Security Studies Program Course Offerings
MIT SSP courses are offered through the Department of Political
Science at MIT (Course 17).
These courses include the following:
Course descriptions from the MIT Bulletin are reproduced
below. For information on when each course will next
be offered, or for the times and locations of the current semester's
courses, please see the online
political science course listings. (Click on "Grad Subjects"
or "Undergrad Subjects" for current and previous listings.)
17.40
American Foreign Policy: Past, Present, and Future
Subject's mission is to explain and evaluate America's past and
present foreign policies. What accounts for America's past wars
and interventions? What were the consequences of American policies?
Overall, were these consequences positive or negative for the US?
For the world? Using today's 20/20 hindsight, can we now identify
policies that would have produced better results? History covered
includes World Wars I and II, the Korean and Indochina wars, and
the Cuban Missile Crisis. Recent and contemporary crises and issues
also covered.
S. Van Evera
- 17.42
Causes and Prevention of War
- Examines the causes of war, with a focus on practical measures
to prevent and control war. Topics covered include: causes and
consequences of national misperception; military strategy and
policy as cause of war; US foreign policy as a cause of war and
peace; and the likelihood and possible nature of another world
war. Historical cases are examined, including World War I, World
War II, Korea, and Indochina.
- S. Van Evera
- 17.428 American Foreign Policy: Theory
and Method
- Examines the causes and consequences of American foreign policy
since 1898. Readings cover theories of American foreign policy,
historiography of American foreign policy, central historical
episodes including the two World Wars and the Cold War, case study
methodology, and historical investigative methods.
- S. Van Evera
- 17.432 Causes of War: Theory and Method
- Examines the causes of war. Major theories of war are examined;
case-study and large-n methods of testing theories of war are
discussed; and the case-study method is applied to several historical
cases. Cases covered include World Wars I and II.
- S. Van Evera
-
- 17.433 International Relations of East
Asia
- Examines the sources of conflict and cooperation in the international relations of East Asia since 1945. Topics covered include the origins of the Cold War in the region, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the China-Soviet split, the strategic triangle, the sources of regional order and Chinas rise in the 1990s. Contemporary issues including US-China relations, the Taiwan conflict, North Koreas nuclear weapons program and terrorism will also be explored. Graduate students are expected to complete additional assignments
.
Taylor Fravel
- 17.436 Territorial Conflict
- While scholars have recognized that territory has been one of the most frequent issues over which states go to war, territorial conflicts have only recently become the subject of systematic study. This course will examine why territorial conflicts arise in the first place, why some of these conflicts escalate to high levels of violence and why other territorial disputes reach settlement, thereby reducing a likely source of violence between states. Readings in the course draw upon political geography and history as well as qualitative and quantitative approaches to political science.
T. Fravel
-
- 17.460 Defense Politics
- Examines the politics affecting US defense policies before,
during, and after the Cold War. Includes consideration of intra-
and inter-service rivalries, civil/military relations, contractor
influences, congressional oversight, and peace movements in historical
and contemporary perspectives.
- H. Sapolsky
- 17.462 Innovation in Military Organizations
- Explores the origins, rate, and impact of innovations in military
organizations, doctrine, and weapons. Emphasis on organization
theory approaches. Comparisons with non-military and non-US experience
included.
- B. Posen, H. Sapolsky
- 17.466 Organizational Theory and the Military
- This joint seminar elaborates upon classical organizational
concepts and methods to better understand modern military organizations
and to develop new theory. It reviews organizational theory of
the 1950s and 1960s and examines its applicability to the modern
military. Among the topics covered are: recruitment, socialization
and retention of personnel, unit cohesion, the effect of stress
on performance, innovation and experiments, civil-military relations,
the function of traditions, professionalism, federal-state relations,
interservice relations, and the civilianization of the military.
- Harvey Sapolsky
- 17.468 Foundations of Security Studies
- Aims to develop a working knowledge of the theories and conceptual
frameworks that form the intellectual basis of security studies
as an academic discipline. Particular emphasis on balance of power
theory, organization theory, civil-military relations, and the
relationship between war and politics. The reading list includes
Jervis, Schelling, Waltz, Blainey, von Clausewitz, and Huntington.
Students write a seminar paper in which theoretical insights are
systematically applied to a current security issue.
B. Posen
-
- 17.482 US Military
Power
- Examines the evolving roles and missions of US General Purpose
Forces within the context of modern technological capabilities
and Grand Strategy, which is a conceptual system of interconnected
political and military means and ends. Topics include US Grand
Strategies; the organization of the US Military; the defense budget;
and the capabilities and limitations of naval, air, and ground
forces. Also examines the utility of these forces for power projections
and the problems of escalation. Analyzes military history and
simple models of warfare to explore how variations in technology
and battlefield conditions can drastically alter effectiveness
of conventional forces.
- B. Posen
- 17.484 Comparative Grand Strategy and
Military Doctrine
- A comparative study of the grand strategies and military doctrines
of the great powers in Europe (Britain, France, Germany, and Russia)
from the late nineteenth tot he mid-twentieth century. Examines
strategic developments in the years preceding and during World
Wars I and II. What factors have exerted the greatest influence
on national strategies? How may the quality of a grand strategy
be judged? Exploration of comparative case study methodology also
plays a central role. What consequences seem to follow from grand
strategies of different types?
- B. Posen
17.486 Japan and East Asian Security
- Explores Japan's role in world orders, past, present, and future.
Focuses on Japanese conceptions of security; rearmament debates;
the relationship of domestic politics to foreign policy; the impact
of Japanese technological and economic transformation at home
and abroad; alternative trade and security regimes; and relations
with Asian neighbors, Russia, and the alliance with the United
States. Seminar culminates in a two-day Japanese-centered crisis
simulation, based upon scenarios developed by students.
R. J. Samuels
- 17.537 Politics and Policy in Contemporary
Japan
- Analyzes contemporary Japanese politics, focusing primarily
upon the post-World War II period. Includes examination of the
dominant approaches to Japanese politics and society, the structure
of the party system, the role of political opposition, the policy
process, foreign affairs, and interest groups. Attention to defense,
foreign, industrial, social, energy, technology policy processes.
Graduate students are expected to pursue the subject in greater
depth through reading and class presentations. Assignments differ.
- R.J. Samuels
17.908 Intelligence and National Security
This course will examine the origins, structure and functions of the US Intelligence Community and its relationship to national security policy. It will also discuss some of the major controversies concerning intelligence in the wake of 911 and Iraq, including its successes and failures, interaction with policymakers, and the need for reform.
R. Vickers
- 17.950 Understanding Military Operations
- This seminar will break apart current and possible future sea,
air, space, and land battlefields into their constituent parts
and look at the interaction in each of those warfare areas between
existing military doctrine and current and projected technological
trends in weapons, sensors, communications, and information processing.
It will specifically seek to explore how technological development,
innovation and/or stagnation are influenced in each warfare area
by military doctrine.
Owen Cote
- 17.951 Intelligence: Practices, Problems
and Prospects
- This seminar provides an overview of the US Intelligence Community,
including its current organization, functions and interaction
with national security policymakers. It focuses on key issues
and concerns about its future structure and mission in a democratic
society.
Barry Posen, Harvey Sapolsky, Robert Vickers Jr.
- 17.952 Great Power Military Intervention:
Causes, Conduct and Consequences of Military Intervention in Internal
Conflicts-Cases from the Post Cold War World
- The purpose of this seminar is to examine systematically, and
comparatively, great and middle power military interventions into
civil wars during the 1990's. The interventions to be examined
are the 1991 effort to protect the Kurds in N. Iraq; the 1993
effort to ameliorate famine in Somalia; the 1994 effort to restore
the Aristide government in Haiti, the 1995 effort to end the conflict
in Bosnia Herzegovina, and the 1999 NATO war to end Serbia's control
of Kosovo. By way of comparison the weak efforts made to slow
or stop the 1994 genocide in Rwanda will also be examined.
- B. Posen
- 17.953 US Military Budget and Force Planning
- This course is for students who want to know how the dollars
we spend on national security relate to military forces, systems,
and policy choices, and who wish to develop a personal tool kit
for framing and assessing defense policy alternatives. The course
aims to familiarize students with budgetary concepts and processes;
to examine relationships among strategy, forces, and budgets;
to explore tradeoffs among the main categories of defense spending;
and to develop frameworks for identifying the costs of new military
policies.
- Cindy Williams
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