Message from the Director

Welcome to the College of International Security Affairs website.  If you are applying for admission or registering for a course, I hope you have found the process simple and straightforward.  We offer a full range of accredited graduate courses on national and international security topics, and several different credentials – from  courses to Graduate Certificates to an NDU Master of Arts degree in Strategic Security Studies (MASSS).

Our core product since 2003 has been the NDU International Counterterrorism Fellowship (ICTF) program – the flagship of DoD's Combating Terrorism Fellowship Program (CTFP) program – which brings roughly 32-40 counterterrorism specialists to the College each year from coalition partner countries, and sustains close contact throughout an elite global network comprised of 243 graduates from 69 countries.   

That network will continue to expand as we build new partnerships with the Departments of State, Transportation, Energy, and Homeland Security, along with the FBI and others.  Besides our full-time programs for students in residence, the College supports National Security Professionals from these and other agencies with part-time enrollment options toward all of our products.  We introduced the centerpiece of these efforts in 2002 with NDU’s first and only evening academic venue for qualified Government employees – offering advanced national and international security seminars that convene from 1800 to 2000 hours or 2100 once-a-week for 15-week spring, summer and fall semesters.  The program sustains itself with tuition fees that allow us to put world class adjunct professors in our classrooms, expanding the reach and specialization of our home faculty.  Qualified students can earn course credits, certificates, or degrees with Concentrations in Counterterrorism, International Security Studies, Stabilization and Reconstruction, Homeland Defense, and Homeland Security Strategy and Leadership, without vacating their important full-time Government jobs. 

The College strives constantly to meet the growing demand for interagency education across the national and international security communities, including employees of agencies that were not typically included in that arena before 9/11.  Each new partnership and each new specialization package brings us closer to our goal of integrating the diverse perspectives of agencies and nations in seminars conduced throughout the day and evening, building new strategic knowledge in response to unfamiliar threats. We are ready to partner with any agency whose area of responsibility belongs in this mix. 

The College is proud of the identity it has built over the years by breaking new ground in agility, flexibility, and responsiveness.  We are filling voids in advanced education, building awareness, fostering communications, and assisting in professional development across the U.S. and global security communities.  With our outstanding faculty, our existing and planned courses, and our magnificent new office and classroom space in NDU’s Abraham Lincoln Hall, we are prepared to embrace the challenges of the future.

Please join us.  You may wish to begin by exploring the links in our website.