Courses

Ethical Challenges in Organizational Life

This is a seminar-style course built around case studies of ethical challenges encountered in military, government, and private sector organizations, supplemented by additional readings from a variety of theoretical and historical perspectives.  General Myers and Dr. Pierce generally offer this elective course every semester.

Securing the Sword: The Challenge of U.S. Civilian-Military Relations

The Hon. Ike Skelton co-teaches this course with Dr. David Allan Tretler.  It examines the values, attitudes, and ideas at the heart of military professionalism and how they compare to the main lines of civilian thinking in the United States. The course focuses on the fundamental questions at the heart of Samuel Huntington’s seminal book, The Soldier and the State, which addresses the nature of civilian control, the means by which it is established and sustained, and the health of U.S. civil-military relations. The course weaves a careful, analytical examination of Huntington’s argument with contemporary essays about U.S. civil-military relations and asks students to formulate their own views on the essence and state of current U.S. civil-military relations, as well as a sense of the direction those relations may -- or should -- take in the near future.

International Law and Military Operations

This course provides an in-depth study of the theory, development, and application of the international and national law as it applies to armed conflict, and its impact on strategy and strategic planning. The course focuses on the relevance and application of the international law to the post-Cold War and post-September 11, 2001 paradigm, including armed conflict against transnational non-state terror networks, civilians on the battlefield, predator drones and other modern weaponry, detainee operations, military commissions, and enhanced interrogation techniques.  Students examine the impact of military conflicts on current U.S. policies such as treaty interpretation, the role of the International Committee of the Red Cross in armed conflicts, and the application of international law under U.S. domestic law.

Religion and National Security: A Strategic Kaleidoscope

This course examines the role of religion in international relations and the global security environment. The objectives are to: gain insights into the nature, character, and nuances of religious traditions and how they affect the policy-making process; acquire an understanding of religion's multifaceted effects on the security environment; and develop the necessary skills to analyze the influence of religion in a given region, as well as evaluating current U.S. policy in the context of religious dimensions during peace, crisis, and war.  This is a Spring semester course. Students in this seminar also have the option to earn Certifications from the U.S. Institute of Peace in “Conflict Analysis” and “Conflict Resolution.”