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International Affairs

IAFF 204 Intermediate Conversation: Russian
Intermediate Conversation Russian is intended to improve the students' skills in Russian (speaking, listening, reading and writing) through different activities — students' interviewing each other, working in discussion groups, watching Russian TV news program, listening to the news in Russian, reading newspaper articles from Russian press or Internet, doing translation exercises on the vocabulary studied and the grammar reviewed, performing dialogues etc.

IAFF 212 Quantitative Analysis for International Affairs Practitioners
This course is designed to further the understanding of the assumptions that underlie quantitative analysis, to disentangle proper and improper uses of statistical evidence, and to ask intelligent questions about the validity of quantitative measurement and statistical methods. The student will become competent in using SPSS to manipulate data sets, graphically represent data and analyses and perform statistical computations such as probability calculations, comparing samples to populations and sample distributions to other sample distributions (use of z-scores and t-tests). Multiple linear regression will also be covered. This course assumes a minimal mathematical background, but will involve little difficult math, despite fairly abstract material.

IAFF 218 Public Diplomacy
The course will examine the history and future of U.S. public diplomacy, defined as the United States government's effort to promote American national interests by engaging, informing, and influencing foreign publics. It will provide an overview of the organizations that support public diplomacy; public diplomacy activities such as media relations, broadcasting, and education and cultural affairs; the tools used by public diplomacy professionals; and how public diplomacy supports broader foreign policy objectives. Students will also learn theories of communication, persuasion, and social psychology relevant to public diplomacy and analyze major challenges to successful public diplomacy including anti-Americanism and globalization. The State Department's Office of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs will provide a real-world policy project for students.

IAFF 218 Reinventing the United Nations
In light of the failures of the United Nations in the management of global affairs, the purpose of this course is to explore what must be done to develop the next generation of international institutions, capable of addressing the global problems of the future. In answer this question, this course will investigate the scope of collective international action, rate the functionality of existing institutions and propose changes and processes that might make the international system more effective.

IAFF 218 Political Reconstruction in Post Conflict Societies
This course examines the reconstruction policies in four post-conflict societies; Afghanistan, Greece, Korea and Bosnia. In international affairs, one must not only have a good idea, but deal with whether political reconstruction can be implemented. Policy makers continually deal with the issues of how much pressure, convincing or economic reward is necessary to get another government to change its policy and what are the risks of both the policy recommended and the use of the pressure needed to bring it about.

IAFF 218 Pakistan and the Radical Islamic Threat
This course takes an in-depth look at contemporary Pakistan and how it came to be that way, with particular emphasis on the rise of radical Islam and the potential threat this poses to U.S. interests. In explicating Pakistan we will concentrate on three key factors: its obsession with India, the feudal nature of the political system, and the overarching role of the Army. These factors explain both why Pakistan has never become a truly functioning democracy and why political Islam had never caught on as a mass movement, despite the recent rise of radical Islam. That rise can itself be explained in terms of the same dynamic, through a feudals-Army consensus to use the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistani-based jihadists in Kashmir in their zero sum competition with India. The course will draw on contemporary events and personal experience of the instructor.

IAFF 218 Secretaries of State
Secretaries of State are the most visible representatives of the United States in the field of international affairs and diplomacy. It is expected that the Secretary of State will serve the President in many roles — chief foreign policy adviser, top diplomat and negotiator, principal spokesperson on international issues and overseer of the Department of State and its operations abroad. This course will examine the various roles performed by Secretaries of State from Henry Kissinger under President Nixon to Condoleezza Rice under President George W. Bush. The focus will be on their practice of international affairs — how they pursued the various responsibilities assigned to the Secretary and how successful they were in carrying these out. Through the unique prism of the Secretary of State, this course should provide valuable insights into the conduct of U.S. foreign policy — and how it is made at home.

IAFF 218 Leadership and Choice
This course will explore the major psychological approaches used to explain leadership and choice in foreign policy decision-making settings around the world. It will address attention to the influence of personality, images, analogies, beliefs, perceptions, cognitions, and groupthink, and consider how each of these factors may prompt choices for war, peace, and justice in classic and contemporary circumstances.

IAFF 219 International Affairs Capstone
During their last semester, students apply the analytical frameworks, and professional writing, research, and leadership skills acquired during their M.A. International Affairs curriculum in a one-credit capstone course analyzing a contemporary policy issue.

International Affairs Capstone – Spring 2009 Session 1

IAFF 219.12 International Affairs Capstone
Strengthening the Multilateral System
Amb. George Moose
The purpose of this course is to explore what must be done to develop the next generation of international institutions, capable of addressing the critical challenges of the 21st century. Students will select four areas of international policy where it is deemed that improved performance on the part of multilateral institutions is critical. They will then form teams to examine each of these areas in detail, and to prepare policy papers setting forth recommendations for strengthening or reforming their activities. Each team will address the following questions:

• What are the key foreign policy goals that can only be advanced through collective international action?
• How well are existing international institutions performing in facilitating action in these critical areas?
• What changes would be required to make the international system more effective in developing and implementing policies in these areas?
• What is the process by which change and reform could be carried out?

IAFF 219.13 International Affairs Capstone
The Department of Defense and Winning Modern War: Counter-Insurgency, Counter-terror and Conventional Conflict
Franklin Kramer
The course will focus on DoD's role in contemporary security problems through the prisms of counter-insurgency, counter-terror and conventional conflict. Detailed examination will be undertaken regarding Afghanistan/Pakistan and Iraq. Special attention will be paid to how the DoD role has evolved and should continue to evolve.

This course is also designed to illuminate the role of the Department of Defense in the making and implementation of national security decisions and international affairs.

Finally, this course should give the student a practical understanding of both how the DoD works and its role in the interagency and international arenas. The DoD operates under civilian control. Once the course is completed, the student should feel ready to become part of the civilian leadership on the way to becoming Secretary of Defense.

IAFF 219.16 International Affairs Capstone:
Topics in International Finance
George Anayiotos
Over the last decade, and particularly in recent years, developing and transition economies have experienced major changes in both domestic and external environments. The profound transformation in international and domestic political and economic scenes has redefined financing for developing and transition economies from international financial institutions (IMF, World Bank) and access of these countries to international capital markets and aid flows. More recently, security concerns have reinforced efforts to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The course will provide tools to facilitate the examination of policy-related aspects of international finance for developing and transition economies, will focus on the linkages between official aid (multilateral and bilateral) and private market financing, and will examine the implications of anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-financing of terrorism (CFT measures on international financial flows.

International Affairs Capstone – Spring 2009 Session 2: 3/2-4/29

IAFF 219.11 International Affairs Capstone:
The Conduct of American Foreign Policy Abroad: Authorities of the Ambassador and the Roles and Presence of Multiple U.S. Government Agencies Abroad
Amb. Edward Gnehm
This Capstone course will provide students the opportunity to examine challenges to the conduct of U.S. foreign policy by the proliferation of U.S. Government agencies abroad with their new authorities. Specifically, the focus will be on the interface between the Ambassador and the representatives of other (non-State) US executive branch agencies, such as the CIA, the military, law enforcement agencies, and in the economic arena: Treasury, USTR, Commerce, and USAID. Students, acting as inspectors for the Department of State, will interview former ambassadors to ascertain their experiences in working with the representatives of other (non-State) executive branch agencies assigned to their missions. The class will then collate their findings into a report to be issued by the Inspector General describing the ability of the Ambassador to manage effectively these representatives of other (non-State) executive branch agencies.

IAFF 219.10 International Affairs Capstone:
Think Tanks and International Security: The Role of NGOs in Foreign Policy
Alistar Millar
The goal of the course is to provide students with a greater understanding of the structure and functions of NGOS that seek to influence foreign policy decision making process in the United States. Students will discuss and evaluate selected think tanks/non-government policy advocacy groups. They will assess the limitations and the effectiveness of the nongovernmental sector in international politics and work together in groups to write and present a detailed proposal for an NGO project that will aim to have impact on a current foreign policy issue.

IAFF 219.14 International Affairs Capstone:
Global City-Regions: Development Issues and Policies
Hector Salazar
The central theme of this capstone course is to explore economic and social development issues faced by global city-regions worldwide, as relevant elements for policy formulation at both a national and supra-national levels. The objective of the course is to stimulate students on critical thinking about key development constraints and policy areas oriented to foster social and economic performance of global city-regions. The course will compare city-region cases in developed countries, examining social and economic characteristics and policy challenges. The students will also study the approaches, instruments and evaluation techniques for development policies. Working in 3-person teams, the students will analyze a city-region case (or city-region major policy theme) and prepare a policy paper addressing key development problems and solutions of the chose city-region case.

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