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Institute for Politics and Strategy Undergraduate Course Offerings

2021 Courses: Spring, Summer, and Fall

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84-104 Decision Processes in American Political Institutions

This is an interdisciplinary introduction to the study of politics and government in the United States. It familiarizes the student with the basic structures and processes of American government, but moves beyond the purely descriptive into the realm of the analytical. The…

84-110 Foundations of Political Economy

Political Economics studies the interplay between economics and politics. Politicians, for example, may deviate from welfare-maximizing policies due to political pressures. Conversely, the economic and political consequences of policy decisions can shape the choices of…

84-200 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…

84-202 A4 Simulating Nuclear Non-Proliferation

Sitting at the crossroads of political science, national security, and technology, nuclear non-proliferation often involves using physical science to solve some of the globe's most crucial and complex issues, including WMD proliferation and the peaceful uses of nuclear…

84-250 Writing for Political Science and Policy

This course will equip students with critical skills to effectively write academic research papers and a senior thesis in political science, as well as professional documents such as policy memos, op-eds, and briefs. We will cover general principles of style, rhetoric and…

84-265 Political Science Research Methods

This course provides an overview of research methods in political science. Students will learn to think like social scientists and develop skills required by the discipline. The course emphasizes the nature of causality and how causal claims can be made in the social…

84-275 Comparative Politics

This course is an introduction to the subfield of Political Science called Comparative Politics. Scholars in this subfield use comparative methods to study and compare domestic politics across countries. In this course, we aim to learn about how political systems differ,…

84-306 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…

84-307 Economic and Political History of Contemporary China

Global politics is increasingly being shaped by the arrival of China as an economic powerhouse, which is increasingly being viewed as a challenger to the Western model of governance and has been posited as an anti-western economic blueprint for development. To understand…

84-310 International Political Economy

This course explores how political institutions, processes, 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…

84-313 International Organizations and Law

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…

84-323 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…

84-325 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…

84-326 Theories of International Relations

This course will introduce students to major theories and debates in international relations. The first half of the course is dedicated to studying the theoretical traditions within the discipline. In the second half, students will study the implications of these theories…

84-327 Repression and Control in Dictatorships

How do dictatorships exert physical and social control over their populations through state coercion? What tools and institutions do they use, and what makes dictatorships' use of coercion distinct from that of democracies? Why is so much of the population complicit in…

84-330 The Shading of Democracy: The Influence of Race on American Politics

This course will explore intersections of race, political influence and the shaping of America's democracy. Discourse will focus on racial and ethnicity-related policies, practices and processes designed to influence democratic outcomes. Students will examine complex, and…

84-331 Money, Media, and the Power of Data in Decisionmaking

This course focuses on the impact of three critical influences on policy and decisionmaking in Washington DC: money, in the form of political campaign dollars in particular; media, from national to local; and data that can define the policy problem and solution. The course…

84-336 Implementing Public Policy: From Good Idea to Reality

Good public policy doesn't just "happen." Rather, successful policy is the result of thorough research, careful drafting, and successful navigation within the government or non-government organization whose leadership may ultimately promulgate it. The course begins with a…

84-339 Seminar in Public Policy Research

Public policy has high stakes. The taxes we pay, our access to medical care, the quality and composition of the military - all of these are the direct result of US public policy. Furthermore, public policy often touches on highly contested issues such as private gun…

84-340 Making Change: How Organized Interests Work in Washington

American politics has many elements and founding principles. Among them is the right of individuals- alone or in groups- to assemble and petition the government in pursuit of their interests and beliefs. This class will highlight the intersection between pressure groups,…

84-346 Legal Issues in Public Administration

Part I of the course will focus on legal issues in public administration and cover the relationship between the government and its employees, including the role of labor unions and collective bargaining in the federal sector. Part II will cover official immunity for…

84-348 Advocacy, Policy, and Practice

This course examines the role that advocacy and advocacy organizations play at all stages of the policymaking and implementation process, from grassroots to professional advocacy organizations, public facing communications initiatives to internal policy-focused actions.…

84-352 Representation and Voting Rights

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…

84-360 CMU/WSP Internship Seminar

The internship is the experiential "core" of the Washington Semester Program.  Students intern three days per week, for approximately 24-25 hours, in offices from Capitol Hill to the White House and including opportunities in cabinet agencies, nonprofit…

84-361 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…

84-362 Diplomacy and Statecraft

Diplomacy and statecraft are the driving forces behind foreign policy and international politics. In the first part of the course, students are introduced to the concepts, theories, and history of diplomacy. Students examine key cases and political leaders and women in…

84-364 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…

84-365 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…

84-369 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,…

84-370 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…

84-372 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…

84-373 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…

84-380 US Grand Strategy

What role should the United States play in the world? Should the US solely protect its own borders or advance democracy, promote human rights, and contain aggressive countries? These are questions that Americans have wrestled with throughout modern US history. In this…

84-386 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…

84-387 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…

84-388 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 principal concepts examined in this course reflect, have…

84-389 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 causes insurgencies, and what determines the choice of…

84-390 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,…

84-393 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…

84-402 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,…

84-405 The Future of Warfare

Warfare is constantly evolving. In the contemporary conflict environment, irregular actors and tactics are prominent within an overarching context of great-power strategic competition that is in many ways reminiscent of the Cold War. Hybrid actors and proxy groups wage war…

84-421 Advanced Topics in American Politics

This upper-level 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,…

84-450 Policy Seminar

The Policy Seminar 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 expected to read in…
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