Professional Skills Courses

A leader among professional schools of international affairs, The Elliott School was the first to offer its graduate students a full curriculum of professional skills courses to teach practical knowledge and skills that help students succeed as practitioners in their careers. The courses, designed to supplement the substantive and theoretical aspects of the curriculum, teach skills applicable to the professional world where most of our students find employment.

Basic Skills

These courses help refine the fundamental skills required to be successful in the majority of international affairs careers.

• Analytical Writing for International Students
  The course will help international students to improve their analytical writing. This course is intended primarily for non-native English speakers and students whose background is in educational systems other than those of North America. (Fall)
• Ethics in International Affairs
  This course will examine the traditional understandings of international ethics held during the twentieth century. The course will look at whether these ethical understandings can help to address today's fearful and uncertain international situation. (Spring)
• Introduction to Editing
  This course will introduce students to editing and to the publishing process more generally. Students will receive basic training in proofreading and editing their own and other’s work, in the process, they will become aware of the most common problem addressed by editors. (Fall)
• Formal Briefing
  This course explores the why, what, and how of creating and presenting information to an audience. It will start with why briefings are an important mode of expression, and why storytelling is the single most important consideration in conceptual design. (Spring/Fall)
• Op-Ed Writing Skills
  This course will explore what makes a successful Op-Ed; how to write an Op-Ed; how to critique an Op-Ed and make it better; and how to place an Op-Ed. In short, the purpose of the course is to write better and more effective Op-Ed pieces on public policy topics. (Fall)
• Principles of Financial Statement Analysis
  This course will provide an introduction to the analysis and interpretation of corporate financial statements. Emphasis will be given to placing financial information and its analysis within a business context. Students will learn basic financial analysis tools and apply them to real world examples. (Spring)
• Public Speaking
  This course will focus on speech construction and delivery, including: topic selection, research, organization, support materials, audience adaptation, visual aids, and presentation. (Fall/Spring)
• Writing for International Affairs Professionals
  The course will involve a series of short written assignments that are drawn from actual needs occurring in the workplace. These will include memos and briefings. While correct grammar is important, the focus of this course will be on rapidly producing written materials that are crystal clear, concise and accurate. This means that research is not necessary and the facts and background for each assignment can be drawn from experience, current events or previous assignments. (Fall/Spring)

Advanced Skills

Courses under the Advanced Skills component not only transcend particular professions but teach skills that are distinctive to the professional practice of international affairs. The courses develop students’ ability to analyze and forecast international events; formulate as well as advocate policies and strategies; lead, negotiate and work in various cross-cultural environments.

Qualitative Analytical & Forecasting Skills

• Alternative Analysis: The Red Team Approach
  This course introduces students to the concept and application of alternative analysis. Alternative analysis is used not only in intelligence analysis and military operations, but also in commercial and business analysis. This course is designed for graduate students across many disciplines, who look to gain a better understanding of the intelligence community, learn alternative analysis techniques, and practice critical thinking skills that are applicable to any context. (Fall)
• Analyzing International Economic Data
  This short course will develop student’s skills in conducting economic data analysis applicable to academic pursuits and professional demands. The curriculum is designed to provide hands on experience using internet sources of economic data, online software to specify data queries, and covers how to download and manipulate electronic data. The course will expose students to sources, terminology, and definitions unique to analyzing international economic data. (Spring)
• Critical Thinking
  This course will give students practice in the evaluation and construction of political arguments. We will examine speeches, editorials, debates, and press conferences with the aim of enhancing students’ abilities to spot logical fallacies, identify faulty reasoning, and understand and improve rhetoric. (Spring)
• Introduction to Gaming and Simulations
  The course will review collaborative analysis techniques that have been developed to game out or simulate issues and situations of significance. The course presents an overview of public and private sector applications of these methods for analysis and training. It will also provide detailed descriptions of various approaches and their conceptual underpinnings. (Fall)
• Political Analysis
  The objective of the course is to improve each student’s ability to analyze a complex policy situation and craft a paper dealing with some aspect of that situation. (Summer/Fall/Spring)
• Situation Analysis & Management
  In both the public and private sectors, a wide range of leadership positions requires the ability to analyze and manage “situations” as they arise. This will involve distilling pertinent facts, analyzing key issues, making judgments, drawing logical conclusions, synthesizing resolutions, and articulating your management decision in concise and persuasive manner. This course will help you to hone these skills. (Fall)
• Case Analysis & Management
  This course will teach students to integrate and analyze information; interpret quantitative data; display sound judgment in solving difficult problems; and write case summaries and recommendations. (Fall)

Policy Formulation & Advocacy Skills

• Corporate-Government Relations
  The course will provide an overview of the strengths and limitations of the various corporate tools used to influence public policy. Primary focus will be on how the Washington lobbyist influences policy by managing and integrating governmental affairs assets. (Spring)
• How do Leaders Create a Vision in Private, Nonprofit and Public Organizations?
  Globalization has changed how organizations develop a compelling strategy that is understood by managers and employers. The goal of this course is to provide you with the knowledge and tools necessary to devise and implement your own smart strategies. (Spring)
• Media Relations
  This 1-credit course focuses on the importance of preparation and of ‘message’ when dealing with the media. Topics covered include media strategy, communication methods, written press releases, electronic media, crisis management, and the needs and operations of overseas press offices. (Spring)

Leadership, Teamwork & Management Skills

• Creating Your Own New Initiative
  This course is designed to help students create and launch their own new initiatives, or to develop successfully the activities and programs of their existing non-profit organizations/groups. It will help them learn how to clarify their objectives and priorities and then to design activities and programs to meet these objectives. The course will help them to achieve their organization's goals, to identify partners and alliances, to develop program structure and content, to market possibilities and activities to constituents and the broad public. (Fall)
• Cross-Cultural Communication
  The focus of the course will be development of cross-cultural communications, management, and negotiation skills. (Spring/Summer/Fall)
• Leadership for International Affairs Professionals
  This course will focus on the theory and practicality of transformational leadership in international contexts. (Spring)
• Leadership and Teamwork
  This course examines concepts of team-building and leadership which are critical to managerial success. Topics include leadership, decision making, communication and conflict, work motivation, building effective teams, and organizational change and culture. (Fall)
• Negotiating Skills
  This class is primarily designed to give students, in an interactive setting, a framework for learning about and using joint problem solving based on the concepts of interest-based negotiation developed by Roger Fisher at the Harvard University Program on Negotiation. (Summer/Fall)

Specialized Professional Knowledge

The following courses provide students with practical and technical knowledge about the way particular agencies or industries work. Understanding these sector-specific policies and processes are highly prized in the professional world.

How Particular Organizations & Industries Work

• Congress & U.S. Foreign Policy
  The class will examine the relationship between Congress and the Executive branch and the shaping of U.S. foreign and national security policy. The class will consider more practical details like how Congress works, and how the Executive branch tries to build Congressional support for its policies, as well as how Congress tries to shape the Administration policies. (Fall)
• Revolution in Military Affairs
  This course has two objectives. The first is to define and explain the impact of revolutions in military affairs (RMA) on national security policy and strategy both historically and in the present context. However, because this is a skills course, it is designed to exercise student skills in producing the kinds of products that will be expected of them if they choose to pursue careers in this area. They will be evaluated largely on their ability to produce quality products. (Spring)
• Roles & Missions of Armed Forces
  The course is designed to provide a basic understanding of the US armed forces. It will enable you to better understand and analyze national security concepts and issues dealt with in other Security Policy Studies graduate-level courses. You will gain an understanding not only of the basic composition, organization, operations, & equipment of the US armed forces, but also of some basic issues pertaining to them. (Spring)
• The NSC and the Interagency Process
  This course focuses on the nation's most important institution for the making of U.S. foreign and defense policy, the National Security Council (NSC), and how that policy is developed, through the interagency process. (Fall)
• The WTO and How International Trade Works
  Understanding the WTO and its agreements is necessary for informed public discourse as well as for policy practitioners, businesses and NGOs interested in trade policy issues. This introductory course will cover the WTO's origins and evolution. (Spring)
• Understanding the U.S. Federal Budget
  This brief course will cover the politics and processes of budgeting in the U.S. Federal Government. It will describe how budgeting works at each stage of the executive and legislative process-from preparation of the president’s budget, through the authorization, appropriation, apportionment, and audit of government funds. (Fall)

Sector and Specialized Professional Knowledge

• Administration of Elections
  This class will examine the major issues associated with election administration, including systems of representation, electoral management bodies, observation, and regulation of political parties, media, and other actors. Using comparative examples, the class will draw out differences between elections in transitional and established democracies. In addition, the class will address the major current challenges in election administration, such as electronic and postal voting. (Spring)
• Cyber Threats to National Security
  This course provides an analytical framework for assessing policy options for dealing with cyber threats. Students will develop an understanding of cyber threats to U.S. national security and the range of policy options to deal with these threats. (Fall)
• Designing Conflict Resolution Workshops
  This innovative workshop is aimed at giving participants an “insider view” of a conflict while combining experiential and interactive learning with appropriate academic material and the application of conflict-related theories and models. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be used as a case study. (Fall)
• Fundraising for Non-Profit Organizations
  This course provides a basic overview of various methods of fundraising from non-governmental sources. Topics covered include the various methods for raising money, regulations, the philanthropic climate, donor motivations, working with the Board of Directors, and components of a fundraising program. (Fall)
• Grant Proposal Writing
  This course is designed to give students a "hands-on" experience of the process of seeking funds from private foundations and corporations. (Spring)
• Micro-Enterprise Lending
  The purpose of this bottom-up, client-focused class is to give the student an overview of the key issues involved in the design, management and evaluation of microfinance programs that target low-income clients. (Fall)
• Running an Embassy in the Conduct of U.S. Foreign Policy
  This course is designed to familiarize students with the structure of the embassy, its authorities both formal and informal, and its activities in support of U.S. interests. (Fall)