Cooperation Competition: ST

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course will explore how science and technology issues feature in U.S. diplomacy with major and emerging powers. This course will provide a practitioner’s perspective on how science and technology issues have affected U.S. relations with Russia and China during periods of cooperation and competition, and how technology issues feature in U.S.-India relations. This course will combine a study of diplomatic relations with Russia, China, and India over the last 25 years to understand how technology issues have come to play a larger role in U.S. national security and foreign policy. This course will also examine the U.S. national security decision making process. We will discuss the formal and informal processes that drive national security decision-making, using real-world examples involving science and technology in international affairs. This course will be highly participatory. Students will be expected to draft concise policy-oriented memos and present them in class. The course will include a mock National Security Council meeting to make a recommendation on an issue discussed in the course.