Nat'l Security through Fiction

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

When old paradigms seem to be failing us in war and peace, creative management of national security challenges are more important than ever. Stretching ourselves requires new approaches – not reading the same, old texts, or using the same, old methodologies and theories. It is primarily for this reason – the need for imaginative, strategic leaders – that this class uses fiction as the launching point for discussion. Using fiction as a springboard will hone several key student skills. First, although creativity may (or may not) be able to be taught, brain science suggests that our brains can change with practice to see challenges in new ways (e.g., neuroplasticity). Second, fiction almost insures that the focus remains on the learning objectives and key questions rather than on the method used (the case study, for instance) to explore those areas. Instead of fighting a scenario, suspending disbelief creates a healthy adragodgical environment. Third, the ability to quickly identify symbols is important at the tactical through the strategic level. Fourth, students who read fiction also tend to be able to better empathize, an important lesson that Secretary Robert MacNamera learned as he notes in the movie, “Fog of War.” Being introduced to strange cultures or experiences, a fifth benefit, will serve the future strategist well in providing heretofor unseen challenges and potential solutions. Sixth, good fiction includes ambiguity, contradictions, complexity, and ambivalence – just as the real world includes these factors, especially in something as complex as national security and joint warfare. Yes, strategy is about decision-making, but this leads to a seventh point: as Diane Maye, a former Air Force officer and an associate member of the Military Writers Guild, notes, strategy is also “the art of outmanuevering other humans.” The better we understand human complexity, arguably the better our strategies. By reading fiction, we put human agency back into decision-making. Finally, students will emerge from this course changed readers – better able to deconstruct (and reconstruct) text, think critically about what is read, and know when, and when not to, apply these frameworks. Do not be fooled that this class will be easy because we are reading fiction. As How to Read Literature Like a Professor states, we will engage in reading like a “full-contact sport; we crash up against the wave of words with all of our intellectual, imaginative, and emotional resources” (82). In doing so, we will debate “big” (e.g., what separates human warfare from other types of violence, if anything? what of the killing off another species to make way for the human race?) and “smaller” (e.g., does civilian control equate to more or less violence? how could US democratic processes be destroyed or circumvented by the military? would US national security priorities change if we were a theocracy?) questions. Perhaps most importantly, students will hone their ability to ask the right questions – a prerequisite to finding least bad options, which is increasingly their job as they move up the chain of command and into higher leadership positions.