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ISP Curriculum
Columbia offers a significantly wider variety of courses in international security and strategic studies than all but a handful of other universities in the world. The ISP concentration requires 18 points (six courses), selected from among twenty-five to thirty choices usually offered during the two-year MIA cycle. The six courses must be distributed as follows: one introductory course; one course from each of three categories, detailed below (general problems in international security; military force; and countries or regions); and two electives—any courses in any of the three categories listed below.
(1) Political Science W4895: War, Peace, and Strategy (Introduction to the field)
This course, the only one required of all concentrators, should be taken in the first year. In rare cases, students who have extensive backgrounds in strategic studies and feel certain that they have covered the material in the introductory course fully in previous courses may petition to substitute a more specialized course. Any petition must indicate in detail how the material in W4895 was mastered and must include syllabi from the courses previously taken.
One course must be taken from each of the three baskets of choices listed below. (Those listed as "W" and "G" are mostly political science department courses.) Students who have any interest in employment in the U.S. defense policy sector or who wish to have their views on defense budgets and program choices taken seriously in professional debates are strongly advised to take U6345 Analytical Techniques in Military Science, which also counts for the SIPA core requirement in international policy analysis and management (it no longer counts for the statistics requirement). (Those who have no background in military technology or operations will have an easier time in U6345 if they take it after taking either W4808 or U6880.)
(2) General Problems in International Security
- W4260 International History, 1880–1950, history department
- G8425 Nationalism
- G8810 New Perspectives on the Cold War
- G8830 Causes of War
- G8829 Political Economy of National Security
- G8844 Nationalism and Contemporary World Politics
- G8863 Conflict and Cooperation
- G8864 Cooperation and Security
- G8880 Statecraft
- G9801 / 2 Seminar on International Politics
- G9850 Seminar in Security Studies
- U4545 Contemporary Diplomacy
- U6416 Third World Security Issues
- U6558 UN Peacekeeping
- U6807 International Conflict Resolution
- U8142 Intelligence and Foreign Policy
- U8556 Preventive Diplomacy
- U8738 Peacemaking and Peacekeeping
- L9182 Laws of War and War Crimes Tribunals
- L9377 Enforcing International Law
(3) Military Force
- W4808 Weapons, Strategy, and War
- U6345 Analytical Techniques in Military Science
- U6805 Limited War and Low Intensity Conflict
- U6880 Conventional Force Planning and U.S. Defense Policy
- U8134 Military History: The Western Way of War
- U8144 Economics and Politics of U.S. Defense Programs
- U6390 Terrorism and Irregular Warfare
- U8868 Weapons of Mass Destruction
(4) Countries and Regions
- W4337 The Balkans Since 1800, history department
- W4650 Political Identity, Civil Wars, State Reform in Africa (Anthropology)
- W4812 American Strategies in World Politics
- W4842 Conflict and Conflict Resolution in the Middle East
- W4846 International Politics of the Middle East
- W4865 The Russian-Central Asian Encounter
- W4869 Korean Foreign Relations
- W4871 Chinese Foreign Policy
- W4882 Foreign Policies of the Post-Soviet States
- G4807 Asia in World Politics
- G4893 Military Issues in Latin America
- G6465 Political Development in the Third World
- U6808 International Conflict Resolution: African Cases
- G6860 Post-Soviet States in Europe
- G8424 Nations and Nationalism in the Former USSR
- G8468 Conflict Resolution in Central Asia
- G8565 European Security
- G8893 Russian Policy Toward Asia and Europe
- U8136 U.S. Foreign Policy in the Persian Gulf
- U8605 Security Issues in South Asia
(5) and (6) Electives
These include any two other courses listed in the three categories above that are not used to fulfill requirements (1) to (4), or any of the following courses, which may count as electives but not for fulfillment of distribution requirements.
- U6809 Religion and Conflict Resolution
- U6850 Economic Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century
- G6465 Political Development in the Third World
- ORLJ5340 Practicum in Conflict Resolution (Teachers College)
- L6210 International Organizations (Law School)
Occasionally a course not listed above may qualify for counting toward concentration requirements if it truly focuses on matters related to security and strategy. Students who wish to petition to substitute such a course must supply the complete syllabus to the concentration director, who will decide whether it may be counted. All requests to count a course not listed above should be made before the student takes the course in question.
Special Research Paper Option
In the second year students may write a major policy analysis paper for three points of credit. This may count as one of the two electives, but cannot normally substitute for any of the requirements in (1) to (4) above. This option requires students to find a faculty member willing to supervise and grade the paper resulting from the project, and must register for U9044 Individual Research. The project must also be approved by the concentration director if it is to count toward concentration requirements. The paper must be a substantial and rigorous research exercise of the sort expected in a 9000-level PhD program course.