International Relations

Decision Science looks at choices from three interrelated perspectives: analysis, characterizing decision makers' options, in terms of expected effects on outcomes that they value; description, characterizing decision makers' beliefs and preferences; and interventions,…

84-670 Global Nuclear Politics

The taming of the atom is one of the defining features of the modern era. The awesome creative and destructive potential of nuclear energy has had enormous impact on great power politics, the environment, economic development, and international institutions. Limiting the…

84-672 Space and National Security

Space systems contribute a great deal to America's security, prosperity, and quality of life. This course examines how space-based services provide critical support to military and intelligence operations and contribute to national security more broadly. The course is…

84-673 Emerging Technologies and the Law

This course provides a forum for students to consider the relationship between key emerging technologies and the law. In the first half of the course, each session will be dedicated to discussing the legal implications of a particular emerging technology, including…

84-680 Grand Strategy in the United States

This course introduces students to the concept of grand strategy in the United States, broadly defined as the combination of diplomatic, economic, military, and political factors used by American presidents and their administrations to advance U.S. interests throughout the…

84-682 Conflicts in the Middle East: Iran, Iraq, and Proxy Warfare

This class will focus on Iran in the post-1979 era, the rise of Lebanese Hezbollah, and various militia groups in Iraq as the face of new modes of warfare. Military institutions were traditionally built on the Clausewitzian theory of state-on-state conflict; the…

84-686 The Privatization of Force

This course considers different forms of privatized force and security over time and across various strategic contexts, from historical mercenarism up to modern-day private military and security contractors. While going through the historical and modern material…

84-687 Technology and Policy of Cyber War

This course examines underlying and emerging technologies and policies associated with cyber war and cyber threats. The technological concepts reviewed in this course include but are not limited to the internet, networks and sensors, and trends associated with…

84-688 Concepts of War and Cyber War

This course examines traditional theories, concepts, and practices in international relations and warfare- conventional, unconventional, and modern- and relates them to the emerging dynamics of cyber war. The principle concepts examined in this course reflect, have shaped,…

84-689 Terrorism and Insurgency

There are many forms of political violence but not all are created equal. Some, like terrorism, are a tactic while others, like insurgency, are a strategy. How important is it to define terrorism and insurgency? What are the differences and similarities between them? This…

84-690 Social Media, Technology, and Conflict

This course will examine the role that social media and technology have had on conflict and governance over the past decade. Interconnectedness has expanded dramatically and continues to expand, not only within coastal cities but also between them and their hinterlands,…

84-693 Legislative Decision Making: US Congress

This course analyzes decision-making by the United States Congress. The course examines legislative behavior by focusing on the way Congress is organized (institutional and constitutional structure) and the ways legislators, voters, and various other parties interact…

84-701 Regression Analysis for Political Science

Regression Analysis for Political Science I (RAPS I) will teach students to conduct bivariate and multivariate linear regression models. Students will learn about analysis of variance, parameter estimation, hypothesis testing, interpretation of estimates, model fit, models…

84-702 Regression Analysis for Political Science II

By the end of RAPS II, students will be able to evaluate critically most studies that use statistical tools in political science research, and be able to design and carry out original research applying quantitative methods. Among other topics, we will examine the…

84-710 A1 Thesis Proposal Tutorial

Thesis Proposal Tutorial is devoted to improving intentionality in formulating a thesis for Master of Science in International Relations and Politics (MS IRP) students. This course will familiarize students with the structure of a thesis, the functions of its different…

84-711 A2 Process Tracing, Counterfactuals, Archival Analysis, and Interviews

The Process Tracing, Counterfactuals, Archival Analysis and Interviews mini covers some of the most influential research methods in qualitative research, strongly integrating theory and practice. Students will become familiar with the inferential logic of process tracing…

84-720 International Security Graduate Seminar

This seminar is a graduate-level introduction to the field of international security. The course focuses on issues concerning the conduct of war and military strategy, surveying both classic texts and recent works on important security policy issues. The course has three…

84-721 American Politics Graduate Seminar

This course examines prominent classical and contemporary works in the two major subfields in American politics, political institutions and political behavior. This means the seminar will address topics such as Congress, presidency, bureaucracy, and courts, but also public…

84-722 Comparative Political Institutions Graduate Seminar

This course examines the foundations of the comparative analysis of political institutions, analyzes how institutions vary across countries, and explores some of the main consequences of such variation. The first section introduces the analysis of institutions, discusses…

84-725 International Organizations and International Law Graduate Seminar

This course provides students with a comprehensive overview of the role and function of international organizations and international law in global affairs. In this course, we will consider the historical development of the international legal system and theories and…

84-736 Emerging Challenges in National Security

This course applies leading theories, ideas, historical analyses and policy-oriented research in the examination of emerging challenges in national security.  In particular, the course addresses the following: why so many people in the United States and elsewhere…

84-750 Policy Forum

The IRP Graduate Policy Forum course takes a critical look at decision making in domestic politics and US foreign policy. It does so through weekly roundtable discussions with a diverse set of thought leaders. Based on intellectually significant essays that students are…

84-765 Advanced Research Methods

The purpose of the course is to prepare master's students to critically evaluate and analyze scholarly research in international relations and politics and to facilitate skills in both applied quantitative and qualitative research methods. The course surveys critical…

84-791 CIRP Policy Forum

The Center for International Relations and Politics (CIRP) Policy Forum is one key way in which the Institute for Politics and Strategy (IPS) brings international relations and politics into the intellectual conversation at CMU. The CIRP Policy Forum regularly brings…

84-792 CIRP Policy Forum II

The Center for International Relations and Politics (CIRP) Policy Forum is one key way in which the Institute for Politics and Strategy (IPS) brings international relations and politics into the intellectual conversation at CMU. The CIRP Policy Forum regularly brings…

84-799 IRP Graduate Thesis

Master of Science in International Relations and Politics students are expected to dedicate a minimum of eighteen hours per week to work on the thesis for the duration of the semester. The student is expected to meet regularly (once per week, on average) with the thesis…
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