International Affairs (INAF)
INAF 1001 MAP of the Modern World Lab 1 Credit
The primary purpose of this optional 1-credit class is to engage more deeply in a subset of key ideas from Map of the Modern World in an interesting and stress free environment. This class will provide an opportunity for students to connect with a small cohort of their classmates. Last day to register: 9/4/20. This class will begin the week of 9/7/20.
Level: Undergraduate
Corequisites: INAF 1000
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1002 Map of the Modern World Lab II 1 Credit
Map of the Modern World Lab II is a new one-credit, pass/fail course that dives deeper into the issues brought up in Map of the Modern World. Enrolled students will meet most weeks for 50 minutes in a small discussion section led by an Undergraduate Teaching Assistants guided by Professor Giordano. The primary purpose is to engage in a subset of key ideas from Map of the Modern World in an interesting and stress-free environment. Specific topics and approaches will be decided in part based on current events, but a concerted effort will be made to use Zoom alternatives and get out of the house, regardless of students' physical location. Unlike Map of the Modern World, there will not be an asynchronous component other than podcasts or very short readings. The secondary purpose is to create an opportunity for you to build an SFS community through interactions with a small cohort of students new to SFS and an upperclassman.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Pass/Fail Default
INAF 1030 The VaticanNazi War Criminals 1 Credit
When the archives from the pontificate of Venerable Pope Pius XII (1939-1958) opened in March 2020, additional documentation for a long-debated aspect of World War II, Holocaust and postwar history became available: documentation related to Axis and Nazi war criminals who escaped from Europe postwar. Many fled to Latin America, but also to other continents, some with the help of Catholic priests and prelates. New studies and documents bring to light more detail about the so-called “ratline,” and address how much the Vatican Secretariat of State knew or did not know about such activity. In this course, students will read newly published primary source documents, as well as testimonies and films, describing the process of escape.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Equivalent to JCIV 030
INAF 1031 GermanCatholics inHitler'sArmy 1 Credit
In 1933 when Adolf Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany, the German population was overwhelmingly Christian. In 1933 there were 40 million Protestants, 20 million Catholics, and small numbers of people adhering to other Christian traditions. Germany's territorial expansion that began in the 1930's meant millions of people, Christian and Jewish, came to be under the control of the Nazi state. The German Army, or Wehrmacht (1935-1945) became a tool for vast territorial expansion, and, in some cases, for war crimes and murder of civilians and Jews. How did Catholics in the Wehrmacht see and understand their role? Why did some participate while others refused to do so, even at the cost of their own lives? This course will examine the role of Catholics in the Wehrmacht, including its crimes against Jews and other civilians. We will examine photographs, diary excerpts and film to come to a closer understanding of the inner lives and decisions of Catholic soldiers. The course will meet on five Wednesdays from 6:30 - 9:00pm during the semester. Course also listed as JCIV 1031.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1140 History of the Jewish People 3 Credits
According to American writer, Pearl S. Buck, “If you want to understand today you have to search yesterday.” This course is a vibrant, comprehensive journey through history that uses a multi-disciplinary approach to bring to life the people, movements and events, that shaped the Jewish nation and left a lasting impact on the world at large. Using documentaries, films and autobiographical works of literature which communicate a people’s lived-experience, the course will comprehensively cover the history of the Jewish people, in detail from ancient to contemporary times. As a result, students will gain a thorough understanding of important movements and events which continue to be of worldwide importance today: the birth of Judaism, the creation of the Hebrew Bible, the ideology of Zionism, the experience of the Holocaust, the establishment of a Jewish state and the development of the Middle East conflict. Comprehensive coverage will make accessible these complex events and issues, endowing students with both thorough historical knowledge and the ability to navigate media coverage of these issues in the news today. No prior knowledge of Jewish history or culture is necessary. Two documentaries and four films will be screened as part of the course, which fulfills the HALC requirement.
Level: Undergraduate
Course attributes: Core: Theology, Core:HALC - Hum, Art, Lit, Cul
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1750 Israel Int'l Human Rights 1 Credit
This course will focus on analyzing the main issues in the field of human rights in International relations and the challenges that the protection of human rights poses to the international community. It will examine Israel as a case study. We will discuss the evolution of the idea of human rights and the salient milestones in the development of the international human rights regime. We will review the establishment of the tribunals for war crimes, the International Criminal Court (ICC), universal jurisdiction, international humanitarian intervention, cultural relativism, and transitional justice. The course will address the rights of the Arab minority in Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank as well as the role of human rights organizations. Emphasis will be given to the recent decision by the ICC regarding Israel and the dilemma of protecting human rights while fighting terrorism. We will also examine the role of human rights in the foreign policies of Israel and the United States. The course will include discussions with Israeli human rights activists and the instructor will share his experiences in the field as an Israeli diplomat for over 40 years. The 1-credit course takes place from 9:30am - noon for the five Wednesdays in September (September 1, 8, 15, 22 & 29).
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1751 UN and Arab Israeli Conflict 1 Credit
From Resolution to Management and Prevention: The Evolution of the UN’s roles in the Israeli Palestinian Conflict
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1752 Countering Violent Extremism 1 Credit
Countering Violent Extremism: The Role We All Play
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1753 Bringing Nazis to Justice 1 Credit
After the Nuremberg trials, Germany and other countries brought Nazis to justice for Holocaust-related crimes. These trials ran over decades with varying degrees of success. State interests, legal issues, and public opinion were some of the many hurdles to justice. The most recent trial against a Nazi criminal ended in August of 2024; Irmgard Furchner, a former concentration camp secretary and stenographer at the Stutthof concentration camp, was convicted with 11,412 counts of accessory to murder and sentenced to a suspended jail term of two years. Furchner was 18 years old at the time of the crimes and 98 when she was convicted. Why did this trial happen, and why are other trials still taking place? Why are they occurring only now, almost 80 years after the fact? We will approach these questions and others during the class by analyzing trial material, historical backgrounds, and geopolitics. We also will speak to experts, prosecutors, and other actors about the challenges and legacy of these trials.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1754 3rd Gen Bios of NazisVictims 1 Credit
Third generation biographies of Nazis and their victims
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1755 Vatican Archivesthe Holocaust 1 Credit
The Opening of the Pius XII Archive and Holocaust Research.
On March 2, 2020, one of the most important Holocaust-related archives in the world opened - the multiple archives relating to the pontificate of Pius XII (1939 to 1958). This course consists of reading primary source and documents, watching films and reviewing key secondary literature from/based on these new archives. Announced by Pope Francis on March 4, 2019 and marking 80 years since the election of Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (Pope Pius XII) to the office of pope, the Pius XII archives are accessible in multiple locations across Vatican City and Rome. When announcing the opening of these archives, His Holiness Pope Francis said, “the Church is not afraid of history; rather, she loves it, and would like to love it more and better, as God does! So, with the same trust of my predecessors, I open and entrust to researchers this documentary heritage.” For historians of the churches during World War II, the Holocaust, and the postwar period, we are witnessing an exciting moment. Networks of scholars from Europe, Israel and the United States are already forming to be best prepared for these sizable archives and to share future findings. During the course, students will be exposed to recently released films, never-before-seen primary source documents, and key readings.
On March 2, 2020, one of the most important Holocaust-related archives in the world opened - the multiple archives relating to the pontificate of Pius XII (1939 to 1958). This course consists of reading primary source and documents, watching films and reviewing key secondary literature from/based on these new archives. Announced by Pope Francis on March 4, 2019 and marking 80 years since the election of Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (Pope Pius XII) to the office of pope, the Pius XII archives are accessible in multiple locations across Vatican City and Rome. When announcing the opening of these archives, His Holiness Pope Francis said, “the Church is not afraid of history; rather, she loves it, and would like to love it more and better, as God does! So, with the same trust of my predecessors, I open and entrust to researchers this documentary heritage.” For historians of the churches during World War II, the Holocaust, and the postwar period, we are witnessing an exciting moment. Networks of scholars from Europe, Israel and the United States are already forming to be best prepared for these sizable archives and to share future findings. During the course, students will be exposed to recently released films, never-before-seen primary source documents, and key readings.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1756 US Catholics, HitlerHolocaust 1 Credit
How did American Catholics respond to the rise of Nazism (1933-1945) and the Holocaust, the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its allies and collaborators? Catholics were among those the Germans persecuted, incarcerated in concentration camps, and killed – and also part of a tradition in which antisemitism was not rejected as a sin until the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). What messages came from American Catholic leaders and prelates during this era? This course will focus on several episodes and figures in particular: the 1938 radio address on so-called Night of Broken Glass, broadcast from The Catholic University of America; the threat of the far right Christian Front movement, led by Father Charles Coughlin; and the so-called “Hidden Encyclical” authored in part by Father John La Farge, long-time editor of America magazine. During the course, students will be exposed to recently released films, key readings, and the papers of Father La Farge, held at Georgetown University.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1757 Jews in American Pop Culture 1 Credit
The plethora of Jews in America’s theater, movie, music, comics, and television industries has attracted a great deal of notice from observers and from Jews themselves. But Jewish involvement in the development of American popular culture is about much more than religious identification or ethnic jokes. In this course, we explore questions of Jewish identity and social change, as well as the influence of politics, gender, race, and sexual identity on the production of culture. From earlier twentieth-century entertainers like Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, and Sophie Tucker to later legends such as Stephen Sondheim, Barbra Streisand, Lenny Bruce, and Superman, and on to contemporary figures like Sarah Silverman and Jerry Seinfeld, the study of Jews in American popular culture invites us to reflect on what it means to live as a minority in society, as a Jew in a democracy, and as an American in the modern world.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1758 Fiction Writing Workshop 3 Credits
In this class, you’ll answer the question “What Is a Story?” To do that, you’ll immerse yourselves in the art and discipline of story writing. Partly this means acquiring a writer’s critical eye for fiction, so you’ll study the basic elements of successful fiction (character, plot, description, etc.) and use these tools to read and analyze stories—from stories that serve as foundations for Western civilization (i.e., Biblical stories) to more contemporary Jewish short fiction. Of course, the writer above all learns through doing; you’ll therefore write a great deal of your own fiction—regular exercises as well as more fully developed and revised work. Much of this development will happen as a result of the workshop process, where you’ll give one another extensive feedback on work submitted to the class as a whole.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1759 Untangle ME Relig/Polit/Ethnic 3 Credits
This course will approach the Middle East quagmire by way of a historical discussion that centers on the problem of conflicting and confusing definitions and aspirations, both for those within the region and for those outside trying to understand what is operative within. The starting point will be theological, but the endpoint will be the interweaving of religion with other issues, such as politics, ethnicity, nationalism and economics. The goal is less to presume to solve the problem than to have a clearer understanding of why it is so difficult to solve.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1760 Holocaust:Unique vs Universal 3 Credits
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1761 Theo Implications of Holocaust 3 Credits
The Holocaust is recognized as one of the traumatic moments in human history. The uniquely systematic depths of human-human interaction it revealed, paired with daring acts of heroism which the period yielded, have raised a range of questions which challenge long-held assumptions about what humanity is, if and what God is, and how to understand the concepts of good and evil.
This course will have as its goal to assess the Holocaust as it has been approached by a range of thinkers, and to place it within the larger context of theology, history, art and thought. While our primary backdrop will be theological questions provoked by its narrative -- from both Jewish and Christian perspectives -- we will inevitably encompass the larger historical picture of Jewish-Christian, Jewish-Jewish, Christian-Christian and human-divine relations. We will also consider the importance, in the later part of the twentieth century, of visual (and other) art as a means of response -- both in the expression of anger and in seeking healing -- to this trauma.
This course will have as its goal to assess the Holocaust as it has been approached by a range of thinkers, and to place it within the larger context of theology, history, art and thought. While our primary backdrop will be theological questions provoked by its narrative -- from both Jewish and Christian perspectives -- we will inevitably encompass the larger historical picture of Jewish-Christian, Jewish-Jewish, Christian-Christian and human-divine relations. We will also consider the importance, in the later part of the twentieth century, of visual (and other) art as a means of response -- both in the expression of anger and in seeking healing -- to this trauma.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1762 Poetry Writing Workshop 3 Credits
In this class, you’ll immerse yourselves in the art and discipline of writing poetry. Partly this means acquiring a writer’s eye, so you’ll study the basic elements of successful poems (imagery, voice, form, etc.) and use these tools to read and analyze verse; specifically, we’ll be considering the example of contemporary Jewish American poetry. But writers above all learn through doing, so you’ll write a great deal of your own poetry (which does not need to be Jewish, of course)—regular exercises as well as more fully developed and revised work. Much of this development will happen as a result of the workshop process, where you’ll give one another extensive feedback on work submitted to the class as a whole. Course also listed as JCIV 144.
Level: Undergraduate
Course attribute: Core:HALC - Hum, Art, Lit, Cul
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1763 Holocaust: GenderRacial Ideol 3 Credits
Holocaust: This course examines how Nazi racial ideology dictated peoples lives before and during the Holocaust. The class will discuss to what extent pre-World War II gender roles helped victims not only develop important survival skills, but also affected decisions of ordinary men and women to become killers. Using primary, secondary sources and film, we will discuss the experiences of men, women, and children during the Holocaust both from the perspective of victims and perpetrators. The different source materials will be historically contextualized to strengthen and expand the understanding of how Nazi polices affected both men and women, while examining how racial theory and the concept of “master race” contributed to the suffering of Jews and other victims before and during World War II. This class does not require any background in Jewish, Holocaust or Gender studies.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1764 Propaganda,ConspiracyPolitics 3 Credits
Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Digital Edition: Propaganda, Conspiracy, and the Politics of Hate. For more than a century, Protocols of the Elders of Zion has been used to advance a powerful and persistent anti-Semitic trope: that Jews are plotting to take over the world. From Adolf Hitler to Henry Ford, rabid anti-Semites have championed the fabricated text as a historical document and published it widely. Using Protocols as a launching point, this course will examine the history and nature of propaganda and conspiracism, with an eye toward understanding how such vehicles of influence are constructed and deployed in the today’s hyper-mediated politics.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1765 Death, the Soul the Afterlife 3 Credits
This course will ask the following simple questions with their not-so-simple answers: What is the larger context into which the ideas of “death” and “the soul” fit? What did the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, among the myriad pagan, polytheistic traditions of antiquity, believe about death, the soul, and an afterlife? How did those beliefs change and not change with the advent of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam? How are the beliefs on this subject the same for these three “Abrahamic” traditions and how do they differ from each other? How has such thinking changed and how has it not, in arriving into the “modern“ era?
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1766 Interfaith Marriage inLit/Film 3 Credits
This course will examine works of literature and film, from the early 20th century to the present day, which focus on the controversial subject and increasingly prevalent reality of interfaith and intercultural relationships and marriages. The course will begin with a view toward the Jewish perspective on this issue (from Biblical to Israeli) covered in the first three weeks, with the remainder of the semester devoted to the navigation of this complex terrain by different religious and national groups in international literature and film, among them: Christians and Muslims, Arabs, Africans and African-Americans, Asians and Asian-Americans, Indians and Pakistanis, Hispanics and Latinx, the LGBTQ community, and Native Americans. Texts will include primary works of fiction and cinema, and secondary works by literature and film critics, sociologists and anthropologists. Inquiry will focus on ways in which the concerns of each group have intersected, reflecting communal pressures as well as changing realities and norms. The multiplicity of perspectives across all groups, bely both the need to marry within the fold to preserve communal, religious-cultural values, along with a growing admission of the reality of increasing diversity in modern, pluralistic societies and the benefits these bring.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Course attribute: Core:HALC - Hum, Art, Lit, Cul
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1767 Jerusalem: City and Symbol 3 Credits
This course will examine Jerusalem through three pairs of multiple lenses that offer a plethora of interesting questions with richly-contoured answers. How, exactly, does the city evolve as a focal point in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions? How does each of these traditions connect to Jerusalem over the course of history, spiritually, liturgically, politically, and with words, images, and even melody?
We will begin with a discussion of the archaeologically-based understanding of the beginnings Jerusalem and how the archaeological record reflects, refracts, validates, or contradicts the biblical references to the city—from the time of the Hebrew, Abraham, to the time of the Israelite King, Solomon. We will trace the history of the twice-experienced building and destruction of, and exile from and return to Jerusalem—with an emphasis on its primary structures (the Temple and the royal palace and, subsequently, uppercrust tombs), that carry across a more than thousand-year period from David and Solomon (ca 100-930 BCE) to the First Revolt against the Romans (65-70 CE).
From that point we will trace the evolving importance of the city, its symbolic structures and/or their remnants to Judaism and Christianity as these two faiths emerge out of a common Hebrew-Israelite-Judaean tradition. How is the importance of the city expressed in liturgy, literature, and visual art as these two contending traditions compete for legitimacy within the pagan Roman world, and how does that change and/or not change in the centuries after Christianity becomes the religion of the Empire by the end of the fourth century?
Where, when, why, and how does Jerusalem acquire importance for the Muslim tradition that emerges on the stage of history in the early seventh century? How is that importance expressed in literature and art? How do politics play a role in shaping the city’s skyline in concert with religion and art? How do all three Abrahamic traditions interweave history and legend within the prose, poetry, and diverse visual art forms that they foster over the medieval period?
How do these issues and ideas become transformed toward and into the modern era and how does “Jerusalem” as a symbol resonate outward in various directions within particularly the Euro-American world? When does music become part of the artistic expression devoted to the sacred city? As we arrive into the world of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, what elements of continuity and what new issues emerge, informed by the changing Jewish, Christian, and Muslim worlds? What can one conclude about Jerusalem, given recent political events and artistic expressions, with regard to the present and the future?
Also listed as INAF/JCIV 187.
We will begin with a discussion of the archaeologically-based understanding of the beginnings Jerusalem and how the archaeological record reflects, refracts, validates, or contradicts the biblical references to the city—from the time of the Hebrew, Abraham, to the time of the Israelite King, Solomon. We will trace the history of the twice-experienced building and destruction of, and exile from and return to Jerusalem—with an emphasis on its primary structures (the Temple and the royal palace and, subsequently, uppercrust tombs), that carry across a more than thousand-year period from David and Solomon (ca 100-930 BCE) to the First Revolt against the Romans (65-70 CE).
From that point we will trace the evolving importance of the city, its symbolic structures and/or their remnants to Judaism and Christianity as these two faiths emerge out of a common Hebrew-Israelite-Judaean tradition. How is the importance of the city expressed in liturgy, literature, and visual art as these two contending traditions compete for legitimacy within the pagan Roman world, and how does that change and/or not change in the centuries after Christianity becomes the religion of the Empire by the end of the fourth century?
Where, when, why, and how does Jerusalem acquire importance for the Muslim tradition that emerges on the stage of history in the early seventh century? How is that importance expressed in literature and art? How do politics play a role in shaping the city’s skyline in concert with religion and art? How do all three Abrahamic traditions interweave history and legend within the prose, poetry, and diverse visual art forms that they foster over the medieval period?
How do these issues and ideas become transformed toward and into the modern era and how does “Jerusalem” as a symbol resonate outward in various directions within particularly the Euro-American world? When does music become part of the artistic expression devoted to the sacred city? As we arrive into the world of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, what elements of continuity and what new issues emerge, informed by the changing Jewish, Christian, and Muslim worlds? What can one conclude about Jerusalem, given recent political events and artistic expressions, with regard to the present and the future?
Also listed as INAF/JCIV 187.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1768 How to Fight for Human Rights 3 Credits
Professor Forman served as the State Department's Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism during President Obama's second term and currently he serves as the Senior Advisor for Combatting Antisemitism at Human Rights First. The course is designed to introduce students (through the lens of today's antisemitism) the nature of hate in 2020, the tools governments, non-government organization (NGOs) and citizen activists have to confront that hate and the allies that can be recruited for the battle for human rights.
Students will have the opportunity to hear from Professor Forman as well as outside experts from government and the NGO world about as how these institutions can confront Islamophobia, racism, xenophobia and today's antisemitism. Each student will be asked to select a country where they will be asked to analyze the unique nature of antisemitism and xenophobia. The class culminates with students, through their research and interacting with experts in the field, coming up with plans to combat hate and protect the victims of these forms of hate. Course also listed as INAF 188.
Students will have the opportunity to hear from Professor Forman as well as outside experts from government and the NGO world about as how these institutions can confront Islamophobia, racism, xenophobia and today's antisemitism. Each student will be asked to select a country where they will be asked to analyze the unique nature of antisemitism and xenophobia. The class culminates with students, through their research and interacting with experts in the field, coming up with plans to combat hate and protect the victims of these forms of hate. Course also listed as INAF 188.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1769 Jewish Orthodox Women N Amer. 3 Credits
According to the Jewish data bank, 42% of the world’s Jewish population lives in North America. What does the term “Jewish Population” mean? To whom exactly are we referring? The liberal Jews who publicly support LGBTQ rights and refugees? The anti-Zionist group Neturei Karta that attended a conference in Iran organized by Ahmadinejad in 2006? The controversial Jared Kushner and his supporters who define themselves as Modern Orthodox and Chabad-Lubavitch?
This course surveys Jewish life in North America (Canada and the United States) by looking at a variety of religious denominations (Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Ultra-Orthodox, Sephardi, Renewal, Non-Affiliated, etc.). In doing so, we will discover how these religious affiliations are often aligned with ethnic, cultural, racial, and political differences that constitute North American Jewry. Students will meet members and leaders of diverse Jewish communities and institutions, both in class and during field visits. Issues such as intermarriage, modernity, feminism, secularism, technology, new reproductive technology, and sexuality will be covered. Based on an experiential approach, students will undertake their own fieldwork project of Jewish life in Washington DC, and will present their findings in writing or in a photo/video-based mini- exhibit. Sources will include anthropological and sociological materials as well as film, music, and newspapers. More broadly, the course will attempt to respond to the anthropological question of how Jewishness, in its various forms, takes on meaning in North American society when it comes to the preservation or the rejection of tradition.
This course surveys Jewish life in North America (Canada and the United States) by looking at a variety of religious denominations (Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Ultra-Orthodox, Sephardi, Renewal, Non-Affiliated, etc.). In doing so, we will discover how these religious affiliations are often aligned with ethnic, cultural, racial, and political differences that constitute North American Jewry. Students will meet members and leaders of diverse Jewish communities and institutions, both in class and during field visits. Issues such as intermarriage, modernity, feminism, secularism, technology, new reproductive technology, and sexuality will be covered. Based on an experiential approach, students will undertake their own fieldwork project of Jewish life in Washington DC, and will present their findings in writing or in a photo/video-based mini- exhibit. Sources will include anthropological and sociological materials as well as film, music, and newspapers. More broadly, the course will attempt to respond to the anthropological question of how Jewishness, in its various forms, takes on meaning in North American society when it comes to the preservation or the rejection of tradition.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1770 ReExmn Isr-Pal Crisis:Lit/Film 3 Credits
This course will examine how Israeli and Palestinian literatures depict the “other” through text and image, from the early years of Zionism to the twenty-first century. Using the methodologies of comparative studies, we will attempt to understand how each nation’s views evolved and changed over time, with a focus on works that shifted these perceptions in revolutionary ways. Various depictions of the “other” will be examined, such as the criminal, noble hero, sexual predator, lover, suicide bomber, and ally. We will also discuss how both art forms grappled with the many issues that together contribute to the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, including identity, language, class, and the deceptively simple task of defining homeland. Weekly critical readings will include the theoretical ideas of Orientalism and post-colonialism, enabling students to understand both literatures within the wider context of world literature.
Among the authors covered are: Yosef Chaim Brenner, S. Yizhar, Sami Michael, A.B. Yehoshua, Eli Amir, Amos Oz, David Grossman, Hanna Ibrahim, Emile Habibi, Atallah Mansour, Ghassan Kanafani, Mahmoud Darwish, Samir El-Youssef and Sayed Kashua. All readings, literary and critical, will be read in English translation, and five films will be screened as part of the course.
The course is also listed as JCIV 196.
Among the authors covered are: Yosef Chaim Brenner, S. Yizhar, Sami Michael, A.B. Yehoshua, Eli Amir, Amos Oz, David Grossman, Hanna Ibrahim, Emile Habibi, Atallah Mansour, Ghassan Kanafani, Mahmoud Darwish, Samir El-Youssef and Sayed Kashua. All readings, literary and critical, will be read in English translation, and five films will be screened as part of the course.
The course is also listed as JCIV 196.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1775 A Society Investigates Itself 1 Credit
This course examines the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials (1963-1965), one of the most significant post-World War II attempts to prosecute Nazi war crimes. Sixty years later, we reflect on their impact on historical memory, transitional justice, and impact in German society and beyond. Topics include the reaction of German society to the trials, the role of survivor testimony, legal challenges, and how the trials have been depicted in literature, film, and other media.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1810 Science of the SFS 3 Credits
The SFS INAF180 science courses are designed to teach students science that is relevant to international affairs. The sections consist of a series of courses that will focus on learning the science that is necessary to understand global, societal challenges such as climate change, emerging infectious disease, and food security, among many others. To facilitate active learning and hands-on opportunities, as well as to ensure an interactive experience, enrollment will be limited to 20 students per section. Additionally, to build a sense of community among incoming freshmen, some sections will be limited to freshmen only.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1890 Jerusalem: City and Symbol 3 Credits
This course will examine Jerusalem through three pairs of multiple lenses that offer a plethora of interesting questions with richly-contoured answers. How, exactly, does the city evolve as a focal point in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions? How does each of these traditions connect to Jerusalem over the course of history: spiritually, liturgically, politically, and with words, images, and even melody?
We will begin with a discussion of the archaeologically-based understanding of the beginnings of Jerusalem and how the archaeological record reflects, refracts, validates, or contradicts the biblical references to the city—from the time of the Hebrew, Abraham, to the time of the Israelite King, Solomon. We will trace the history of the twice-experienced building and destruction of, and exile from and return to Jerusalem in antiquity—with an emphasis on its primary structures (the Temple and the royal palace and, subsequently, uppercrust tombs), that carry across a more than thousand-year period from David and Solomon (ca 1000-930 BCE) to the First Revolt against the Romans (65-70 CE).
From that point we will trace the evolving importance of the city, its symbolic structures and/or their remnants, to Judaism and Christianity as these two faiths emerge out of a common Hebrew-Israelite-Judaean tradition. How is the importance of the city expressed in liturgy, literature, and visual art as these two contending forms of faith and culture compete for legitimacy within the pagan Roman world, and how does that change and/or not change in the centuries after Christianity becomes the religion of the Empire by the end of the fourth century?
Where, when, why, and how does Jerusalem acquire importance for the Muslim tradition that steps onto the stage of history in the early seventh century? How is that importance expressed in literature and art? How do politics play a role in shaping the city’s skyline in concert with religion and art? How do all three Abrahamic traditions interweave history and legend within the prose, poetry, and diverse visual art forms that they foster over the medieval period?
How do these issues and ideas become transformed toward and into the modern era and how does “Jerusalem” as a symbol resonate outward in various directions within particularly the Euro-American world? When does music become part of the artistic expression devoted to the sacred city? As we arrive into the world of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, what elements of continuity and what new issues emerge, informed by the changing Jewish, Christian, and Muslim worlds? What can one conclude about Jerusalem, given recent political events and artistic expressions, with regard to the present and the future?
We will begin with a discussion of the archaeologically-based understanding of the beginnings of Jerusalem and how the archaeological record reflects, refracts, validates, or contradicts the biblical references to the city—from the time of the Hebrew, Abraham, to the time of the Israelite King, Solomon. We will trace the history of the twice-experienced building and destruction of, and exile from and return to Jerusalem in antiquity—with an emphasis on its primary structures (the Temple and the royal palace and, subsequently, uppercrust tombs), that carry across a more than thousand-year period from David and Solomon (ca 1000-930 BCE) to the First Revolt against the Romans (65-70 CE).
From that point we will trace the evolving importance of the city, its symbolic structures and/or their remnants, to Judaism and Christianity as these two faiths emerge out of a common Hebrew-Israelite-Judaean tradition. How is the importance of the city expressed in liturgy, literature, and visual art as these two contending forms of faith and culture compete for legitimacy within the pagan Roman world, and how does that change and/or not change in the centuries after Christianity becomes the religion of the Empire by the end of the fourth century?
Where, when, why, and how does Jerusalem acquire importance for the Muslim tradition that steps onto the stage of history in the early seventh century? How is that importance expressed in literature and art? How do politics play a role in shaping the city’s skyline in concert with religion and art? How do all three Abrahamic traditions interweave history and legend within the prose, poetry, and diverse visual art forms that they foster over the medieval period?
How do these issues and ideas become transformed toward and into the modern era and how does “Jerusalem” as a symbol resonate outward in various directions within particularly the Euro-American world? When does music become part of the artistic expression devoted to the sacred city? As we arrive into the world of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, what elements of continuity and what new issues emerge, informed by the changing Jewish, Christian, and Muslim worlds? What can one conclude about Jerusalem, given recent political events and artistic expressions, with regard to the present and the future?
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1905 Magic Religion 3 Credits
The world of the Greeks and Roman was one of endlessly multi-aspected paganism, with its consciousness of a range of gods and goddesses, daimons and spirits moving between their realm and ours. It was also one in which the Hebrew-Israelite-Judaean competed with paganism and continued to struggle to define itself—and ultimately split into what became Judaism and Christianity.
This course will focus on the times, places and literatures that reflect the interface between paganism as it has evolved within the Greco-Roman world and nascent Judaism and Christianity. It pushes toward an understanding of how Judaism and Christianity emerged out of the Hebrew-Israelite-Judaean tradition as two forms of faith each claiming to be the proper continuation of that tradition. It considers how their theological relationship—their competition regarding the Truth regarding divinity and its relationship to humanity—is not only affected by their mutual interface and their theological relationships with paganism but by the political context of the pagan Roman Imperium in which they both develop.
This is a world of meeting, divergence, convergence, synthesis, embrace and rejection of religious principles and ideas. It is a world in which verbal distinctions that we take for granted—such as those between magic and religion, myth and theology, superstition and true belief, astronomy and astrology—have not yet assumed the place to which they arrived within our vocabulary, over time. Our goal is largely to come to understand what comprise the key elements that distinguish and join these traditions, why and how this vocabulary emerges and evolves, and how the shaping of that vocabulary has affected and continues to affect our sense of what Judaism and Christianity are.
Level: Undergraduate
Course attribute: Core: Theology
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 1990 Intro to JCIV 3 Credits
This course will provide a holistic, multi-disciplinary approach to understanding Jewish Civilization, and will be taught by a different faculty member from the Center for Jewish Civilization (CJC) every week, each of whom will teach the area of their expertise. Students will learn the history of the Jewish people from ancient times to modern-day Israel, including in-depth coverage of the Holocaust and the development of Zionism. Students will learn about Judaism through major Jewish texts, denominations, holidays and life-cycle events - and about Jewish culture, through a global lens on Jewish literature, film and music. Students will learn about historic relations between Islam and Judaism, the Arab world and Israel, as well as how to think about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Students will also learn about Jewish engagement with American democracy, and global Jewish realities impacted by increasing anti-Semitism and white Supremacism in the 20th and 21th centuries. Having learned about the many foundational aspects of Jewish civilization, students will then have the opportunity to pursue further knowledge in any area of the course, through thematically-based classes at the CJC by any of the experts from whom they have learned in this course. Professor Orr will be the point of contact for students in the class, and help guide them through this multi-disciplinary journey. Course also listed as JCIV 199.
Level: Undergraduate
Course attribute: Core: Theology
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2002 Israel and the Global South 1 Credit
This course analyzes Israel’s relations and foreign policy objectives in the Global South, with a specific focus on Israel’s relations with Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Through this one-credit course, students will examine Israel’s overarching foreign policy aims across the Global South. Moving from the Yishuv’s quest for international legitimacy in the late 1940s to the newly founded state’s focus on “peripheral” security, students will study Israel’s relations with prominent Global South nations. Students will also gain insight into how Israel leverages contemporary relations with small and middle powers to enhance its international standing and influence.
This course offers students an analytical framework for understanding the historic and contemporary events that have influenced the course of Israeli outreach to the Global South as well as the primary reasons for countries’ receptivity. Students are encouraged to situate geopolitical developments within specific domestic and international contexts to better understand the multifaceted dynamics driving Israel’s bilateral outreach to countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Great power competition and an evolving geopolitical landscape impact Israel’s foreign policy engagement. Thus, the course will also explore the interdependence and interconnectivity of Israeli and global politics.
Beyond providing a scholarly foundation for a better understanding of Israeli-Global South relations, the course offers students the opportunity to interact directly with academics and policymakers involved in this important – and expanding – field of study. These engagements, along with in-class workshops and discussions, will facilitate consideration and debate of diverse academic and policy viewpoints. While the course does not require any prior knowledge of Israel or regional affairs, close attention to the weekly readings and extensive in-class participation is expected.
This course will meet for 2.5 hours 5 times throughout the semester on the following dates:
17 Jan, 3:30-6pm
31 Jan, 3:30-6pm
14 Feb, 3:30-6pm
28 Feb, 3:30-6pm
13 March, 3:30-6pm
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2003 China's Rel.w/Israel/Palestine 1 Credit
The Middle East matters to China, and China regularly seeks to portray itself as an influential and engaged actor on Israel-Palestine affairs (IPA). Through probing diverse scholarly literature, students are challenged to look beyond the headlines and critically probe the evolution, nature, and depth of China-IPA relations, providing them the intellectual tools needed to understand these complex relations. By studying the interdependency and interconnectivity of domestic, regional, and global politics relevant to China-IPA relations, this course also enables students to situate major studied themes and concepts within broader historic and contemporary geopolitical contexts.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2010 Topics: Transfer Prosem 3 Credits
For SFS transfer students only.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2020 Wrding Yr Identity: Jewish Lit 3 Credits
Who are you? How do you understand and define yourself? These questions lie at the heart of the process of identity formation, and this course will not conclusively and permanently answer them. How could it? Identity develops and changes throughout a lifetime. That said, you will learn to see, analyze, and use the writing process as a primary tool that can help answer these questions again and again, whenever they arise. In this way, a body of literature is, in part, a record of a group’s identity development. Turning to the model of Jewish literature—fiction and poetry—as an example of how a people uses writing to preserve and challenge its cultural and religious identity, we’ll jumpstart your own explorations, which will happen through thought, conversation, and writing, both creative and analytical.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2092 Intro to Data Visualization 3 Credits
This course is designed to equip students with essential skills in understanding, analyzing, and presenting data effectively. Through a blend of theoretical knowledge and practical applications, students will delve into concepts such as data types, mathematical reasoning, and industry-standard tools like Tableau and PowerBI. With a focus on hands-on experience and exploration of AI's role in data analytics, this course prepares students for real-world challenges, enhancing their marketability in various professional domains. Join us to embark on a journey of data discovery, visualization mastery, and critical thinking in the era of information abundance.
The current description applied to the 1 credit course, but it is now being offered as a 3 credit course with more depth, hene the amended description.
The current description applied to the 1 credit course, but it is now being offered as a 3 credit course with more depth, hene the amended description.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2112 Data for Social Impact 1 Credit
Data is increasingly a major driver in modern society. It informs the way decisions are made by companies, governments, civil society, and average community members. It is even akin to currency as we voluntarily exchange our data for services like email and social media and involuntarily exchange it in ways we're constantly discovering. In this course, we will focus on the ways that data can be leveraged for social impact -- to make it easier to access housing or healthcare, to curb the effects of climate change, to focus foreign aid where it can do the most good, and more. Students will cover the building blocks of data, learn about policies that impact how data can be used, and discuss real-world examples of ways that data can drive social impact.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Pass/Fail Default
INAF 2160 Strategies for Gender Justice 3 Credits
In this course, students will examine the formal and informal structures and rules that influence gender justice efforts across domestic and international institutions. Students will become familiar with feminist institutionalism theories and frameworks for analyzing changes in gender equality policies and outcomes. They will use this theoretical understanding to frame a case study of gender justice policy change (success or failure) as tied to the efforts of a local gender justice advocacy coalition. This course will be valuable for students seeking to understand the logic of progress on gender equality and how to further transformational change through institutions across the foreign policy and development sectors.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate level students.
INAF 2161 Bridging Theory and Practice 3 Credits
The Bridging Theory and Practice Course will meet at least once per week. Students will interact with and hear from invited guests from the DC policy and practice community. In addition, students will visit off-campus locations to meet policymakers and practitioners including the United States Institute of Peace and the Department of State. Throughout the Bridging Theory and Practice course students will acquire and practice public speaking skills through presenting their research findings to policymakers and practitioners.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate level students.
INAF 2164 Leadership, Gender, Pol Part 3 Credits
What does it mean to be a global leader? When we think of politics, we think of authority, influence, and power. Gender is inseparable from these concepts and their impacts on politics. In this course, we look at the role of gender in effective leadership beyond the question of women’s presence or absence. Instead, we ask, how does identity politics influence the political mainstream? Throughout the course, students will develop their perspectives on leadership, gender, and politics by analyzing how local, national, and international leaders use their gender, perception of self, power, and network to govern, allocate resources, and mitigate crises. Students will evaluate gender norms from global perspectives to examine how our automatic thought process can be disrupted or reinforced. Looking through a gender lens at global models of leadership, students will explore how gender and power intersect in international politics. Students will gain a nuanced understanding of what it means to be a global leader, and particularly the importance of gender and identity.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate level students.
INAF 2170 Topics 1-6 Credits
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment limited to students in the School of Foreign Service - Q college.
INAF 2171 Education and Conflict 1 Credit
There is growing recognition that education is a casualty of war with long-term consequences for future “lost” generations and the successful rebuilding of crisis-affected communities. Education is critical to mitigate the risks associated with adversity and help children and youth to overcome challenges and build social cohesion. Conflict is one of the key challenges to the successful achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning for all. Education systems and services are significantly impacted in the immediate aftermath of conflict as well as in the longer term. Access to and quality of learning are impaired through the destruction of physical infrastructure, reduced capacity and loss of key resources. Recent regional crises visible throughout the greater Middle East have demonstrated the contextual challenges of education delivery during indefinite displacement of populations. In relation to these themes, this course focusing on Education in Conflict will review the imperative for, and opportunities to protect and sustain education in conflict: including lifesaving and safeguarding aspects, addressing gender impacts of conflict as well as ensuring the knowledge and skills needed to equip children, youth and adults for a sustainable future.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2172 Topics 1-6 Credits
This course number covers courses on a variety of topics - environment and climate change, Middle East politics, diplomacy in action, etc.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Equivalent to STIA 3701
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment limited to students in the School of Foreign Service - Q college.
INAF 2192 Data VisualizationDashboards 3 Credits
This course offers students the opportunity to engage with analytics and visualization for today's data-driven world. Students will learn to effectively communicate insights through visual representation of data, gaining hands-on experience with industry-standard tools like Tableau. The course covers the entire data visualization process, from preparing data to creating interactive dashboards. Students will apply fundamental statistical concepts to perform meaningful data analysis, enhancing their ability to derive and communicate insights. Through projects using real-world datasets, students will master various chart types and learn to choose effective visual representations for different data and goals. By course end, students will have developed a portfolio of visualization projects, enhancing their marketability for opportunities in fields requiring data analysis and visualization skills.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment limited to students in the School of Foreign Service - Q college.
INAF 2208 Women as Changemakers 1 or 3 Credits
The key theme of the Intercultural Connections and Community Program centers on “Women as Changemakers” and engage students to the following sub-rubrics/topics:
● Gender and Social Justice: Local and Global Changemakers ● Women, Health & Wellness ● Women in Sports ● Gender and the Politics of Representation
Each rubric will be accompanied by highly structured activities. These include meetings with a) main campus departmental/ organizations/unit counterparts, b) main campus faculty, staff, connecting student peers & student peer change makers GU-DC - GU-Q, c) NGO’s, d) global organizations,e) relevant cultural activities/field trips in Washington, DC. The activities will be followed by topic-specific group discussions, reflection activities and written assignments. Each rubric will be facilitated respectively by the expertise of each participating faculty/staff member in the GU-Q leadership team.
● Gender and Social Justice: Local and Global Changemakers ● Women, Health & Wellness ● Women in Sports ● Gender and the Politics of Representation
Each rubric will be accompanied by highly structured activities. These include meetings with a) main campus departmental/ organizations/unit counterparts, b) main campus faculty, staff, connecting student peers & student peer change makers GU-DC - GU-Q, c) NGO’s, d) global organizations,e) relevant cultural activities/field trips in Washington, DC. The activities will be followed by topic-specific group discussions, reflection activities and written assignments. Each rubric will be facilitated respectively by the expertise of each participating faculty/staff member in the GU-Q leadership team.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2225 Politics Marine Conservation 3 Credits
Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its extraordinary beauty and biodiversity, the Great Barrier Reef is a global environmental icon and home to one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet. Despite its protected status, the Reef has become a symbol of the challenges facing humanity in balancing economic imperatives with environmental protection.
Enter the complex world of environmental politics and policy, where marine science and conservation efforts meet economic and political institutions to drive policy outcomes. This program will take you to Queensland, Australia, where the coastal city of Townsville will serve as your gateway to understanding the array of competing interests that affect the Great Barrier Reef. Here you will meet with local politicians, bureaucrats, activists, marine scientists, Indigenous peoples and “ordinary Australians” to understand varying perspectives on issues surrounding the protection and preservation of the Great Barrier Reef.
Through an integration of lecture, discussion, field research, and experiential activities, the course will use the Great Barrier Reef as a case study to examine the process of evidence-based policymaking, emphasizing the roles of vested interests, party politics, and political institutions.
Enter the complex world of environmental politics and policy, where marine science and conservation efforts meet economic and political institutions to drive policy outcomes. This program will take you to Queensland, Australia, where the coastal city of Townsville will serve as your gateway to understanding the array of competing interests that affect the Great Barrier Reef. Here you will meet with local politicians, bureaucrats, activists, marine scientists, Indigenous peoples and “ordinary Australians” to understand varying perspectives on issues surrounding the protection and preservation of the Great Barrier Reef.
Through an integration of lecture, discussion, field research, and experiential activities, the course will use the Great Barrier Reef as a case study to examine the process of evidence-based policymaking, emphasizing the roles of vested interests, party politics, and political institutions.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2233 Racialization of Religion 3 Credits
This seminar explores the intersection of religious, racial, ethnic, and class prejudice and its/their impacts in the U.S. and beyond. The course is discussion driven. Students will discuss assigned readings weekly, develop their own research questions, and present their preliminary findings to the seminar. They will then develop these findings into a final research paper. Grades will be based on participation in weekly discussions (30%), presentation of research question and preliminary findings (30%), and final research paper (40%). This course fulfills the requirement for Core: Diversity/Domestic and Core: Diversity/Global, and counts as a core course for SFS/CULP, and College/SFS/REWA Area 3.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2237 Histories of Global Capital 3 Credits
This course introduces students to the study of capital in motion, as investable wealth moving across the planet, transforming places into property, things into commodities, and people into labor, over time, shaping communities, nations, and the globe. Over the course of semester, we will read about the transformation of sugar from a luxury good to a mass commodity; the lives and agency of enslaved African Americans for sale in the New Orleans slave market; smugglers, slavers, and gun-runners evading British imperial authority in the Indian Ocean; the formation of offshore tax havens in former European island colonies in the Caribbean; and about foraging and trading gourmet matsutake mushrooms in the Pacific Northwest. Through such case studies, we will trace the arc of the history of capital across the surface of the planet, examining the myriad ways the drive to turn money into profit has shaped the cultural, social, political, and ecological conditions of human life.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2297 Israel the Arab+Muslim World 3 Credits
The Societal, Political and Security Implications of Israel's Relations with the Arab and Muslim World. This course will review the Zionist Movement's and the State of Israel's relations with the Arab and Muslim World throughout four modules. The first will examine the implications of Jewish immigration from the Middle East and North Africa for the state formation process. Students will also assess Israel's approaches to Arab and Palestinian minorities. The second module will review the development of Israel's relations with Arab and Muslim majority countries in the Middle East and North Africa, from the pre-state period through the major military confrontations of 1948, 1967 and 1973. It will also survey the Camp David Accords with Egypt, as well as Israel's wars in Lebanon and their effect on Palestinians. The third module will take a closer look at the development of relations between Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, and Iran. During the last module, students will study the impact of recent political changes in the Middle East. Specifically, they will evaluate what the end of the Cold War, the Arab Spring, and the Abraham Accords have meant for both Israel's diplomatic relations in the region and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Level: Undergraduate
Course attribute:
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2550 Muslims in the United States 3 Credits
Conversations about Muslim Americans often center on Islam and its compatibility with American norms – with one side arguing that devotion to Islam makes one a better American, and the other saying it’s impossible to be both fully American and fully committed to Islam. But the relationship between theological and national norms is only one aspect of how Muslims fit into American society – and in many cases not the most important aspect. This course will examine the interaction of religious and national identities for American Muslims alongside their distinctive racial, ethnic, class and gender identities. First, it will examine how Muslims themselves see these interactions – and what that means for political participation and allyship as well as religious practice. It will also explore the ways in which the perceptions of the larger American public impact the roles Muslims play in American society.
1. Jihad and the Muslim race: What Americans (think they) know about Islam and Muslims 2. Muslim American diversity: A demographic profile of American Muslims 3. African American Muslims to 1970 and collective conversation 4. Arab Muslims to 1970 and the evolution of Whiteness 5. South Asian Muslims to 1970 and occupational preference immigration 6. European American Muslims to 1970 and individual conversion 7. Muslim American history 1970-2020: the development of Muslim American identity. 8. Generational cohorts 9. Race and racism among Muslim communities: Do Black lives matter to Muslim Americans? 10. Gender and feminism 11. Socioeconomic status 12. Islam’s five pillars and adapting to the U.S. context 13. U.S. Muslim Political and social values: Balancing competing identity claims 14. U.S. Muslims in global perspective (Muslim minorities in Western Europe; ties to Muslim majorities in the Middle East and South Asia) 15. Participation in U.S. politics and social movement – leadership and political allies
1. Jihad and the Muslim race: What Americans (think they) know about Islam and Muslims 2. Muslim American diversity: A demographic profile of American Muslims 3. African American Muslims to 1970 and collective conversation 4. Arab Muslims to 1970 and the evolution of Whiteness 5. South Asian Muslims to 1970 and occupational preference immigration 6. European American Muslims to 1970 and individual conversion 7. Muslim American history 1970-2020: the development of Muslim American identity. 8. Generational cohorts 9. Race and racism among Muslim communities: Do Black lives matter to Muslim Americans? 10. Gender and feminism 11. Socioeconomic status 12. Islam’s five pillars and adapting to the U.S. context 13. U.S. Muslim Political and social values: Balancing competing identity claims 14. U.S. Muslims in global perspective (Muslim minorities in Western Europe; ties to Muslim majorities in the Middle East and South Asia) 15. Participation in U.S. politics and social movement – leadership and political allies
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2551 Islam in Africa 3 Credits
This course will focus on the history and practice of Islam in Africa. Course readings and discussions will explore a number of topics, including the arrival of Islam in North and sub-Saharan Africa, the rise of pre-colonial Muslim empires, African Muslims' experiences of colonialism, and the trajectories of Muslim communities in post-colonial Africa. Through detailed study of Muslim societies in Africa, students will also gain greater understanding of issues at play throughout the Muslim world, including the relationships between religion, law, and politics.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2552 Muslim Jesus:E Christian Thght 3 Credits
This course explores how the Eastern Christian traditions understood and responded to Jesus as he is presented in the Qur’an, the Hadith, and other Islamic genres. Students will be introduced to a variety of literary genres, argumentation approaches, and theological positions among the Eastern Christian and Muslim communities from the seventh through the fourteenth centuries. The Syriac Orthodox Church and the Church of the East, as well as Chalcedonian Melkites, were the first Christian communities to live alongside the emerging community of believers gathered around Muhammad and the revelation of the Qur’an. Through Eastern Christian theological literary engagement—found in epistolary exchanges, public debates, historical notations, and direct refutations—this course examines Christian conceptions of the qur’anic Jesus, the Jesus found in the Hadith, and the Islamic Jesus of later interpretive works in comparative perspective. Students will gain familiarity with foundational texts, teachings, and tendencies of each religious community, as well as the Christological disputes that existed among the Eastern Christian traditions and how this influenced their engagement with “the Muslim Jesus."
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate level students.
INAF 2749 JewishCatholicIsraelVaticanRel 3 Credits
This course will focus on the unique and complex relationship between Jews and Catholics and Israel and the Vatican. We will analyze the transformation of these relations in the twentieth century from animosity to friendship and mutual respect. Special emphasis will be given to the recent tension in the relations since October 7th 2023. We will discuss the teachings of the Church fathers and the positions of recent Popes on Judaism and Israel. Historical milestones and documents in Catholic Jewish and Vatican Israel relations will be discussed. The intersection of diplomacy, politics, and religion, and the role of religious leaders and interfaith dialogue in conflict resolution will be discussed.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2750 Holocaust by Bullets 3 Credits
While many students are familiar with major places of the Nazi extermination of Jews in Europe during World War II like Auschwitz but few know about the Holocaust by bullets. The Nazis conceived of mobile killing units which wiped out the Jewish population of small villages and big cities throughout Eastern Europe, shooting more than two million Jews: men, women and children. Fr. Patrick Desbois, a forensic anthropologist and author of "The Holocaust by Bullets" and "In Broad Daylight" and Dr. Andrej Umansky will teach the Holocaust by bullets in this class. Mid-term and final exams. Class participation and preparation essential. Course also listed as JCIV 2750.
Level: Undergraduate
Course attribute: XHIS name
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2751 Jews on Trial 3 Credits
This course begins by asking when and how law became separate from religion in the Israelite-Judaean world. It moves on to consider how we might evaluate and understand the narrative of Jesus’ trial and demise in the Gospels in light of information outside those accounts within Judaean, pagan Roman and early Jewish literature.
Noting that, regardless of the details that favor or disfavor the Gospel account, many generations of Christians have accept it as unequivocally true, the book goes on with a review that is both concise and extensive of the history of Christian-Jewish relations, examining that relationship through a legal and quasi-legal lens.
From medieval Blood Libels to the notorious Dreyfus Affair and from the story of Leo Frank’s trial and eventual murder to that of Adolph Eichmann’s trial and execution to that of Jonathan Pollard’s trial behind closed doors and ongoing incarceration, the narrative suggests that the Jew seems always to be on trial in the courtroom of journalistic and historiographic examination, whether as the accused, the accuser, the jury or the judge.
Noting that, regardless of the details that favor or disfavor the Gospel account, many generations of Christians have accept it as unequivocally true, the book goes on with a review that is both concise and extensive of the history of Christian-Jewish relations, examining that relationship through a legal and quasi-legal lens.
From medieval Blood Libels to the notorious Dreyfus Affair and from the story of Leo Frank’s trial and eventual murder to that of Adolph Eichmann’s trial and execution to that of Jonathan Pollard’s trial behind closed doors and ongoing incarceration, the narrative suggests that the Jew seems always to be on trial in the courtroom of journalistic and historiographic examination, whether as the accused, the accuser, the jury or the judge.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2752 US, Alliances Politics of ME 3 Credits
America, Alliances, and the Politics of the Middle East. This course will review U.S. Middle East policy. In particular, the course will examine the history of America's relationship with autocratic allies. This course will be taught by Tamara Cofman Wittes, Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy in the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings.
Beginning in 1956, the United States became the defender of a regional order in the Middle East that advanced its interests and those of its allies. In so doing, it built a series of regional partnerships with monarchies, dictatorships, and at least one democracy. Global powers often rely on regional partners to help secure their interests in far-flung places, and these partnerships are often complicated by differences in preferences and priorities – especially in the case of autocratic allies. This seminar will examine the modern history of U.S. Middle East policy through the lens of alliances with states of different regime types. Students will integrate comparative politics and international relations knowledge with regional study to produce a richer understanding of the modern Middle East. As policymakers debate the American role in the Middle East where regional order has broken down in part over the failure of autocratic governments, we will examine the legacy of these complex alliances for the region and for U.S. policy.
Beginning in 1956, the United States became the defender of a regional order in the Middle East that advanced its interests and those of its allies. In so doing, it built a series of regional partnerships with monarchies, dictatorships, and at least one democracy. Global powers often rely on regional partners to help secure their interests in far-flung places, and these partnerships are often complicated by differences in preferences and priorities – especially in the case of autocratic allies. This seminar will examine the modern history of U.S. Middle East policy through the lens of alliances with states of different regime types. Students will integrate comparative politics and international relations knowledge with regional study to produce a richer understanding of the modern Middle East. As policymakers debate the American role in the Middle East where regional order has broken down in part over the failure of autocratic governments, we will examine the legacy of these complex alliances for the region and for U.S. policy.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2753 God The Goal Posts 3 Credits
One football player crossing the goal line with the ball in hand, bends on one knee, crosses himself and looks heavenward, thanking God; a second, having dropped what would have been the winning touchdown pass, tweets angrily the next day: "I praise you 24/7 and you do me this?!?!" Sports and religion repeatedly interweave each other in a range of ways. But this is not new--it goes all the way back to the Bible and the Iliad, and the interwoven relationship has cascaded down through history. Moreover, sports has always been a surrogate for war, and war has been dictated by politics--which has often justified itself through religion. And one way we see this clearly is in art, across history and geography. This course will consider the dynamic and fascinating interweave between sports and religion through history, together with the more complex ways in which these two disciplines are interwoven with war, politics and art. It should be an exciting ride, with plenty of twists and turns.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2754 Jewish Lit in the Global South 3 Credits
What did “Brazil’s greatest modern writer,” “The Father of Contemporary Indian English Poetry,” and “the doyenne of South African English letters” have in common? These writers (Clarice Lispector, Nissim Ezekiel, and Nadine Gordimer) were all Jewish—and they were far from alone. The nations of Asia, South America, and Africa have produced a variety of remarkable Jewish writers of fiction and poetry who belong in any canon of Jewish literature. In this course we’ll deeply engage a diverse sample of that literature, and in ways (discussion, creative writing, interactive projects) that take us beyond the borders of the standard analytical essay.
Level: Undergraduate
Course attribute: Core:HALC - Hum, Art, Lit, Cul
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2755 Symbols of Faith 3 Credits
This course will consider the common origins and divergent and often convergent directions of the three Abraham faiths; and how those origins and directions affect their respective visual vocabularies. How have all three traditions adopted and adopted visual ideas from pagan art that predates all of them as well as from each other? How have they transformed or reinterpreted the meanings of common symbols in order to express their distinct sense of God and of the relationship between divinity and humanity? How have Judaism and Islam visually expressed God without the possibility of figurative imaging and how has Christianity gone beyond the limits of figurative expression in visually articulating God? How is the legacy of antiquity and the medieval period still palpable in the era of both modern and contemporary art?
Level: Undergraduate
Course attribute: Core: Theology
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2756 Jewish Thinkers in Modernity 3 Credits
This course explores some of the major minds and movements in Jewish thinking in the last 350 years while asking four questions: what is “modern”? what is “Jewish”? what is “thought”? and how might we understand all three terms combined as one rubric? Stated otherwise: in considering the historical development of diverse thought patterns and issues that emerged outside and inside Jewish life during this period – Secularism, Nationalism, Marxism/Socialism, Existentialism, Psychoanalysis, Reconstructionism, Modern Orthodoxy, the Holocaust—what do the reflections of individuals diverse in background and outward expression share (from Spinoza to Marx to Freud and Kafka to Hannah Arendt), by virtue of which we may group them together under such a rubric? The crisscross of personalities and genres—philosophy and theology and work that is not typically included within either of these categories—should, in the end, begin to answer parts of our questions, while stimulating yet further questions (at least some of them ultimately unanswerable).
The course is also listed as JCIV 227.
The course is also listed as JCIV 227.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2757 Frm Zionist Mvmnt to Cntmp Isr 3 Credits
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the study of Zionism and contemporary Israel. This course aims to provide students with familiarity with the main events and features of Israel's history and present, as well as with different interpretations and narratives of that history.
The course will begin by analyzing the origins and development of Zionist ideas and movements in Europe and the Russian Empire at the turn of the 19th century and the subsequent settlement of Jews in Palestine. We will then continue with the establishment of the independent state in May 1948, and will survey and analyze critical events and major themes of the state's first eight decades; such as Israel's ideological and political foundations, the centrality of immigration, religion, Arab minorities, civil-military relations, and inter-Jewish tensions both within Israel and with world Jewry, particularly in the United States.
This course is also listed as JCIV 230.
The course will begin by analyzing the origins and development of Zionist ideas and movements in Europe and the Russian Empire at the turn of the 19th century and the subsequent settlement of Jews in Palestine. We will then continue with the establishment of the independent state in May 1948, and will survey and analyze critical events and major themes of the state's first eight decades; such as Israel's ideological and political foundations, the centrality of immigration, religion, Arab minorities, civil-military relations, and inter-Jewish tensions both within Israel and with world Jewry, particularly in the United States.
This course is also listed as JCIV 230.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2758 CongressMaking ME Foreign Pol 3 Credits
Congress & the Making of Middle East Foreign Policy - taught by Danielle Pletka, Senior Vice President of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
While foreign policy is the constitutional prerogative of the president, for much of recent history, it has been the Congress that has led the way in shaping US foreign policy toward the Middle East. From aid to Israel and sanctions against Iran to the war on terror, the legislative branch has influenced America's role in the world in ways that few appreciate. Beginning with a detailed overview of the legislative process, this course will explore how Congress has shaped the modern Middle East, looking at key pieces of legislation and historical and contemporary case studies.
While foreign policy is the constitutional prerogative of the president, for much of recent history, it has been the Congress that has led the way in shaping US foreign policy toward the Middle East. From aid to Israel and sanctions against Iran to the war on terror, the legislative branch has influenced America's role in the world in ways that few appreciate. Beginning with a detailed overview of the legislative process, this course will explore how Congress has shaped the modern Middle East, looking at key pieces of legislation and historical and contemporary case studies.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2759 Kabbalah in Its Contexts 3 Credits
This course will address the question of what "mysticism" is—how it differs from "normative" religious experience—and therefore how Jewish, Christian and Muslim mysticism differ from (and are rooted in) normative Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It will also address the question of how Jewish, Christian and Muslim mysticism differ from and share common ground with each other. The course will follow a two-fold path. One will be conceptual: we will be constantly asking how what we are reading, talking and thinking about is specific or not specific to what Jewish or Christian or Muslim mysticism is. The other will be historical: all three mystical traditions undergo centuries of development and part of grasping them is seeing how they change even as they remain consistently focused on the same essential issues. And those issues, not unique to mysticism or to these three “types” of mysticism, but uniquely addressed by each of them, include: why are we here? what, if anything, created us? for what purpose, if any? how can we know what It/He/She is and wants of us? how can we grasp that Other without losing hold of ourselves?—and so on...
Level: Undergraduate
Course attribute: Core: Theology
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2760 The Arab Spring and Israel 3 Credits
The so-called “Arab Spring” has been characterized – among other things - by popular protests for regime change and reform, protracted civil wars, humanitarian catastrophes, the proliferation of failed states as well as state and nonstate actors engaged in terrorist, proxy, and low-level conventional conflicts. How does the Arab Spring affect Israel? How does Israel respond to a transforming regional order? What is Israel’s policy in light of the disintegrating Arab nation-states and Iranian regional ambitions? What are the implications of the regional turmoil on Israel’s relations with Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinians? What are the ramifications of the Arab Spring on Israel-United States relations? And, just as important, what are some of the opportunities for Israel amid a transforming Middle East?
The purpose of this course is to analyze and understand the political, diplomatic, and strategic effects of upheavals in the Middle East on the State of Israel. To augment the students’ understanding of Israel in the context of the broader Middle East, academic readings and lectures will be supplemented with policy papers, grass-roots level examples, media, comparative analyses, and guest speakers.
At the start of the course, readings and class discussions will enable students to gain a basic understanding of Israel’s national security and foreign policy doctrines, including an analysis of some of the main processes which explain the recent changes in the Middle East. The bulk of the semester, however, will be devoted to exploring specific key ramifications of the Arab Spring on Israel’s national security; foreign policy; domestic politics; relations with other regional actors, the United States and Russia; as well as Israel’s strategy towards nonstate actors such as Hamas and Hezbollah. The course will explore themes and tensions that repeatedly confront Israel in the Middle East.
The purpose of this course is to analyze and understand the political, diplomatic, and strategic effects of upheavals in the Middle East on the State of Israel. To augment the students’ understanding of Israel in the context of the broader Middle East, academic readings and lectures will be supplemented with policy papers, grass-roots level examples, media, comparative analyses, and guest speakers.
At the start of the course, readings and class discussions will enable students to gain a basic understanding of Israel’s national security and foreign policy doctrines, including an analysis of some of the main processes which explain the recent changes in the Middle East. The bulk of the semester, however, will be devoted to exploring specific key ramifications of the Arab Spring on Israel’s national security; foreign policy; domestic politics; relations with other regional actors, the United States and Russia; as well as Israel’s strategy towards nonstate actors such as Hamas and Hezbollah. The course will explore themes and tensions that repeatedly confront Israel in the Middle East.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2761 Arguing with God: Bible as Art 3 Credits
In a somewhat idiosyncratic essay, the literary critic George Steiner made the intriguing observation that the true homeland of the Jewish people was not necessarily Zion, the synagogue, or some other space, be it physical or metaphysical. Rather, Steiner insisted that the true Jewish homeland was the text. In this course, we will introduce you to a wide variety of classic (Biblical) and less-than-classic Jewish texts that interpret them. We will argue that for Jews the process of interpreting those texts is every bit as important—if not more so—than understanding the intentions of those who authored them. This then is a class about the interpretive injunction inherent in Jewish tradition, or its unique and relatively liberal propensity for discussing, interpreting, questioning, and even arguing – not only with the text but with G-d Himself. We will understand Jewish texts from a historical, literary, and above all, comparative perspective, and examine all the many ways in which Jews read their texts. It will be our working hypothesis that it is this very interpretive, or hermeneutical, process that lies at the core of Jewish identity. Our inquiry is beholden to certain classic Jewish forms of argumentation and disputation. As such this class will be taught in a manner that replicates many classic Jewish learning styles, so the student should be prepared to speak up and out, all the while listening very carefully to the thoughts of their colleagues. No previous knowledge of the Hebrew Bible, Jewish history, literature, or culture is assumed. Class performance is entirely based on analytical investment.
Level: Undergraduate
Course attributes: Core: Theology, Core:HALC - Hum, Art, Lit, Cul
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Mutual exclusion: JCIV 254, JCIV 2761
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate level students.
INAF 2762 Israel and World Politics 3 Credits
This course will focus on Israel’s foreign policy from 1948 until the present. We will discuss the main characteristics of its foreign policy, the tension between ideology and "realpolitik" and the decision making process. We will analyze Israel's relations with the United States, the European Union, Russia, the Arab states, Iran, Turkey, Africa, South America, Asia and the Vatican. Key documents of Israel's diplomatic history will be analyzed. The course will include guest speakers as well as visits to The Holocaust Museum and the Israeli Embassy. We will also view and discuss a documentary film. This course will be taught by Ambassador Zion Evrony, who most recently served as the Israeli Ambassador to the Holy See (2012-2016). Ambassador Evrony will share his experiences as a former Israeli diplomat for over 43 years.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2763 American Secularism 3 Credits
Not a day goes by without a journalist, public servant, professor, or policy analyst invoking the term “secularism” in a discussion about contemporary American politics. But what exactly is secularism? What does it stand for? What is its historical genealogy? Who are those who speak on behalf of, or against, secularism? How is it invoked in debates about religion and politics in the United States? And why is there such tremendous confusion as to what this concept signifies? To think about secularism in the contemporary political context is to wrestle with some of the most contentious issues that confront our democracy. These include the question of LGBT rights; women’s reproductive freedoms; freedom of speech (both religious and blasphemous); the role of science as a driver of public policy; how students are to be taught in public schools, and so much more. In short, developing a robust understanding of the American secular tradition casts an illuminating light on these, the most intractable of our national dilemmas. In this course, we explore the long and complex history of the American secular tradition, and we ask what its future might portend.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2764 Nazi Camps and the Holocaust 3 Credits
This course will examine new forensic evidence about imprisonment in Nazi death camps and labor centers. Informed by the work of Fr. Patrick Desbois, the forensic anthropologist whose book, Holocaust by Bullets, has revised the historiography of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe, this study will compare present narratives of the design and operations of the camps to newly discovered forensics which alter our understanding. Taught in tandem with a reading of autobiographical literature from camp inmates such as Elie Wiesel, Jean Bernard, Viktor Frankl, Anne Frank, Ettie Hillesum and others.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2765 MuslimsJews:Rethink Narrative 3 Credits
The Jewish-Muslim relationship is often fraught with conflict. However, until the early modern period, most of the world’s Jews spoke Arabic and called the Islamic world home. Yet after a long Jewish presence in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Balkans factors in the 19th and 20th centuries like colonization, nationalism, war, and decolonization have utterly transformed the map, triggering a departure of Jews from the Islamic world in the 1950s and 1960s. This course explores the modern history of Jewish-Muslim relations beyond conflict. By examining the Jewish experience in the Islamic world from the 7th century until today, students will discover the interconnected and entangled world of Jews and Muslims (from Morocco to Iran) as the two communities participated in the production of a common heritage that still resonates in today’s world. Through the exploration of artistic productions (music, cinema, and literature) that are the results of this joint experience, students will rethink the narratives usually presented when it comes to the Jewish-Muslim relationship in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2766 Who saved the Jews? 3 Credits
More than two million Jews were shot in more than ten countries during the Holocaust by bullets. Who in these countries was able to save the Jews? The Soviet regime, the Righteous among the Nations, and short-term rescuers were among those who stepped in to intervene. This course will look at those who saved Jews, those who were indifferent, and those who participated in their murder. Through historical analysis, survivor testimonies, and interdisciplinary perspectives, students will explore the risks, motivations, and impacts of rescue operations in Eastern Europe. The course aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the moral and ethical dimensions of rescue, the historical context, and the legacy of these acts of courage. At the end of the course, when faced with a mass massacre, past or present, each student will be asked to reflect on what they consider to be a rescue.
Level: Undergraduate
Course attribute: XHIS name
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2767 Israel Nat Security Dec Making 1-3 Credits
This modular course provides a hands-on insight into Israel’s national security challenges, dilemmas, strategies, policymaking, and implementation in an increasingly turbulent and volatile Middle East. Together we shall explore the unique conditions that have framed Israel’s national security decision-making including Regional and Great Power dynamics, the weight of the intelligence agencies and of the military vs. the relative weakness of the civilian national security organs, and the limitations resulting from the proportional electoral system. We shall also examine rising variables in Israel’s national security thinking and strategy including, among others, information warfare and societal resilience. The course includes four lectures and a wrap-up wargaming session: 1) Israel’s Emerging Threats in the Regional and Global Arenas 2) Adapting Israel’s National Security Doctrine 3) Israel’ Decision-Making in Practice: Structure, Mechanisms, and Power Struggles 4) Case Study Analysis: The Israeli-Russian Tango in Syria and Beyond 5) Wargaming Session: Students will participate in a wargame simulation by playing the moves and countermoves of Israel’s national security stakeholders. Students shall be trained to formulate security assessments, generate policy-oriented solutions, and examine their policy objectives and unexpected outcomes. This course is designed to improve decision-making skills across a wide range of policy areas and empower students and young professionals in the foreign policy and national security realms. This is a non-standard class. With an add drop form students may add and drop until the first day of class. The withdrawal period begins on day two. Please see the non-standard course information on the registrar's website This section will meet in the Murray Room of Lauinger 5th (Room 541) floor from Feb 10-14. Course is taught by Dr. Sarah Fainberg.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2768 The Weaponization of Hate 3 Credits
The Weaponization of Hate: Antisemitism, Racism, Islamophobia, and Xenophobia in the COVID-19 Pandemic era.
Over the past several years, the Western world has suffered a dangerous rise in far-right extremism, providing an imminent terrorism and hate crime threat to Jewish communities, as well as Muslims, African Americans, and, in some cases, women. This class will assess the ideological underpinnings of the anti-Semitic far-right, trace the movement’s rise in the Obama and Trump years, analyze the current movement’s tactical and communications preferences, and evaluate ongoing and future counterterrorism and countering violent extremism measures. The aim is to provide an extensive and objective assessment of the current threat to Jewish communities and beyond, to offer students an introduction to the counterterrorism world, and to underscore the importance of understanding and fighting hate in all its forms. Course listed as JCIV 281 and INAF 281.
Over the past several years, the Western world has suffered a dangerous rise in far-right extremism, providing an imminent terrorism and hate crime threat to Jewish communities, as well as Muslims, African Americans, and, in some cases, women. This class will assess the ideological underpinnings of the anti-Semitic far-right, trace the movement’s rise in the Obama and Trump years, analyze the current movement’s tactical and communications preferences, and evaluate ongoing and future counterterrorism and countering violent extremism measures. The aim is to provide an extensive and objective assessment of the current threat to Jewish communities and beyond, to offer students an introduction to the counterterrorism world, and to underscore the importance of understanding and fighting hate in all its forms. Course listed as JCIV 281 and INAF 281.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2769 Current Issues in US ME Policy 3 Credits
The Middle East is in turmoil: Conflict in Syria and Yemen; conflict between Saudi Arabia and Qatar; generational changes in the Gulf; Iran and Turkey sowing discord; Salafi-jihadis on the march; and more. How should the United States be dealing with the challenges? Is the Middle East relevant to US national security? This course will explore options for US policy.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2770 Israel the Balkans 1 Credit
This modular course highlights the multifaceted relations that have developed between the countries of the Balkan Peninsula and the State of Israel since the breakup of Yugoslavia. Their encounter draws upon an acute sense of the 20th century tragedies as the Jewish people and minorities across the Balkans experienced genocidal policies and ethnic cleansing. Based on the Ottoman legacy, the Balkan countries and Israel also perceive themselves as “crossroads between Christian and Muslim civilizations” while wrestling with the challenge of integrating their own ethnic and religious minorities. From a geopolitical perspective, Israel and the Western Balkans are viewed as soft underbellies of Western security architecture and aspire to foster a stable neighborhood and regional integration. Specifically, they share a concern for the rise of Jihadi extremism, the refugee crisis’ destabilizing effects, Iran’s and Turkey’s muscle-flexing and rivalry, Great Power collusion, and the imperative to protect their energy needs and infrastructures. Ideologically, they tend to converge in their unwavering commitment to the national principle and the nation-state framework. Israel’s intensifying relations with the Balkan region in the broad sense (from the Adriatic coast to the Ionian, Aegean, and Black Seas) testify to the rise of a new and often overlooked geopolitical continuum between the Balkan area and the Middle East.
Together we shall explore Israel’s multidimensional engagement with the Balkan countries by focusing on three main questions: What are the main drivers and constraints of their relationships? What lies behind the US involvement in their relationship dynamics? To what extent can the Balkan countries provide Israel with a second circle of allies in the periphery of the Middle East?
This course is designed to empower students and young professionals with a keen interest in European, Eurasian, and Middle East studies in the foreign policy and national security realms. Students shall be trained to formulate security assessments and generate policy-oriented objectives and solutions.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2771 Jewish American Literature 3 Credits
This course explores the fiction of a wide variety of contemporary Jewish authors working in the post-Holocaust era. The body of work that they have produced may be described as comic, dark, critical of self (and others), and, quite often, exceedingly disturbing. These writers, however, can rarely be described as boring.
Throughout the semester we will cling to an analytical distinction in which how an author writes is contrasted to what an author writes about. This separation of form and content is performed under the artificial laboratory conditions of literary analysis. Form and content, needless to say, are inextricably bound and comprise an organic unity. Be that as it may, we will often employ this distinction in our study of the novels, novellas, and short stories that we encounter this semester. In terms of form, the questions we ask are simple (though the answers we will come across are decidedly not): how is the work of literary art built? Why did the author decide to narrate the story in this particular manner and what advantages and disadvantages resulted from this decision? How is the overall work structured? How might we describe the prose style of the writer in question? What are the technical strengths and weaknesses of the author? What literary influences can be identified? What is unique or idiosyncratic about his or her artistry? In terms of content, we will notice that certain themes recur in nearly all of the works selected for scrutiny. Using a kind of shorthand we will organize our semester around some recurring obsessions of Jewish-American writers (many of which bleed into one another): “Holocaust,” “Israel,” “American Jews and ‘Others,’” and “Immigrant Stories.” As the term progresses we will come across recurring motifs which might be described as: “the emasculated diaspora Jew”: “the lonely protagonist”: “Jewish women for and against Judaism”: “an American Jew in Israel”: “the eternal immigrant”: “assimilation and its discontents”: “the lure of the secular”: “orthodoxy and modernity”: “the oversexed Jew/ess”: and “the (dysfunctional) Jewish family.”
Throughout the semester we will cling to an analytical distinction in which how an author writes is contrasted to what an author writes about. This separation of form and content is performed under the artificial laboratory conditions of literary analysis. Form and content, needless to say, are inextricably bound and comprise an organic unity. Be that as it may, we will often employ this distinction in our study of the novels, novellas, and short stories that we encounter this semester. In terms of form, the questions we ask are simple (though the answers we will come across are decidedly not): how is the work of literary art built? Why did the author decide to narrate the story in this particular manner and what advantages and disadvantages resulted from this decision? How is the overall work structured? How might we describe the prose style of the writer in question? What are the technical strengths and weaknesses of the author? What literary influences can be identified? What is unique or idiosyncratic about his or her artistry? In terms of content, we will notice that certain themes recur in nearly all of the works selected for scrutiny. Using a kind of shorthand we will organize our semester around some recurring obsessions of Jewish-American writers (many of which bleed into one another): “Holocaust,” “Israel,” “American Jews and ‘Others,’” and “Immigrant Stories.” As the term progresses we will come across recurring motifs which might be described as: “the emasculated diaspora Jew”: “the lonely protagonist”: “Jewish women for and against Judaism”: “an American Jew in Israel”: “the eternal immigrant”: “assimilation and its discontents”: “the lure of the secular”: “orthodoxy and modernity”: “the oversexed Jew/ess”: and “the (dysfunctional) Jewish family.”
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2803 Crisis of Modernity:JewishPhil 3 Credits
In this course, we will examine Jewish theological and philosophical responses to the crisis of meaning brought about by the experience of modernity. The course has two aims. The first aim is to show how Jewish thinkers attempt to restore and reinterpret the meaning of traditional religious concepts such as God, faith, creation, revelation, and redemption in an age in which their meaning has been radically called into question by the rise of science and technology and the catastrophic historical events of the 20th century. We will discuss general philosophical and theological issues such as the relationship between faith, reason, and science, the relationship between freedom, community, and religious or ethical obligation, and the meaning of history.The second aim of the course is to analyze how Jewish thinkers interpret the meaning of Jewish existence in the modern age. Here we will discuss questions such as how the focus on the perpetuation of a specifically Jewish life relates to the universalist and messianic dimensions of Judaism and the relationship between “Halakha” (Jewish law) and the ethical and spiritual aspects of Judaism.We will read selections from Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, Martin Buber, Hermann Cohen, Will Herberg, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Eugen-Rosenstock-Huessy, Franz Rosenzweig, and Joseph B. Soloveichik.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2805 Moses to Muhammad: Theo Hist 3 Credits
The purpose of this course is two-fold: to provide an introduction to Judaism and Islam—and to Islam specifically in its theological relationship to Judaism as well as to Judaism in its theological relationship to Islam—and to follow the course of that relationship as it plays out historically, in different times and places, from the seventh century to our own time.
Thus, some of the questions that we will address include: What are the theological and historical circumstances in which Judaism was born? What are the theological and historical circumstances in which Islam was born? What influence, if any, did either of these faiths have on the other, given their historical interfaces? How are these influences apparent in different media, from theological and legalistic literature to symbols in art to gastronomic customs? How do putative influences change in the sweep of Islam across a wide world in which Jews are a far-flung series of diverse and even disparate communities? What are the implications of this extended past for the world in which Jews and Muslims live today and will live tomorrow?
Grades will be determined by the usual mechanisms of attendance and participation and writing, of course: a pair of take-home, paper-length (ca 10-15 pp) exams—one as a mid-term and one as a final. The course is also listed as JCIV 2805.
Thus, some of the questions that we will address include: What are the theological and historical circumstances in which Judaism was born? What are the theological and historical circumstances in which Islam was born? What influence, if any, did either of these faiths have on the other, given their historical interfaces? How are these influences apparent in different media, from theological and legalistic literature to symbols in art to gastronomic customs? How do putative influences change in the sweep of Islam across a wide world in which Jews are a far-flung series of diverse and even disparate communities? What are the implications of this extended past for the world in which Jews and Muslims live today and will live tomorrow?
Grades will be determined by the usual mechanisms of attendance and participation and writing, of course: a pair of take-home, paper-length (ca 10-15 pp) exams—one as a mid-term and one as a final. The course is also listed as JCIV 2805.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2960 Research Seminar 0-3 Credits
Open to all undergraduate students.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2970 Israel the Arab+Muslim World 3 Credits
The Societal, Political and Security Implications of Israel's Relations with the Arab and Muslim World. This course will undertake a broad review of Israel's relations with the Arab and Muslim World in four modules. The first will review the development of Israel's relations with Arab and Muslim majority countries in the Middle East and North Africa, from the pre-state period through the major military confrontations of 1948, 1957, 1967 and 1973. It will then look the implications of the peace treaty with Egypt as well as Israel's wars in Lebanon and confrontation with the PLO. The second will look more internally at the implications of Jewish immigration from the Middle East and North Africa on the state formation process, the state's approaches to its non-Jewish minority populations as well as the Palestinian population in the occupied territories (Gaza and the West Bank). The third module will take a closer look at the development of relations between Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, and Iran. During the last module, students will study the impact of recent political changes in the Middle East. Specifically, they will evaluate what the end of the Cold War, the Arab Spring, and the Abraham Accords have meant for both Israel's diplomatic relations in the region and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 2980 Krogh Honors Seminar 3 Credits
The Krogh Honors Seminar, named for Dean Emeritus Peter Krogh, provides the opportunity for 15 students to work with a leading scholar in the area of international affairs. Students in the Krogh seminar examine a major issue in international affairs and work on an independent research project related to that issue. Many Krogh Scholars have gone on to graduate school and have fared well in the competition for fellowships such as Rhodes, Marshall, Mellon, Luce and Fulbright. This success reflects the emphasis on critical thinking, close reading, and polished writing that are the hallmarks of the Scholars Seminar. Upon successful completion of this seminar, students will become known as Krogh Scholars, and will be recognized with a medal at Tropaia during their year of graduation. Applications will consist of completing the Application Form and submitting the following documents in PDF format: ● Unofficial Transcript ● A brief statement (150 words maximum) that explains why you are interested in the seminar. ● Previously written paper which highlights analytical abilities and writing skills.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3210 Qualitative Research Methods 3 Credits
Qualitative Research Methods
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment limited to students in the School of Foreign Service college.
INAF 3228 Nuclear WeaponsInt'l Security 3 Credits
The purpose of the seminar is to explore the impact of nuclear weapons on international and regional security. The first part of the course deals with nuclear weapons design and development, the connections between nuclear power programs and nuclear weapons development, the causes and consequences of nuclear proliferation, and concepts of deterrence and stability. The second part addresses specific countries in their regional setting, Northeast and South Asia, the Middle-East, US-Russian security relations, and nuclear terrorism.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3270 Gender Pols in African Culture 3 Credits
The study of gender politics in Africa is a growing field in cultural and political analysis. It raises significant questions with respect to culture, power, and representation. While in most representations of African women in various feminist writings, they are often portrayed as victims of patriarchal dominance and violence, there is important body of work that challenges these epistemologies and common stereotypes by highlighting their agency and sustained struggle for justice. Gender Politics in African Cultures and Societies introduces fundamental theoretical and methodological approaches that situate the study of gender within broader institutional historical, political and cultural arrangements and structures in African societies. We will examine in-depth anthropological discourses and concepts in order to understand gender as both a category of analysis and a subject of powerful social movements in Africa. We will explore wide-ranging subjects pertaining to the study of democracy, development, ethnicity, marginality, and the nature of political power in Africa. Methodologically, we will discuss several African feminist ethnographies that represent important investigations of gender politics and its intersections with broader patterns and processes of cross-cultural constructions of identity, difference, and politics. We will review major transformations and critiques that feminist anthropology has brought to bear in the analysis of culture, citizenship, modernity and tradition, women's rights. These topics will be arranged thematically and discussed in depth.
Level: Undergraduate
Prerequisites: (WRIT 015 or WRIT 1150) or HUMW 011 and (GOVT 040 or GOVT 1400) or GOVT 121 and (GOVT 060 or GOVT 1600) or GOVT 006
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3271 Media in the Middle East 3 Credits
This course examines the various ways in which media, culture, and politics intersect in the contemporary Arab Middle East. It is designed to assist students in understanding the role of the evolving Arab mediascape in shaping the socio-?political information environment of a fast-changing region. Students will be exposed to and engage in discussions about various media theories, issues, forms, and practices. A broad range of topics will be covered including the history and development of the Arab press, the rise of satellite television, the political economy of Arab media, the mission of Arab journalism, the Al Jazeera phenomenon, and the advent of new and alternative media. Special attention will be paid to the role social media and satellite television have played in the momentous changes that shook the region during the Arab Spring. Equally of interest is the uneven role of media in the Arab world’s transformation process, particularly the disjunction between the liberating potential of transnational and new media which teem with censor-free content, on the one hand, and the authoritarian political culture of the region, on the other hand. We will also dwell on the relationship between media and state security and reflect on the contribution of political communication to the emergence of an Arab public sphere, the consolidation of a transnational identity, and the reconfiguration of citizenship. We will consider the extent to which both news and entertainment media create new communicative spaces for social action and engender contestatory politics. Equally relevant are the ways in which locally-?produced media in the Arab world respond and adapt to globalization.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment limited to students in the School of Foreign Service - Q college.
INAF 3306 Communicating Nat SecFor Pol 3 Credits
This course will examine how the U.S. government communicates publicly about national security and foreign policy issues. In our polarized world with globalized communications, leaders must do more than develop intellectually-sound policies; they have to explain and sell those policies they’re proposing to the public. Media strategies have therefore become even more integral to the policymaking process. This course will give students a behind-the-scenes look at how the government communicates about global affairs; develop their skills to effectively advocate in the media for (or cover) policy positions; examine the challenges inherent in doing press in an age of social media and amid widespread misinformation and disinformation; and help them think critically about how the press covers global events, both in the United States and abroad. The principles, skills, and challenges that will be discussed are applicable to all who are interested in working in any facet of international affairs. The instructor has been a spokesperson for the CIA and the State Department, a commentator on cable news, and worked on multiple presidential campaigns. Learning takes place through classroom discussions, watching videos of good and bad media strategies, visits from guest speakers, conducting a mock press briefing, among other things.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3316 Religion American Public Life 3 Credits
Religious ideas have a long and ambiguous history in the American civil and political life, from claims about the founding and manifest destiny, the legacy of slavery, and the struggles for securing civil and women's rights. American religious life has simultaneously confronted increasing secularism, disagreement over moral values, and a diverse citizenry. Debates about the role of religious groups in politics and policy-making continue to problematize notions of separation of "church and state." This course will explore a number of issues at the nexus of religion and American public life: How does religion factor into American electoral politics, including the rise of the alt-right? How do LGBTQIA rights claims interact, conflict, and coexist with religious rights claims? What are the causes and consequences of the rise of the "nones" or the religiously unaffiliated American population? How does religion influence US foreign policy? Students will examine these issues while also learning various theories regarding the optimal relationship between religion and U.S. public life throughout history, and while considering the implications of increasing religious pluralism.
Level: Undergraduate
Course attribute: Core: Theology
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment limited to students in a B.S. in Foreign Service degree.
Enrollment limited to students in the School of Foreign Service or School of Foreign Service - Q colleges.
INAF 3322 Israel in Context 3 Credits
Academics, journalists, activists, and policymakers have often treat Israel analytically as exceptional. Much of the recent literature on the country portrays Israel as a unique force for good or as the embodiment of evil. This dichotomy is odd and suggests that authors are engaged in political projects rather than an effort to advance knowledge about an important country. Still, it is worth asking: Is Israel unique? How is it like other states? What about the Israeli society, which reflects the country’s politics? The course seeks to answer these questions through a dispassionate examination of Israel’s origins and an in-depth analysis of the political, historical, religious, and economic forces that are washing over the country and shaping its future.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3324 Nobody's Backyard:Grenada 3 Credits
Instructor approval required. This course has an associated 3 cr course INAF 324. Coursework for INAF 324 will be enhanced by this class with travel to and fieldwork in Grenada over spring break. Students will conduct deep, on-the-ground student research and to look more closely at the people, policies, places and socio-cultural happenings relevant to the course.
Students must be enrolled in INAF 324 to be eligible for a seat in this class. Admission to this course and the associated 3 cr course (INAF 324) is by application and interview. Please see INAF 324 for more information, requirements, and eligibility.
Students must be enrolled in INAF 324 to be eligible for a seat in this class. Admission to this course and the associated 3 cr course (INAF 324) is by application and interview. Please see INAF 324 for more information, requirements, and eligibility.
Level: Undergraduate
Course attribute: FS54 name
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment limited to students in the School of Foreign Service - Q college.
INAF 3325 Istanbul:Many Lives Imper City 3 Credits
“Whoever ends up possessing Constantinople will govern the world,” Napoleon Bonaparte once declared. Even though Napoleon erred, the city has been the seat of powerful empires from which Romans, Byzantines, and – after 1453 – Ottomans ruled vast multi-ethnic and multi-religious populations. Now the major city of the Turkish Republic, Istanbul harbors, oftentimes uneasily, the heritage and memory of all three alongside a much more recent but equally powerful Turkish nationalism. Students explore the political and cultural history of Istanbul as an imperial capital and its transformation under the modern Turkish Republic into Europe’s largest city through historical primary sources, film, fiction, music, memoirs, and relevant secondary sources. The course has an embedded travel component with faculty during Spring Break. Course registration is by faculty approval and requires completing the application and selection during October 2025. SO/JR/SR are eligible to apply. Completion of INAF1010-13, HIST1602, or HIST4605 strongly recommended.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3326 Indig Land Rights in S. Amer 3 Credits
Over a century ago in Bolivia, Ava-Guarani leaders were able to gain land grants over their territories, though these land grants were meant to take the land away from them. Since then, most communities lost their records that proved possession of their homelands. The course will prepare students to search for these records and understand them. We will go to the National Archives in Sucre, Bolivia over Spring break and copy the land grant documents. After the return to Georgetown, the class will analyze these records and transform them into reports for the Ava-Guarani. We will then return to Bolivia where we will go to the indigenous territories on the Chaco frontier and provide the communities with the records they have lost. This will serve the Ava-Guarani to gain access to larger revenues from the oil companies that have been exploiting the land that the communities were unable to prove their possession. Prerequisite: Competency in written Spanish.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3334 Nobody's Backyard:Grenada IFW 1 Credit
Instructor approval required. This course has an associated 3 cr course INAF 324. Coursework for INAF 324 will be enhanced by this class with travel to and fieldwork in Grenada over spring break. Students will conduct deep, on-the-ground student research and to look more closely at the people, policies, places and socio-cultural happenings relevant to the course.
Students must be enrolled in INAF 324 to be eligible for a seat in this class. Admission to this course and the associated 3 cr course (INAF 324) is by application and interview. Please see INAF 324 for more information, requirements, and eligibility.
Students must be enrolled in INAF 324 to be eligible for a seat in this class. Admission to this course and the associated 3 cr course (INAF 324) is by application and interview. Please see INAF 324 for more information, requirements, and eligibility.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3336 Calderwood: Beltway Beyond 3 Credits
Public writing—the ability to translate complex arguments and professional jargon to a broad audience—is different from the academic writing done in most courses and is central to success in life beyond college. The writing-intensive Calderwood Seminars in Public Writing will engage you in a review of an international affairs topic while you learn to use criticism productively to improve your writing in a variety of styles. The seminars offer a unique opportunity to work collaboratively with fellow students in the writing and peer-editing process.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3344 Leadership in Foreign Affairs 1 Credit
This one credit course will examine challenges in and build skills for effective leadership in the foreign policy field. The focus will be on civilian leadership (although some military leadership case studies may be reviewed) in Government, international business and NGO positions.
Students will discuss core leadership skills: competence, confidence, communication, compassion, and creativity. Sessions will feature discussion of case studies as well as practical exercises to build skills critical for success in careers in foreign affairs. Current and past foreign policy practitioners will join select sessions to offer differing perspectives. The class will talk about emerging leadership issues such as challenges in representing unpopular policies, work/life balance, and gender. Students will also explore the concept of leadership and making an impact at all levels of a career.
The required reading list will build on books featuring classic leadership styles as well as leadership under adverse or unique conditions. Students will also explore leadership issues through new media such as podcasts, blogs, social media sites that offer thoughts on leadership beyond the classroom.
Students will discuss core leadership skills: competence, confidence, communication, compassion, and creativity. Sessions will feature discussion of case studies as well as practical exercises to build skills critical for success in careers in foreign affairs. Current and past foreign policy practitioners will join select sessions to offer differing perspectives. The class will talk about emerging leadership issues such as challenges in representing unpopular policies, work/life balance, and gender. Students will also explore the concept of leadership and making an impact at all levels of a career.
The required reading list will build on books featuring classic leadership styles as well as leadership under adverse or unique conditions. Students will also explore leadership issues through new media such as podcasts, blogs, social media sites that offer thoughts on leadership beyond the classroom.
Level: Undergraduate
Course attribute:
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment limited to students in the School of Foreign Service college.
INAF 3352 Race, Religion, and Terrorism 3 Credits
Going beyond America, this course takes a global approach to identity, race, and religion. We do this through history, ideas, political movements, narratives, and geopolitics, and assess the consequences for world order. We seek to understand race, religion, and terror not as the past, but as a study of the patterns and causes of change. Students are then able to connect the dots between the past and present of major terrorist movements and/or conflicts. We evaluate future trajectories for the intersection of race, religion, and terrorism.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3358 Placemaking 3-9 Credits
Placemaking:
Right now you are some place in the world. Maybe it’s the place you grew up, or maybe it’s the place that best meets your needs for this semester. Wherever it might be, it is a unique place made so by the people who live there, the environment that surrounds it, and the history that precedes it. This course is designed to help you make sense of that place, to understand it at a deeper level and to consider how it connects to the work that most animates you. In this course you will be asked to explore your place and connect it to the core values that underlie a Georgetown education. This guided self-designed course will pair introspection and reflection with experiential learning around the uniqueness of the place you inhabit for the semester. At the end of this course you will have a better understanding of the importance of place, and a deeper sense of how place can be a critical component of any experience. This is an asynchronous course with a limited number of meeting times throughout the semester set aside for you to connect with other students and to share common experiences. Some of the common experiences of placemaking are listed below:
Mapping: an interactive mapping exercise focused on exploring your “place” Walking the talk: A new Georgetown podcast series exploring life, purpose and well-being. Designing: Design your own reading list for the course Building: Build local networks with fellow students and alumni in the “place” you are taking courses from this semester. Connecting: Connect virtually with peers around the world
Placemaking has several different credit options available for the Spring 2021 semester.
Right now you are some place in the world. Maybe it’s the place you grew up, or maybe it’s the place that best meets your needs for this semester. Wherever it might be, it is a unique place made so by the people who live there, the environment that surrounds it, and the history that precedes it. This course is designed to help you make sense of that place, to understand it at a deeper level and to consider how it connects to the work that most animates you. In this course you will be asked to explore your place and connect it to the core values that underlie a Georgetown education. This guided self-designed course will pair introspection and reflection with experiential learning around the uniqueness of the place you inhabit for the semester. At the end of this course you will have a better understanding of the importance of place, and a deeper sense of how place can be a critical component of any experience. This is an asynchronous course with a limited number of meeting times throughout the semester set aside for you to connect with other students and to share common experiences. Some of the common experiences of placemaking are listed below:
Mapping: an interactive mapping exercise focused on exploring your “place” Walking the talk: A new Georgetown podcast series exploring life, purpose and well-being. Designing: Design your own reading list for the course Building: Build local networks with fellow students and alumni in the “place” you are taking courses from this semester. Connecting: Connect virtually with peers around the world
Placemaking has several different credit options available for the Spring 2021 semester.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Course attribute:
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3362 History's Influence on For Aff 3 Credits
Historical knowledge—and the knowledge of how nation states, politicians, world leaders, non-state actors, and national polities use history in the conduct of foreign affairs—is crucial to success as a diplomat or foreign policy practitioner. From the 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, to myriad examples of American policymakers using the Munich and Vietnam analogies when debating policy, to China’s current use of history to make claims in the South China Sea, history is an ever-present factor in international affairs. This course will examine the ways in which these groups have used history to create historical narratives and its effects on the formulation and implementation of foreign policy. It will also examine the ways in which some countries deal with difficult aspects of their history. Key to this course will be an exploration of what history is, how it is portrayed, and who decides how it is portrayed. We will pursue the questions of how we can learn from history, how it affects international affairs, and what kinds of “lessons learned” policymakers can derive from history (and why). Furthermore, we will consider the question of whether or not historical analogies aid or burden policymaking decisions. Understanding history and how it is used is only one aspect of affective policymaking. Students will also explore how to sift through this information to make informed policy decisions in a fast-paced environment. Tasks will include weekly reading and short writing assignments; student led class discussions; and researching, writing, and presenting an eight to ten page final research paper on a topic of their choosing that deals with an issue of history in international affairs.
Issues to be covered will include:
-The uses and misuses of history: an overview of history in international affairs
-Using history in the decision-making process
-The Vietnam Syndrome and the Munich Analogy
-The Boxer Rebellion: memory and its effects on policy
-Knowing who’s across the table: history, culture, and race in foreign affairs
-I’m sorry: apologies in the international arena
The professor is Director of Programs and Research at the SFS Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. He is a diplomatic historian who served in multiple roles at the Department of State. He recently completed a one-year tour for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as the Presidential Daily Briefing Book briefer for State Department senior officials.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Course attribute: XHIS name
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3370 Deserts:studies of arid lands 3 Credits
Deserts are often considered as “empty” or “wastelands”. How come? What makes deserts into landscapes defined more by absence than by presence? Is it simply the relative absence of rain? About one third of our planet’s landmass is made of arid terrain. But unlike other geographies – such as forests, mountains, coastlines, rivers, oceans, or cities – deserts have remained largely understudied in the fields of environmental politics and in the Environmental Humanities. Compared to other environments, drylands seem to be somewhat insignificant sites that need to be “improved” or even “saved”. As a result of such environmental imaginations, deserts have become important for the extraction of resources. They serve, across the globe, as resource reservoirs, dumping grounds or testing sites for scientific experiments ranging from geo-engineering to nuclear tests.
This course is a deep dive into interdisciplinary perspectives on arid lands. Looking from Qatar, from the heart of our planet’s largest desert belt, we bring arid terrain from the mere backdrop of colonial conquest, extractivism, securitization, and development to the forefront of the inquiry.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment limited to students in the School of Foreign Service - Q college.
INAF 3371 International Thought 3 Credits
This upper-level seminar will provide students with a deep grounding in international thought—which, according to one scholar who we will read, “is an inquiry into the fundamental ideas and beliefs involved in the arrangement and conduct of world affairs over time: international anarchy, the society of states, the cosmopolis of humankind, hegemony, empire, confederation, the practice of diplomacy, international
law, war, espionage, world commerce, international organization, global civil society—to mention some of the most prominent.”
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3372 Our Earth:Enviro Justice 3 Credits
In the year 2000, chemist Paul Crutzen and biologist Eugene Stoermer introduced the term Anthropocene to describe the central role humankind has come to play in shaping the geology and ecology of planet Earth. Since then, the concept has proliferated across academic disciplines. It is profoundly reshaping some of our most fundamental understandings of us as humans, our relations to other beings, the ways in which we intervene and shape the natural world, and how we might live with care within our shared environments.
The shift that the Anthropocene concept has prompted has given rise to a whole array of new issues such as the rights of nature, human–animal relations, and environmental crimes. Entire new fields of inquiry have emerged (or vastly grown)—among them the environmental humanities, political ecology, inhuman geographies and human–animal studies—often through interdisciplinary collaborations between scholars, activists, artists, and lawmakers. The work that those thinkers have produced has made important connections between ecological deterioration and issues of social justice. For example, Anthropocene debates have shown how ecological catastrophes disproportionately affect already vulnerable groups—such as those living in the Global South or in extreme poverty. Yet it remains challenging to really grasp the complexity of environmental change. Part of the problem lies in the interscalar character and multiple temporalities that define the Anthropocene. The deep time of melting glaciers, for example, is as much a sign of human-driven climate change as the rapidly increasing presence of microplastics in the human bloodstream.
How, then, do those Anthropocene thinkers make sense of this new geological epoch? What instruments, sensors, detectors do they use to trace ecological transformation and to make their claims for environmental justice? What does the Anthropocene actually sound like, and what ordinary gestures or sensations reveal that you and I are living in this new geological age? Some people are experimenting with different forms of narrating or speculating about alternate futures. Some are presenting us with novel ways of relating to the non-human world, exploring, for example, if forests can think, or if we can become ocean? If we are living in this new epoch, how do we know, what does that feel like, and most urgently, what can, should, or must we do about it?
This course is an invitation for students to engage with these subjects in ways that are both intellectually rigorous and deeply experiential.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment limited to students in the School of Foreign Service - Q college.
INAF 3396 Krogh Honors Seminar 3 Credits
The Krogh Honors Seminar, named for Dean Emeritus Peter Krogh, provides the opportunity for 15 students to work with a leading scholar in the area of international affairs. Students in the Krogh seminar examine a major issue in international affairs and work on an independent research project related to that issue. Many Krogh Scholars have gone on to graduate school and have fared well in the competition for fellowships such as Rhodes, Marshall, Mellon, Luce and Fulbright. This success reflects the emphasis on critical thinking, close reading, and polished writing that are the hallmarks of the Scholars Seminar. Upon successful completion of this seminar, students will become known as Krogh Scholars, and will be recognized with a medal at Tropaia during their year of graduation. Applications will consist of completing the Application Form and submitting the following documents in PDF format: ● Unofficial Transcript ● A brief statement (150 words maximum) that explains why you are interested in the seminar. ● Previously written paper which highlights analytical abilities and writing skills.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3407 Europe In Crisis 3 Credits
This advanced undergraduate lecture course examines the impact of the succession of overlapping crises that have engulfed Europe since 2008. Once students have been exposed to the foundational elements of postwar European political economy and the trajectory of European integration, the course takes up the origins and implications of Eurozone crisis, the Russia/Ukraine crisis, the refugee/immigration crisis, Brexit, the crisis of transatlantic relations, and the COVID-19 pandemic. The course culminates with a two-week-long simulation of an EU summit in which students are assigned country roles and are presented with a crisis scenario to which they must respond. Students will have an opportunity to hone critical writing and speaking skills, and they will learn how to write policy memos and position papers in connection with the simulation.
Level: Undergraduate
Course attribute: FS42 name
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3426 Indig Land Rights S. AmerIFW 1 Credit
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3490 Global Perspectives on IR 3 Credits
Since its origins early in the 20th century, the field of international relations has been dominated by western thought and approaches. The orthodoxy in the field, whether by realists, neorealists or constructivists, draws heavily from the experiences, philosophies and conceptions of what the international system of nations should be from the perspective of the US and Western Europe. As a result, the field has focused heavily on the concerns and “national interests” of countries in the West, which are often assumed to be those of the rest of the world. This influences greatly the questions we ask about relations among nations, and how we answer them. As a result, and ironically, the field has not been very “international”. This has led to a rise in the “international politics of discontent” with the current world order in several regions of the world among theoreticians and practitioners that question the effectiveness of the orthodoxy in the field to explain and understand the complexities of today’s world and the effectiveness of the institutions that were created after World War II to foster and maintain a “liberal world order”. Can we make sense of an increasingly globalized world in which the Global South plays a more salient role based only on orthodox analysis? This seminar is designed to allow students to explore and challenge the conventional “truths” about the discipline of international relations and to think critically about the world as is in the third decade of the twenty-first century. The seminar reflects the calls for a more diversified understanding of, and engagement with, the different conceptual, theoretical and resulting foreign policies of a less Eurocentric international relations. In the process, we will discuss the role of identity, nationalism, regionalism, culture and ideology in foreign policy, and explore dynamics of inequality, authority and hierarchy in international politics. Through readings from scholars and policy-makers from the Global South and visitors from Latin America and the Caribbean, students will become aware of how different social constructions shape both national, regional and global political strategies. The aim is to collectively attempt to understand the complexities and realities of international politics today. Evaluation in the seminar will be continuous. Although there will be no in-class exams, students will be expected to participate actively in class discussions. Students will also be required to make presentations, lead discussions, and write four reflective essays on the assigned readings. A final take home exam will be given at the end of the semester.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3550 War Nonviolence Peacebuilding 3 Credits
TBD
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3551 Niebuhr:Race/Politics/Theology 3 Credits
This seminar will examine the life and thought of Reinhold Niebuhr, the premier American Protestant political theologian of the Twentieth-Century. We will critique Niebuhr's analysis of race, international politics, and the role of theology in liberal democracy. We will also explore his continuing influence on contemporary theology and politics through the work of diverse figures such as Barack Obama, Cornel West, Andrew Bacevich, and David Brooks.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3552 Geostrategic Comp in Pacific 3 Credits
Competition for strategic influence in Oceania is becoming as crowded and complex as it was in the 19th and 20th centuries. While the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and France remain the dominant regional powers, China has poured in aid and investment dollars in recent years—and Russia, Indonesia, Japan, and India also increasingly seek to advance their interests among Pacific Island countries (PICs). The rivalry produces “strategic anxiety” even as it empowers PICs with greater choice of partners to help them meet pressing demographic, economic, environmental, and regional security concerns. Through a mixture of readings, guest lectures, and seminar discussions, this course explores the drivers behind international security politics in the Pacific from both extra- and intra-regional perspectives, including assessments of the extent to which traditional concepts, legacy agreements, and historical relationships remain useful for both PICs and external powers.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3750 Jews the Making of Modernity 3 Credits
Jews and the Making of Modernity
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Mutual exclusion: JCIV 3750, JCIV 304
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate level students.
INAF 3751 Hist of Peace-Making:Mid East 3 Credits
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3752 Philip Roth:Fiction About Fict 3 Credits
The Jewish-American writer Philip Roth is reckoned as one of the most important novelists in the American post-War literary canon. While the comic, pornographic, and scatological dimensions of his work are well chronicled, less has been said about Roth’s enduring commitment to exploring genres of post-modern, metafictional and autofictional storytelling. In this course, we will read Roth’s “greatest hits” (e.g. Goodbye, Columbus, Portnoy’s Complaint, American Pastoral) with an eye towards understanding how he explored the question of (Jewish) identity by recourse to a fiction about fiction. This inquiry will require that we study his self- reflexive masterpieces such as My Life As a Man, The Ghost Writer, The Counterlife, and Operation Shylock, among others. When all is said and done, students will not only learn about Roth’s bold secular Jewish vision, his views on sexuality, and American history, but they will familiarize themselves with some of the late 20th century’s most intriguing forms of narrative experimentation.
Level: Undergraduate
Course attribute: Core:HALC - Hum, Art, Lit, Cul
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3808 Unrecognised and New Nations 3 Credits
The membership of the Unrecognized Nations and Peoples Organization encompasses more than fifty places, comprising more than 300 million people, and even that is not a complete list of the areas looking to strike out as independent countries of their own. The world map is hidden full of ‘countries that do not exist’. Examples include Somaliland in Africa, Kurdistan in the Middle East and places in the Asia-Pacific like West Papua and the ethnic states of Myanmar.
Power politics often lies behind whether and how new countries are born. Sometimes existing states pave the way for new states to join the club of nations and in other instances they seek to frustrate their membership. The United States, as one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, has a particularly important role in determining entry to the club of nations. It has supported the arrival of four new countries in the last twenty years.
In this course, students will explore the histories and politics of ‘unrecognized countries’, their position within the international system, the politics of recognition and the practicalities of working with these entities. The course covers case studies of unrecognized and newly recognized states (eg Timor-Leste and Bougainville) and the politics behind these variant journeys. It touches on international law, politics, economics and development assistance.
Power politics often lies behind whether and how new countries are born. Sometimes existing states pave the way for new states to join the club of nations and in other instances they seek to frustrate their membership. The United States, as one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, has a particularly important role in determining entry to the club of nations. It has supported the arrival of four new countries in the last twenty years.
In this course, students will explore the histories and politics of ‘unrecognized countries’, their position within the international system, the politics of recognition and the practicalities of working with these entities. The course covers case studies of unrecognized and newly recognized states (eg Timor-Leste and Bougainville) and the politics behind these variant journeys. It touches on international law, politics, economics and development assistance.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Mutual exclusion: INAF 287, ASST 2287
INAF 3890 Clash of Civilizations 3 Credits
Governments and non-state actors are fomenting conflicts and wars by perverting religion, history and identity. This course investigates Jewish and Islamic influences that form today’s Western civilisation. It has been designed to equip students with a deeper understanding of the modern West, evaluate the narrative of clash of civilisations, and explore a synthesis of civilisations. With extremism and anti-Americanism on the rise in the Muslim world, and anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim sentiment increasing in the West, this course excavates the intellectual roots of the threats ripping apart modern civilisation.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3917 CEP: 3 Credits
This course is a semester-long introduction to the politics of development in the Indian subcontinent, now termed “South Asia.” Along with Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia is one of two world regions in which the bulk of the planet’s poor are concentrated, a fact that has not changed since the end of European colonial rule. Why is this so? Do colonial legacies matter? Are there social dynamics within South Asian societies that perpetuate durable patterns of poverty and inequality? And what has been the track record of the modern state in transforming the economy and society?
Over the next fourteen weeks, we will draw on classic and contemporary scholarship across the disciplines of history, anthropology, sociology, economics and political science to gain a critical understanding of poverty, deprivation, and inequalities across the region. We shall seek to understand these seemingly economic phenomena as political and social concerns. No prior training in economics is thus necessary because we will take a pragmatic yet humane approach to these big real-life problems.
By the end of the course, including a community engagement trip to the National Capital Region of Delhi, India, students can expect a multi-dimensional understanding of poverty, inequality, and development in contemporary South Asia. Such an understanding will be grounded in learning in and outside the classroom. At the same time, our approach will be comparative so that we can situate South Asian experiences vis-à-vis the rest of the world, especially the Global South, rather than view them in isolation.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3918 Zones Conflict / Zones Peace 3 Credits
Registration in this course is by application only. This course examines zones of ethnic, political, social, and religious conflict, with the goal of better understanding both the causes of conflict, and the difficult process of reconciliation. A major part of the program is a trip to the area studied to meet with relevant parties. The trips have been nine to eleven days and involved meetings with politicians, journalists, community organizers, and other change-makers in the destination country, as well as visits to points of historical interest. To prepare for this rigorous period of meetings, tours, and discussions, participants study the subject matter leading up to the trip, designed to familiarize them with the history of the conflict in question, as well as background information about the destination country. Past destinations have included Israel and Palestine, Rwanda, Germany and Poland, Northern Ireland, East Timor Cambodia, Cyprus, South Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina, USA, Oman, Zanzibar, and Japan.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3920 Strategic Crossroads: Africa 3 Credits
“Strategic Crossroads: Africa Edition” will be taught by a former Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Africa and for Regional/Multilateral Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, who is now a retired Senior Foreign Service Officer serving as a Diplomatic Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy.
The course will explore why some foreign powers are expanding their relationships across Africa for development, security, and economic policy reasons, and why others are backing away. It will begin with an examination of what Africa offers to its global partners – for example, the human resource capital provided by a long-term demographic boon, port and other infrastructure benefits given Africa’s vast coastline, flexibility to operate to protect security interests, abundant natural resources, and opportunities for foreign investment.
Although Africa has attracted foreign interest for decades and even centuries, dynamics have shifted dramatically in the 21st Century. Countries from the Middle East, China, India, Türkiye, and others have adjusted their approach and presence given their own interests. United States foreign policy towards Africa has also evolved over time, with a major transition now underway from a long-standing humanitarian focus to one centered more on trade and security. The course will cover how the United States and other actors view the continent, how they advance their interests, how they deploy scarce resources, and what an increasingly crowded space means for Africans and their partners.
The course will place special emphasis on East Africa as the geographic seam with the Middle East and given its unique blend of security, cultural, and economic relationships with an array of foreign players. For example, the security situation in places such as Somalia and Sudan are of direct concern to countries across the Red Sea, and ports in Djibouti, Kenya, and Tanzania serve as a gateway to the Indian Ocean and onwards to Asia.
Building on knowledge gained throughout the course, students will conduct their own deep dive assessment of a country or subregion, exploring both the realities of global competition and the tradeoffs faced by policy makers managing limited resources.
The course will explore why some foreign powers are expanding their relationships across Africa for development, security, and economic policy reasons, and why others are backing away. It will begin with an examination of what Africa offers to its global partners – for example, the human resource capital provided by a long-term demographic boon, port and other infrastructure benefits given Africa’s vast coastline, flexibility to operate to protect security interests, abundant natural resources, and opportunities for foreign investment.
Although Africa has attracted foreign interest for decades and even centuries, dynamics have shifted dramatically in the 21st Century. Countries from the Middle East, China, India, Türkiye, and others have adjusted their approach and presence given their own interests. United States foreign policy towards Africa has also evolved over time, with a major transition now underway from a long-standing humanitarian focus to one centered more on trade and security. The course will cover how the United States and other actors view the continent, how they advance their interests, how they deploy scarce resources, and what an increasingly crowded space means for Africans and their partners.
The course will place special emphasis on East Africa as the geographic seam with the Middle East and given its unique blend of security, cultural, and economic relationships with an array of foreign players. For example, the security situation in places such as Somalia and Sudan are of direct concern to countries across the Red Sea, and ports in Djibouti, Kenya, and Tanzania serve as a gateway to the Indian Ocean and onwards to Asia.
Building on knowledge gained throughout the course, students will conduct their own deep dive assessment of a country or subregion, exploring both the realities of global competition and the tradeoffs faced by policy makers managing limited resources.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate level students.
INAF 3930 Clab-Uni Desn Prob:Grgtwn 2030 3 Credits
The University as a Design Problem, is a combination seminar and studio centered on considering how one might design Georgetown University for 2030 and beyond. The primary purpose of the course is to create a community of practice among students, faculty and academic staff around a common problem, inquiry and multi-faceted project. For this semester, students will be focused on a client based effort to reimagine the curricula of Georgetown’s College (COL), School of Foreign Service (SFS), and the McDonough School of Business (MSB) (Students interested in focusing on the MSB should enroll in MGMT 277-01) . The seminar portion will ground students in the theory and current discourse surrounding higher education, with particular emphasis on understanding the new dynamics of how learning, education and “school” all fit together in a globalized, virtualized and uncertain world. The studio portion will focus on using design methodologies to develop and mount both internal and external dialogues on designing the School of Foreign Service, the McDonough School of Business, and the College of Georgetown University. The learning community of this course will include student teams, faculty/staff representatives from each school, and faculty/staff organizing and facilitating the studio and seminar portions of the coursework. Each student team will focus on a specific school within Georgetown (COL, SFS, or MSB) while remaining connected to the central learning community of the class. In this structure, student teams will be able to advance projects specific to their respective school of focus while continuing to benefit from the shared readings, critiques, and methodologies of the central learning community.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3931 CLab:India Innovation Studio 1 1-3 Credits
Each year, this studio-based course examines a different problem facing India. The course is taught through a multidisciplinary lens and operates in partnership with Indian government and civil society stakeholders to design, prototype and implement a solution on the ground.
The course is taught by Irfan Nooruddin and Mark Giordano. The studio is designed to be a year-long course (Fall, Spring). Students are expected to enroll both semesters.
The course explores the political, economic, sociological, historical, and ethical dimensions of the chosen topic while teaching students the skills required for the development and implementation of potential solutions. Students design their solutions in teams and work closely with experts in the field and government and civil society stakeholders. Funding permitting and based on performance in the class, selected students could be offered the opportunity to travel to India.
Permission of the instructors is required for enrollment. If you are interested, please e-mail Irfan (in62@georgetown.edu) and Mark (mg1382@georgetown.edu) short responses to the following questions:
a) Why us? What is it about the India Innovation Studio that attracts you?
b) Why you? What could you bring to the studio? What are your passions, interests, and skills? Any relevant background in India? Can you commit to both semesters?
The course is taught by Irfan Nooruddin and Mark Giordano. The studio is designed to be a year-long course (Fall, Spring). Students are expected to enroll both semesters.
The course explores the political, economic, sociological, historical, and ethical dimensions of the chosen topic while teaching students the skills required for the development and implementation of potential solutions. Students design their solutions in teams and work closely with experts in the field and government and civil society stakeholders. Funding permitting and based on performance in the class, selected students could be offered the opportunity to travel to India.
Permission of the instructors is required for enrollment. If you are interested, please e-mail Irfan (in62@georgetown.edu) and Mark (mg1382@georgetown.edu) short responses to the following questions:
a) Why us? What is it about the India Innovation Studio that attracts you?
b) Why you? What could you bring to the studio? What are your passions, interests, and skills? Any relevant background in India? Can you commit to both semesters?
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3932 CLab:India Innovation Studio 2 4 Credits
Each year, this studio-based course examines a different problem facing India. The course is taught through a multidisciplinary lens and operates in partnership with Indian government and civil society stakeholders to design, prototype, and implement a solution on the ground.
The course is team-taught in modules and led by Professors Irfan Nooruddin and Mark Giordano. In the fall semester of this studio, students will first academically explore the political, economic, and sociological dimensions of the issue. The spring semester will focus on the development and implementation of potential solutions, which students will design working in close collaboration with experts in the field and government and civil society stakeholders. Selected students will be offered the opportunity to travel to India during the spring.
The studio is designed to be a year-long course (Fall, Spring). Students who take both semesters will be given preference for selection and funding for the spring trip to India.
The course is team-taught in modules and led by Professors Irfan Nooruddin and Mark Giordano. In the fall semester of this studio, students will first academically explore the political, economic, and sociological dimensions of the issue. The spring semester will focus on the development and implementation of potential solutions, which students will design working in close collaboration with experts in the field and government and civil society stakeholders. Selected students will be offered the opportunity to travel to India during the spring.
The studio is designed to be a year-long course (Fall, Spring). Students who take both semesters will be given preference for selection and funding for the spring trip to India.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3933 CLab:India Innovation Lab 3 Credits
The India Innovation Lab is meant for students who have completed the India Innovation Studio series (INAF 311 and INAF 312) and will be continuing work with their project from the studio. Professors Nooruddin and Giordano will serve as advisers for students enrolled in the lab.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3950 Internship Tutorial 3 Credits
The academic structure of this course mirrors that of a tutorial. Students will be required to complete regular meetings with a self-selected faculty mentor. These meetings would provide formally structured mentorship and guidance on the completion of a 25-page paper. The paper would tie the student’s internship experience to his/her chosen major. Students will access directed readings and all course materials online through a class portal.
Each student would be responsible for selecting an appropriate faculty mentor. The mentor would oversee the content and completion of the final paper.
BSFS Juniors and Seniors Only. Sophomores may petition for enrollment by permission of the instructor.
Each student would be responsible for selecting an appropriate faculty mentor. The mentor would oversee the content and completion of the final paper.
BSFS Juniors and Seniors Only. Sophomores may petition for enrollment by permission of the instructor.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3951 Int'l Affairs Internship Qatar 1 Credit
This one-credit elective course is intended for SFS-Qatar students in their senior or junior years who have secured an internship with one of our partner organizations. Students will be expected to work up to 15 hours per week at the partner organization as well as attend 10.5 hours of class time at Georgetown.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment limited to students in the School of Foreign Service - Q college.
INAF 3954 Boren Scholarship Experience
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3965 Paul F. Pelosi Scholars Intv. 1 Credit
The mission of the Paul F. Pelosi Scholars Initiative is to provide exceptional SFS undergraduate sophomores and juniors with a deep interest in a career in public service with the professional skillset and network of practitioners and scholars necessary to address the most pressing international challenges of our time.
In keeping with the school’s century-long tradition of preparing students for public service and global leadership, PSI enables students to complement their rigorous academic coursework with professional experience and exposure in the public service sector, in order to recognize their full potential as women and men for others.
Pelosi Scholars must apply and be accepted during the fall of each academic year. This spring course consists of professional development instruction, as well as assigned experiential learning opportunities, which will prepare Pelosi Scholars for their summer internship in public service, and broaden their understanding of career options in that sector.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Pass/Fail Default
INAF 3967 Doha Seminar 3 or 4 Credits
This course, offered in collaboration with NUQ, seeks to locate historical contexts and ideological meanings that underpin Qatar’s complex and varied approaches to nation-building, development, and international influence. Qatar’s process of identity-making, as with all nations and individuals, is internally contested, subject to cultural hybridities, and often is not received as intended by outsiders. Such continually reworked portraits both respond to immediate concerns and try to strike a chord with deeper cultural memories, traditions of the Gulf, and the wider Muslim world whose relationship to Western modernity is still being worked out. This course will examine Qatari and regional debates on religious doctrine, race, class, gender roles, educational change, sports, public art, and media.
Level: Undergraduate
Prerequisites: (WRIT 015 or WRIT 1150) or WRIT 016
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment limited to students in the School of Foreign Service - Q college.
INAF 3970 Bridging Capitals:DC and Doha 4 Credits
The theme of this course will examine the cultural, social, historical, theological, and political aspects of both global capitals. This course will allow students to study the cultures and traditions of both DC and Doha, culminating with each student crafting an individual portfolio that captures their experience in the sister city and serves as a cultural overview. In the classes leading up to both trips, which occur over Spring Break 2025, students will learn about the geography, government, religion, and other forces that influence both cities. This way, students are equipped to effectively analyze culture and craft their portfolio during their respective visits. Ultimately, this course will offer an academic and immersive overview of American and Qatari culture and aims to foster greater cross-cultural understanding of all participants. In January the DC time will be from 8:30am to 9:45am and Doha time will be from 4:30pm to 5:45pm. On March 9th, daylight savings occurs and the DC time will remain 8:30am to 9:45am, but the Doha time will shift to 3:30pm to 4:45pm (7 hours difference).
Level: Undergraduate
Course attribute: Core:HALC - Hum, Art, Lit, Cul
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 3985 Thesis Proposal Workshop 1 Credit
Writing a senior thesis is one of the most challenging –and rewarding – projects a Georgetown student can undertake. Before you begin, however, you’ll need to think through your research questions and develop a plan for answering them. In many ways, this step is the most important part of your project, since your questions and research plan will guide the direction and scope of your work.
Although designed for juniors in the Culture and Politics major interested in writing a senior thesis, this one-credit workshop is open to any student who wishes to draft and refine a formal research proposal. Whether you’re polishing an existing draft or starting from scratch, we’ll work as a group to generate ideas and refine your proposal. Throughout the semester, we’ll think through the question or questions you’re trying to answer, determine what information you’ll need to answer those questions, look at how other researchers have considered similar questions, and determine how your research fits within your field of study.
Your work throughout the semester will culminate in a formal research proposal which you can then submit to a thesis committee for consideration.
Although designed for juniors in the Culture and Politics major interested in writing a senior thesis, this one-credit workshop is open to any student who wishes to draft and refine a formal research proposal. Whether you’re polishing an existing draft or starting from scratch, we’ll work as a group to generate ideas and refine your proposal. Throughout the semester, we’ll think through the question or questions you’re trying to answer, determine what information you’ll need to answer those questions, look at how other researchers have considered similar questions, and determine how your research fits within your field of study.
Your work throughout the semester will culminate in a formal research proposal which you can then submit to a thesis committee for consideration.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 4003 Politics of Inequality 3 Credits
Over the past decades, the world’s wealthiest democracies have witnessed an unprecedented increase in inequalities. This course examines the political causes and consequences of inequalities in 1. outcomes (income, wealth, well-being, place and space) 2. opportunities (social mobility, education, employment) and 3. across social groups (class, race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion). To do so, it will examine the major supply and demand factors that underpin inequality dynamics and the distribution of power in democratic societies. What role do electoral systems, political parties, policy regimes and political histories play in alleviating or exacerbating inequalities over time and across space? How do various forms of inequality affect individual and group beliefs, vote choices, policy preferences, organized interests or protest?
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Course attribute: FS42 name
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 4006 Israel in Context 3 Credits
Course taught by Steven A. Cook, Eni Enrico Mattei senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He is an expert on Arab and Turkish politics as well as U.S.-Middle East policy. Cook is the author of The End of Ambition: America’s Past, Present, and Future in the Middle East; False Dawn: Protest, Democracy, and Violence in the New Middle East; The Struggle for Egypt: From Nasser to Tahrir Square, which won the 2012 gold medal from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy; and Ruling but Not Governing: The Military and Political Development in Egypt, Algeria, and Turkey.Academics, journalists, activists, and policymakers have often treat Israel analytically as exceptional. Much of the recent literature on the country portrays Israel as a unique force for good or as the embodiment of evil. This dichotomy is odd and suggests that authors are engaged in political projects rather than an effort to advance knowledge about an important country. Still, it is worth asking: Is Israel unique? How is it like other states? What about the Israeli society, which reflects the country’s politics? The course seeks to answer these questions through a dispassionate examination of Israel’s origins and an in-depth analysis of the political, historical, religious, and economic forces that are washing over the country and shaping its future.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Equivalent to INAF 3322
INAF 4025 U.S. Intervention Collisions 3 Credits
Full Title: Course Title: U.S. Intervention – Collisions with Reality
“U.S. Interventionism: Collisions with Reality will be taught by John Bass, a three-time former U.S. Ambassador (Afghanistan (2017-20), Turkiye (2014-17) and Georgia (2009-2012), Acting Under Secretary for Political Affairs and Under Secretary for Management.
Ambassador Bass over the course of his career has wrestled with the prospect and consequences of major U.S. interventions initiated in the name of humanitarian relief (including R2P), economic protectionism, security and counterterrorism, or for ideological reasons.
This course will assess the U.S. track record, with a focus on post-World War II interventions, and examine the different tools of statecraft– diplomacy, economic leverage, intelligence, military training and advising, and use of military force – to understand how or whether these instruments were more or less effective, or doomed to negative unintended consequences.
The course also will examine why the U.S. often produced different outcomes as its rationale collided with realities on the ground. We will assess why the U.S. fails to learn from its past, repeats the same mistakes, or at least builds new mistakes off of old ones. Finally, it will assess those factors that contribute to better outcomes. We also will explore whether contemporary international political and economic dynamics are likely to impel or hinder further U.S. interventions, and how technology may change the nature of future interventions.
Students will be responsible for producing a case study on a specific intervention, its justification, key decision points, and assessment of its success or failure short-term and long-term,
Level: Graduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 4026 Russian Empire Strikes Back 3 Credits
This course – “The Empire Strikes Back: Russia’s Complex Relations with its Former Colonies” -- will be taught by the former U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan (2022-25) and Uzbekistan (2019-22), who is now serving as a diplomatic fellow at the SFS Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. It will examine this topic through the lens of U.S. policy towards the Former Soviet Union since 1991. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia has asserted a privileged sphere of influence covering the 14 other former Soviet republics, officially labeling them not as independent foreign countries but as its “near abroad” (blizhneye zarubezh’ye). Russia’s imperial ambitions go back centuries, and its colonial legacy shapes political and economic developments in the region to this day – the most recent and blatant example being its 2022 invasion of -- and ongoing effort to control -- Ukraine. Meanwhile, the United States has repeatedly declared its support for the “sovereignty and territorial integrity” of the former Russian colonies, and made bolstering their independence a core element of its policy towards the region. This course will examine the interplay between these clashing Russian and American perspectives over the past 35 years. It will focus on the various methods Moscow has used to retain dominance in the region (from control over energy resources, export transit routes and labor markets to the direct use of intelligence networks and military power to manipulate and intimidate its neighbors), and the mixed results of those efforts. In parallel, the course will look at how these Russian actions have been viewed by U.S. policymakers, and how the U.S. responded through the use of diplomatic tools, security cooperation, private sector trade and investment, and foreign assistance, also with mixed success.
Level: Graduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 4050 Negotiat,MediationPolPersuas 3 Credits
For those who would be actors on the global stage, critics of or audience to the theater of diplomacy, this course will provide an introduction to the conceptual frameworks, the theories, and tools that shape political engagement across a spectrum of issues and multiple approaches. The ability to negotiate and to engage successfully rests upon a combination of analytic, intellectual and interpersonal skills, each of which will be examined as part of this course. Successful engagement, whether formal or informal, requires the ability to deal with complexity and ambiguity, institutional and personal resilience, the ability to lead without the need to dictate, and a willingness to think strategically and work tactically. The seminar will be based on a combination of academic literature, case studies and experiences of practitioners. There will be a written midterm and a written final, each based on the student’s own research, as well as class requirements and participation, and formal and informal oral presentations. This course is also a foundation course for both undergraduate and graduate candidates for the Certificate in Diplomatic Studies from the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy.
Issues to be covered will include:
The Day Before: Precursors and preconditions Terms and Players: Is this a negotiation, or are we only talking? Crisis and Confliction Negotiations: When is good enough good enough? Trade and Economic Relations: Can fair trade really be fair, or is it all about (my) profit? Multilateralism: Are more chairs at the table mo’ better? Purity of Partners vs. Negotiating with Evil: Do the ends justify the means? The Role of Special Envoys: The Lone Ranger or the Rogue Player? Public Diplomacy and e-Diplomacy: Dealing with those not in the room. Third-party Mediation: The US and Northern Ireland Small State Mediation: The Role of the “Beta” State The Nexus of Science and Policy: Water, Climate, Health and Space Track-two Diplomacy: The value of plausible deniability The Day After: When it doesn’t end with a signature…
Issues to be covered will include:
The Day Before: Precursors and preconditions Terms and Players: Is this a negotiation, or are we only talking? Crisis and Confliction Negotiations: When is good enough good enough? Trade and Economic Relations: Can fair trade really be fair, or is it all about (my) profit? Multilateralism: Are more chairs at the table mo’ better? Purity of Partners vs. Negotiating with Evil: Do the ends justify the means? The Role of Special Envoys: The Lone Ranger or the Rogue Player? Public Diplomacy and e-Diplomacy: Dealing with those not in the room. Third-party Mediation: The US and Northern Ireland Small State Mediation: The Role of the “Beta” State The Nexus of Science and Policy: Water, Climate, Health and Space Track-two Diplomacy: The value of plausible deniability The Day After: When it doesn’t end with a signature…
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Course attribute: FS54 name
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Equivalent to IPOL 4050
INAF 4105 Writing:International Affairs 3 Credits
This advanced, writing-intensive course will give students the opportunity to explore a number of different genres of writing in the field of international affairs: long-form reporting, profile/biographical pieces, policy analysis, and “color” articles that provide fine-grained insight into places and issues in the global arena, among others. We will examine how journalists, historians, social scientists, policy commentators, and others make arguments, explore themes, and package their work for the reading public. Readings are drawn from major international affairs magazines/journals and recent books by leading authorities in journalism, history, and current affairs. Assignments include multiple essays and writing exercises, with required revisions. Important: The course is not intended for students primarily looking to improve basic writing skills. Students who sign up for this course should already have an excellent level of academic writing, since we will focus on form and style more than sentence-level writing.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 4106 Israeli National Sec Strategy 3 Credits
Since its inception, Israel has confronted nearly unremitting hostility: repeated wars, perpetual hostilities at lower levels, the failed peace processes with the Palestinians and Syria, and even the “cold” peace with Egypt and Jordan. Israel has responded by building up disproportionate national security (NS) capabilities. The course analyses Israel's NS decision making environment, the structures and processes of its NS establishment, basic tenets of Israeli NS strategy and primary issues, such as: US-Israeli relations, Iranian challenge, Hezbollah and Hamas, the peace process, relations with regional countries and the international community. Students draft policy papers to Israeli decision makers on major issues.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 4400 Soc Movmnt Mid East N Africa 3 Credits
Full Title: Social Movements and Democracy in the Middle East and North Africa
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 4445 The Forensics of Mass Killings 3 Credits
The Forensics of Mass Killings: Holocaust and Terrorist Crime Scenes. How do you conduct forensic investigations of genocide and mass killings on the ground? How do you examine the killing techniques of genocide and crimes committed in public or secret? How do perpetrators use propaganda for terrorism, genocide and follower recruitment? In the class, Fr. Patrick Desbois, a forensic anthropologist and author of "The Holocaust by Bullets" and "The Terrorist Factory" will answer these questions. Fr. Desbois will familiarize students with his recent investigation of crimes committed by ISIS in Iraq and Syria against the Yazidis and the crimes carried out by the Einsatzgruppen during the Holocaust. The class will compare ground investigation techniques, crime methodology and outcomes. Course also listed as JCIV 4445.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Course attribute: XHIS name
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 4466 State-Building After the Gun 3 Credits
Are you interested in understanding the causes and consequences of state weakness in fragile states? This class will expose students to both research and applied work on state development and state-building in fragile post-conflict societies. Despite recent gains in economic development and reduction in intra-state conflict, a subset of countries in the developing world remains weak and prone to conflict and state failure. What explains chronic state weakness in these countries? And what strategies (both domestic and internationally-driven) of state-building work?
The class will seek to answer these questions through in-depth analyses of the causes and consequences of state weakness in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America; and the specific domestic and international approaches to state capacity development after the cessation of conflicts. During the semester the class will occasionally host guest lectures from professionals working on various issues in post-conflict contexts – including bureaucratic restructuring, reforms in the education and health sectors, security reforms, among others.
At the end of the class students will be able to critically engage with academic research on state development, conflict, and post-conflict recovery; as well as derive key policy implications of this research. Because of the applied nature of the class, students will also learn a great deal about the practicalities of policy development and implementation in post-conflict contexts.
BSFS Juniors and Seniors Only
The class will seek to answer these questions through in-depth analyses of the causes and consequences of state weakness in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America; and the specific domestic and international approaches to state capacity development after the cessation of conflicts. During the semester the class will occasionally host guest lectures from professionals working on various issues in post-conflict contexts – including bureaucratic restructuring, reforms in the education and health sectors, security reforms, among others.
At the end of the class students will be able to critically engage with academic research on state development, conflict, and post-conflict recovery; as well as derive key policy implications of this research. Because of the applied nature of the class, students will also learn a great deal about the practicalities of policy development and implementation in post-conflict contexts.
BSFS Juniors and Seniors Only
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 4550 Ethics IPOL:Reinhold Niebuhr 3 Credits
Bringing moral analysis to bear on international politics is an exceedingly difficult enterprise. Twentieth century social ethicist Reinhold Niebuhr was one of the most notable recent figures to do this. Niebuhr’s thought has enjoyed a renaissance in the early twenty first century despite a significantly changed international political context. This seminar will examine Niebuhr’s major political works as well as attempts to apply his work to contemporary international political issues by thinkers such as Barack Obama, David Brooks, and Andrew Bacevich.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 4551 Pol of Intrl Religious Freedom 3 Credits
Note: This class will be held at the Berkley Center, 3307 M Street, NW, Suite 200
According to the Pew Research Center, seventy four percent of the world's people live in countries with severe restrictions on religious freedom. Religious minorities worldwide are subject to devastating, violent persecution. Should American diplomacy work to counter persecution by advancing religious freedom? If so, is the reason primarily humanitarian, or are there broader U.S. interests involved, such as combatting religious extremism and terrorism, or supporting democracy, economic development, and women’s equality? This course will examine the politics of the U.S. policy to advance international religious freedom. We will explore the origins of the policy, its performance and legacy to date, as well as its prospects for development. Along the way we will explore the attitudes about religion and religious freedom which have helped to mold that policy. We will ask whether U.S. strategies have worked, and what impact they had on American policy in the greater Middle East and East Asia. In addressing these questions we will draw on various disciplines, including political science, international relations, history, theology, philosophy, and sociology.
According to the Pew Research Center, seventy four percent of the world's people live in countries with severe restrictions on religious freedom. Religious minorities worldwide are subject to devastating, violent persecution. Should American diplomacy work to counter persecution by advancing religious freedom? If so, is the reason primarily humanitarian, or are there broader U.S. interests involved, such as combatting religious extremism and terrorism, or supporting democracy, economic development, and women’s equality? This course will examine the politics of the U.S. policy to advance international religious freedom. We will explore the origins of the policy, its performance and legacy to date, as well as its prospects for development. Along the way we will explore the attitudes about religion and religious freedom which have helped to mold that policy. We will ask whether U.S. strategies have worked, and what impact they had on American policy in the greater Middle East and East Asia. In addressing these questions we will draw on various disciplines, including political science, international relations, history, theology, philosophy, and sociology.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Course attribute: FS54 name
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 4552 The Catholic Peace Tradition 3 Credits
This course will examine the rich tradition of peacemaking in the Catholic Tradition. Beginning with the New Testament, it will examine classic texts, figures, and movements. It will look more closely at late twentieth-century developments, the Catholic Left, the Mennonite-Catholic Dialogue; contemporary movements, such as the Catholic Peacebuilding Network, and peacemaking through interreligious dialogue. It will look at exemplars like Franz Jagerstatter, Dorothy Day, the Berrigans, Charles de Foucauld, and the monks of Tibherine. Emphasis will be placed on peacemaking as a way of life linking ethics, virtues, spirituality, and social praxis. Among the special issues to be debated will be: Response to Religious Militants, Holy War, Selective Conscientious Objection, and the Morality of Protest.
Course Objectives include: (1) knowledge of the historical development of peacemaking in the Catholic Tradition; (2) appreciation of the different approaches to peacemaking (e.g., nonresistance, nonviolence, civil disobedience, conflict transformation, peacebuilding, and religious witness), and (3) the acquisition of communication skills to advance peacemaking within the church, ecumenical and interfaith situations, and in public discussion.
Course Objectives include: (1) knowledge of the historical development of peacemaking in the Catholic Tradition; (2) appreciation of the different approaches to peacemaking (e.g., nonresistance, nonviolence, civil disobedience, conflict transformation, peacebuilding, and religious witness), and (3) the acquisition of communication skills to advance peacemaking within the church, ecumenical and interfaith situations, and in public discussion.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 4553 Organizing for Peace Justice 3 Credits
This course will consist of a series of historical case studies examining the strategy and tactics employed by a diversity of American social justice movements with special attention to how they worked with religious actors. These case studies will be drawn from The Catholic Worker movement, Martin Luther King, Jr., J Street, Industrial Areas Foundation, Malcolm X, and Black Lives Matter.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Course attribute: Core: Theology
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 4554 Religion, Ethcs, Wrld Affairs 3 Credits
Religion, Ethics, and World Affairs Capstone Seminar Recent decades have seen a resurgence of religion in world politics. With the end of the Cold War, the attacks of September 11 and the acceleration of globalization, issues with a religious and ethical dimension have moved up the national and international agenda. Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; the Arab Spring; the rise of religious movements with a political agenda in Egypt, India and the US; the explosive success and territorial gains of the Islamic State; immigration to Europe; refugee status in the U.S., and “culture wars” in the United States– these are only some of the issues and areas in which religion plays a key role. Among the topics we shall examine this semester are: Secularization theory and the persistence of religion; religion and violence; nonviolence, just war and peacemaking; globalization and transnationalism; global human development; migration and refugee flows; religious freedom and human rights; forgiveness and reconciliation; religious institutions and leaders in international politics, and religion and U.S. foreign policy. br>
Special Focus: Role of Organized Religion in World Affairs. A distinctive dimension of this seminar will be study of the role of specific religions (e.g., Judaism), formal religious bodies (e.g. the Holy See), denominations (e.g. Mennonites), religiously affiliated organizations (e.g., Catholic Relief Services or World Vision) or religious movements (e.g., Pax Christi International or the Interfaith Youth Corps) in world affairs. Individual students or groups of students will be asked to research, analyze and present at least one such group to their classmates. You may choose to study a group associated with your own faith tradition or another.
Special Focus: Role of Organized Religion in World Affairs. A distinctive dimension of this seminar will be study of the role of specific religions (e.g., Judaism), formal religious bodies (e.g. the Holy See), denominations (e.g. Mennonites), religiously affiliated organizations (e.g., Catholic Relief Services or World Vision) or religious movements (e.g., Pax Christi International or the Interfaith Youth Corps) in world affairs. Individual students or groups of students will be asked to research, analyze and present at least one such group to their classmates. You may choose to study a group associated with your own faith tradition or another.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 4555 Hum Rts and Refugees: EthicsR 3 Credits
Human Rights, Humanitarian Crises & Refugees: Ethical & Religious Responses
Explores the requirements of human rights in the face of contemporary humanitarian crises and the forced migration that results from such crises. Cases will be examined from both practical and theoretical perspectives. Ethical, human rights based- perspectives that can guide response to humanitarian crisis and the plight of refugees by political and civil communities today will be considered throughout the course. The role of faith-based agencies in the response to crises and the needs of refugees will be considered.
Explores the requirements of human rights in the face of contemporary humanitarian crises and the forced migration that results from such crises. Cases will be examined from both practical and theoretical perspectives. Ethical, human rights based- perspectives that can guide response to humanitarian crisis and the plight of refugees by political and civil communities today will be considered throughout the course. The role of faith-based agencies in the response to crises and the needs of refugees will be considered.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 4556 Fiction, Faith and Violence 3 Credits
In this course, we'll read ten standout works of contemporary fiction and consider the ways religion and violence figure into the books and the ways they are seen as interacting by characters, author, and readers. Since September 11, 2001, many commentators have suggested that there’s a clear link between religion and violence, arguing that religion breeds violence or that religion’s attempt to quell violence is a cure worse than the disease. Don DeLillo, in Mao II, joined the novelist, the terrorist, and the religious believer as figures who “make raids on human consciousness.” In contemporary fiction, religious belief and forces of violence are seen as interacting in complex, paradoxical, mysterious ways – ways that transcend the conventional wisdom, complement political science and area studies, and point toward authentic wisdom. We’ll consider violence as a plot device (as in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and religious faith as a motivation (as in Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible); and we’ll consider the question of whether a book can be an agent of violence by other means, as in the cases of The Satanic Verses, My Name Is Red, and Submission -- novels considered offensive by believers, who then struck out against the books and the authors through violence or the threat of violence.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 4557 Religion,JusticeAmer.Natl.Sec 3 Credits
Since the early days of the Republic religion – both here and abroad –has had a significant impact on American understandings of the nation’s role in the world. This course will study the impact of religion on U.S. foreign policy and American understandings of justice and national security. Part One will examine how views of religion in the modern West, the American founding, and U.S. history have influenced the nation’s conduct of foreign affairs. Part Two will explore selected topics in American religion and foreign policy, including U.S. missionary movements and the problem of proselytism, trafficking in persons, human rights and religious freedom. Part Three will turn to religion in the international order and how it affects America’s responses to the major foreign policy issues of the day. Readings will draw from a wide variety of disciplines, including international relations, political theory, history, sociology, economics, theology, and philosophy.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 4558 Practice/Ethics in Global Dev 3 Credits
International development programs aim to end world poverty, achieve human rights, and allow people to flourish in peace. The ideal that all human beings have the right to a modicum of justice and to a decent life takes on new meaning as deep inequalities and inequities in the world stare us in the face. Yet both the ends and ethics of international assistance are hotly debated. Is the goal prosperity or happiness? Outcomes or opportunity? Is it more about charity or rights? Who bears the responsibility? What can ensure sustainability, and how will we know if it is achieved? Is there a single path or “multiple modernities”? Who judges success or failure and by what authority? The year 2015 saw intensive discussion about these questions as the 2000 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were succeeded by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Climate risks took on a gritty new reality with changing weather patterns. Efforts to translate goals for human development into practical, benchmarked programs, for example to achieve universal access to quality education and health, are underway. Conflicts and natural disasters upend orderly development, encouraging sharpened focus on what human security entails. Never have the roles played by religious actors been so prominent in international affairs.
This seminar combines reflection about international development challenges, against this backdrop of global challenges and opportunities, with a pragmatic exploration of how development practitioners, and scholars contend with the issues in their daily work. It explores how policy choices are framed and applied and why the challenges of poverty and social justice are so significant today. Different approaches, ranging from security to political to moral to economic and to protection of the environment, are compared. Starting from the foundation of the human rights that have shaped the evolution and approach of much contemporary development thinking, the course explores what a rights based approach implies and its strengths and weaknesses. It thus addresses a wide range of development topics and controversies and the ethical challenges they pose.
This seminar combines reflection about international development challenges, against this backdrop of global challenges and opportunities, with a pragmatic exploration of how development practitioners, and scholars contend with the issues in their daily work. It explores how policy choices are framed and applied and why the challenges of poverty and social justice are so significant today. Different approaches, ranging from security to political to moral to economic and to protection of the environment, are compared. Starting from the foundation of the human rights that have shaped the evolution and approach of much contemporary development thinking, the course explores what a rights based approach implies and its strengths and weaknesses. It thus addresses a wide range of development topics and controversies and the ethical challenges they pose.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 4559 Ethics/Development: Gender 3 Credits
International development programs aim to end world poverty, achieve human rights, and allow people to flourish in peace. The ideal that all human beings have the right to a decent life and to justice takes on new meaning as the world’s deep inequalities and inequities stare us in the face. But the ends and ethics of international assistance are hotly debated. Is the goal prosperity or happiness? Outcomes or opportunity? Is it more about charity or rights? Who bears the responsibility? What can ensure sustainability, and how will we know if it is achieved? Is there a single path or “multiple modernities”? What would a ladder of priorities look like? Who judges success or failure, by what measure, and by what authority? Intensive discussions about these questions surrounded discussions about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that, in 2015, succeeded the 2000 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Debates continue, as tighter linkages among goals become glaringly obvious. The complex SDGs are thus summarized as 5 Ps: people and prosperity (the traditional development focus), planet and peace (shorthand for the challenges of climate change and conflicts) and partnerships. Efforts to translate bold goals for human development into practical, benchmarked programs, for example to achieve universal access to quality education and health, call for multisectoral partnerships. Conflicts and natural disasters upend orderly development, encouraging a sharpened focus on what human security entails. Roles played by religious actors in international affairs take on new significance in this context.
This seminar combines reflection about international development challenges with a pragmatic exploration of how development practitioners and scholars contend with them in their daily work. It will approach the issues with a particular focus on the challenges involved in a central goal: gender equality. The course explores how policy choices are framed and applied and why the challenges of poverty and social justice are so significant today. We compare different approaches, ranging from security to political to moral to economic and to protection of the environment. Starting from the foundation of the human rights that have shaped the evolution and approach of much contemporary development thinking, the course explores what a rights-based approach implies and its strengths and weaknesses. It thus addresses a wide range of development topics and controversies and the ethical challenges they pose.
This seminar combines reflection about international development challenges with a pragmatic exploration of how development practitioners and scholars contend with them in their daily work. It will approach the issues with a particular focus on the challenges involved in a central goal: gender equality. The course explores how policy choices are framed and applied and why the challenges of poverty and social justice are so significant today. We compare different approaches, ranging from security to political to moral to economic and to protection of the environment. Starting from the foundation of the human rights that have shaped the evolution and approach of much contemporary development thinking, the course explores what a rights-based approach implies and its strengths and weaknesses. It thus addresses a wide range of development topics and controversies and the ethical challenges they pose.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Course attribute: FS42 name
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to students with a major in Arab Studies, Arab Studies, Arab Studies, Arab Studies, Culture Politics, Culture Politics, Culture Politics, Culture Politics, Eurasian, Russian, E Euro Stud, Eurasian, Russian, E Euro Stud, Eurasian, Russian, E Euro Stud, Eurasian, Russian, E Euro Stud, Foreign Service, Foreign Service, Foreign Service, Foreign Service, Global Business, Global Business, Global Business, Global Business, German and European Studies, German and European Studies, German and European Studies, German and European Studies, International Economics, International Economics, International Economics, International Economics, International History, International History, International History, International History, International Affairs, International Affairs, International Affairs, International Affairs, Int'l Political Economy, Int'l Political Economy, Int'l Political Economy, Int'l Political Economy, International Politics, International Politics, International Politics, International Politics, Latin American Studies, Latin American Studies, Latin American Studies, Latin American Studies, Regional Comparative Studies, Regional Comparative Studies, Regional Comparative Studies, Regional Comparative Studies, Russian East European Stud, Russian East European Stud, Russian East European Stud, Russian East European Stud, Security Studies, Security Studies, Security Studies, Security Studies, Science, Tech, Int'l Affairs, Science, Tech, Int'l Affairs, Science, Tech, Int'l Affairs or Science, Tech, Int'l Affairs.
INAF 4740 Planning for Chaos: Workshop 3 Credits
Planning for Chaos: Special Workshop on Strategic Planning and Writing Policy Papers - this special hands-on course that takes place over the course of one week from 9:30 - 5:00 pm during spring break (3/2-3/6/2026) provides students with the unique skill set required to conduct effective strategic planning processes and to write high-quality policy papers. It is designed to enhance students’ attractiveness for prospective employers, or to further enrich the capabilities of those already in official positions. The course consists entirely of simulations in which students represent the different actors in major national security issues (the war in Gaza, Iran and other “hot” current issues will be the focus of the simulations) and are repeatedly challenged to present the policy dilemmas and propose strategic objectives and options to the “National Security Council” (class) for group critique. On this basis, they then write policy papers to the “leaders” of the actors they represent. Highly detailed feedback is provided during the simulations and on the papers.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 4750 Statecraft and Negotiation 3 Credits
This seminar course will look at American foreign policy through the lens of statecraft. Statecraft involves the orchestration of all the instruments of power and influence to protect against threats and to promote broad national interests. Key elements of statecraft include developing strategy, defining objectives and purposes, identifying the means available for pursuing strategy and knowing how best to employ them. Because negotiations represent one policy tool that is central to nearly all forms of statecraft, the course will explore negotiations and mediation. It will look at the American approach to negotiations and also examine mediation as an instrument for settling or defusing local and sectarian conflicts.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Course attribute: FS54 name
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 4930 SFS Centential Labs: 1-4 Credits
ENROLLMENT IN THIS COURSE IS BY INSTRUCTOR APPROVAL ONLY, VIA AN APPLICATION WHICH CAN BE FOUND HERE: Radical but ostensibly lawful groups play an important role in fomenting violence and fostering a dangerous political environment. The white-supremacist Ku Klux Klan, the jihadist-oriented Al Muhajiroun and its spinoffs in Europe, and the “Incel” movement are only a few of the organizations that peddle hate and have had members involved in terrorism and political violence. Other groups, such as the followers of Insane Clown Posse (Juggalos and Juggalettes), are considered by some law enforcement entities to be gangs but are also are part of a broader cultural movement. In the United States and several other democratic countries, such groups have a right to free speech, but do they have a right to be on every Internet platform? How do Internet companies determine whom to ban and whom to permit to use their services? Are their alternatives approaches to banning content or users that technology companies should consider? What are the human rights and legal implications of these choices? These are some of the questions this course will address. The course would work with Google and the associated Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism to explore different technical, legal, and policy solutions to the problem of radical presence on the Internet. The professors would identify one or more research projects and direct a research team of 10-15 Georgetown students. The class would meet with experts in the Washington, D.C. area, have video discussions with Congressional staff, technology experts, counterterrorism officials and other relevant experts from around the world. Optional Spring Break Trip. Class members are also eligible to participate in a one-credit class (INAF 442) held over spring break to travel California to meet with experts to learn more about the problems and potential solutions. Possible visits include Google, Facebook, Palantir, and other relevant Internet companies as well as non-profits like the Anti-Defamation League that have expertise in components of these challenges. (This list is subject to change – perhaps dramatic change.) Students would gain the following from the class: 1. Learn about several radical groups and how they exploit the Internet 2. Understand the basics of the architecture of the Internet and the implications of this for policy; 3. Gain insight into the legal, policy, and political environment facing Internet companies; and 4. Develop problem-solving skills. A professional relationship and site visits would force them to apply their ideas to practical “inbox” problems facing Internet company executives, learn to present their ideas effectively, and incorporate professional feedback. This class is not open to freshman. If the class is over-subscribed, priority will be given to sophomores and juniors and to those with some knowledge of counterterrorism, technology, or other class-related issues.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 4949 Tutorial: INAF 1-6 Credits
Permission of SFS Dean's Office required.
Level: Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 5008 Foreign Influence in Europe 3 Credits
This course will be co-taught by senior State Department officials Molly Montgomery and Jenifer Moore. Russia has long employed a modular toolkit of economic, political, informational, and covert action-based “hostile measures” to advance Russian interests by influencing European policies and publics. Since Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea and Donbas, European governments and publics have become increasingly aware of and determined to counteract Russian hostile measures campaigns – variations of which are sometimes also referred to as active measures, hybrid warfare, gray zone operations, low-intensity conflict, and other terms. While Russia is the most well-known, sophisticated, and prolific hostile measures actor in Europe, it is far from the only one. An array of foreign governments seek to influence policy and publics in Europe to achieve their foreign policy aims via overt and covert means. China’s campaigns have become more visible recently, whether its “Wolf Warrior” diplomacy or its campaigns to win influence using economic tools like the Belt and Road Initiative or PPE donations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Other actors such as Turkey and the Gulf states mount campaigns with more limited aims in places like the Western Balkans. This course will explore the actors who mount hostile measures campaigns in Europe, assess their aims, and evaluate their success – or failure. We will identify the tools and tactics they employ and analyze how these campaigns manifest in case studies drawn from across Europe. Finally, we will seek to understand and formulate counter-influence strategies that can enable European governments and other actors to blunt or immunize their societies against hostile measures campaigns.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 5025 U.S. Intervention Collisions 3 Credits
U.S. Interventionism: Collisions with Reality will be taught by John Bass, a three-time former U.S. Ambassador (Afghanistan (2017-20), Turkiye (2014-17) and Georgia (2009-2012), Acting Under Secretary for Political Affairs and Under Secretary for Management.
Ambassador Bass over the course of his career has wrestled with the prospect and consequences of major U.S. interventions initiated in the name of humanitarian relief (including R2P), economic protectionism, security and counterterrorism, or for ideological reasons.
This course will assess the U.S. track record, with a focus on post-World War II interventions, and examine the different tools of statecraft– diplomacy, economic leverage, intelligence, military training and advising, and use of military force – to understand how or whether these instruments were more or less effective, or doomed to negative unintended consequences.
The course also will examine why the U.S. often produced different outcomes as its rationale collided with realities on the ground. We will assess why the U.S. fails to learn from its past, repeats the same mistakes, or at least builds new mistakes off of old ones. Finally, it will assess those factors that contribute to better outcomes. We also will explore whether contemporary international political and economic dynamics are likely to impel or hinder further U.S. interventions, and how technology may change the nature of future interventions.
Students will be responsible for producing a case study on a specific intervention, its justification, key decision points, and assessment of its success or failure short-term and long-term
Level: Graduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 5026 Russian Empire Strikes Back 3 Credits
This course – “The Empire Strikes Back: Russia’s Complex Relations with its Former Colonies” -- will be taught by the former U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan (2022-25) and Uzbekistan (2019-22), who is now serving as a diplomatic fellow at the SFS Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. It will examine this topic through the lens of U.S. policy towards the Former Soviet Union since 1991. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia has asserted a privileged sphere of influence covering the 14 other former Soviet republics, officially labeling them not as independent foreign countries but as its “near abroad” (blizhneye zarubezh’ye). Russia’s imperial ambitions go back centuries, and its colonial legacy shapes political and economic developments in the region to this day – the most recent and blatant example being its 2022 invasion of -- and ongoing effort to control -- Ukraine. Meanwhile, the United States has repeatedly declared its support for the “sovereignty and territorial integrity” of the former Russian colonies, and made bolstering their independence a core element of its policy towards the region. This course will examine the interplay between these clashing Russian and American perspectives over the past 35 years. It will focus on the various methods Moscow has used to retain dominance in the region (from control over energy resources, export transit routes and labor markets to the direct use of intelligence networks and military power to manipulate and intimidate its neighbors), and the mixed results of those efforts. In parallel, the course will look at how these Russian actions have been viewed by U.S. policymakers, and how the U.S. responded through the use of diplomatic tools, security cooperation, private sector trade and investment, and foreign assistance, also with mixed success.
Level: Graduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 5124 Hum Rights, PluralismEquality 3 Credits
Meaning, historical roots, basis, and practical significance of human rights; universality of human rights in context of religious and cultural pluralism and economic inequality; relation between human rights and diverse religious traditions, especially Christianity.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 5170 Global Instituions:UnBeyond 3 Credits
This course is a foundational class on global institutions and partnerships, which deliver substantial cooperation and public goods, but face challenges and are morphing. A new UN Secretary General is coming into office; Syria festers as a crisis in UN; NATO is rocked by Russia and internal questioners; the EU’s value is questioned by the UK and citizens of other members; the G-20’s role and standing are ambiguous; the OAS is calling Venezuela’s standing into question; and countless less formal, multistakeholder efforts (including in Internet governance) are emerging.
The course’s premise is that the UN and multilateral institutions are animated by a particular form of “politics,” in which learning how “the game” is played will benefit future professionals in international organizations themselves, governments, nonprofits, and business.
The course begins with the primary locus of multilateral institutions – the United Nations – as a system any professional in international affairs should grasp. It addresses the role and reform of the UN Security Council and UN General Assembly; the politics of development, human rights and the Responsibility to Protect against atrocities, and of reform in the UN; and the UN's major agencies and programs, from UNDP to the WHO to UNICEF. It examines the impact of equal legitimacy for all governments, of blocs and caucuses in the UN, and of funding arrangements.
Second half of the course addresses other institutions of global governance which are crucial partners to and alternatives beyond the UN. Building critical thinking about the comparative advantages of various arrangements to solve particular problems, the course will treat emerging forums (e.g., the G-20), other economic, functional, and regional institutions (from the IMF and World Bank to the NATO, the EU, Arab League, and Africa Union), as well as hybrid and public-private partnerships (such as the UN-African Union peacekeeping operations or the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria).
The course will intensively hone oral presentation and writing skills useful in professional settings. It will build familiarity with fundamental topics and concepts in global governance (treated in a take-home final exam), but allows focus in areas of student interest in multilateral affairs and institutions, especially through short papers.
(This course was formerly offered as MSFS-534)
The course’s premise is that the UN and multilateral institutions are animated by a particular form of “politics,” in which learning how “the game” is played will benefit future professionals in international organizations themselves, governments, nonprofits, and business.
The course begins with the primary locus of multilateral institutions – the United Nations – as a system any professional in international affairs should grasp. It addresses the role and reform of the UN Security Council and UN General Assembly; the politics of development, human rights and the Responsibility to Protect against atrocities, and of reform in the UN; and the UN's major agencies and programs, from UNDP to the WHO to UNICEF. It examines the impact of equal legitimacy for all governments, of blocs and caucuses in the UN, and of funding arrangements.
Second half of the course addresses other institutions of global governance which are crucial partners to and alternatives beyond the UN. Building critical thinking about the comparative advantages of various arrangements to solve particular problems, the course will treat emerging forums (e.g., the G-20), other economic, functional, and regional institutions (from the IMF and World Bank to the NATO, the EU, Arab League, and Africa Union), as well as hybrid and public-private partnerships (such as the UN-African Union peacekeeping operations or the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria).
The course will intensively hone oral presentation and writing skills useful in professional settings. It will build familiarity with fundamental topics and concepts in global governance (treated in a take-home final exam), but allows focus in areas of student interest in multilateral affairs and institutions, especially through short papers.
(This course was formerly offered as MSFS-534)
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 5323 Writing for Global Audiences 0.25 Credits
Professional writing skills are paramount for success in any academic or business environment. This course is designed to equip graduate students in the School of Foreign Service with the critical writing skills needed for their academic and post-academic careers. Students will learn to analyze their audience, understand reader expectations and adapt their writing accordingly—empowering them to take their writing to the next level and become flexible, effective communicators in academia and beyond.
Writing for Global Audiences approaches writing from both the macro and micro level simultaneously, helping students conceptualize, organize, and structure their writing as well as improve their sentence-level understanding of grammar, syntax, and composition. Students will also learn to read critically and think about an author’s rhetorical purpose for writing. By looking at writing examples from their own academic disciplines, their readings from other courses, and their peers, students will learn to identify elements of effective writing and to apply these techniques in their own coursework and future writing. Short weekly exercises provide the opportunity to implement the specific concepts discussed in class and to receive detailed feedback. Students in the course also have the opportunity throughout the semester to meet with the professor during office hours to discuss the papers they are writing and revising for other classes. By the end of this course, students should be able to articulate a clear argument in their writing and support it with evidence that is appropriately documented and cited; structure their writing in a logical and clear way; make effective rhetorical choices regarding word choice and tone; and apply the rules of English grammar and be able to utilize tools for self-editing and revision. Throughout the course, we will reinforce ways that these skills can be applied across audiences, platforms, and genres of writing—from research papers, capstone projects, and journal articles to response papers, policy memos and briefs, digital publications, and professional correspondence.
Writing for Global Audiences approaches writing from both the macro and micro level simultaneously, helping students conceptualize, organize, and structure their writing as well as improve their sentence-level understanding of grammar, syntax, and composition. Students will also learn to read critically and think about an author’s rhetorical purpose for writing. By looking at writing examples from their own academic disciplines, their readings from other courses, and their peers, students will learn to identify elements of effective writing and to apply these techniques in their own coursework and future writing. Short weekly exercises provide the opportunity to implement the specific concepts discussed in class and to receive detailed feedback. Students in the course also have the opportunity throughout the semester to meet with the professor during office hours to discuss the papers they are writing and revising for other classes. By the end of this course, students should be able to articulate a clear argument in their writing and support it with evidence that is appropriately documented and cited; structure their writing in a logical and clear way; make effective rhetorical choices regarding word choice and tone; and apply the rules of English grammar and be able to utilize tools for self-editing and revision. Throughout the course, we will reinforce ways that these skills can be applied across audiences, platforms, and genres of writing—from research papers, capstone projects, and journal articles to response papers, policy memos and briefs, digital publications, and professional correspondence.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Course attribute:
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 5366 Economic Devt in Thry Pract 3 Credits
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 5378 Negotiatn/Mediatn/Pwr:MEBeyon 3 Credits
This course examines some of the conceptual and contemporary issues relating to the analysis of negotiation processes and their contribution to international/regional dynamics of conflict and cooperation. It addresses the functions and core elements of negotiation and mediation, the inherent power dynamics (symmetry, asymmetry) and the role and influence of culture. Students will participate in negotiation simulations at the end of the seminar. By focusing on theories of negotiation and mediation, the course aims to provide students with conceptual tools to analyze empirical case studies relating to the negotiation and mediation of peace agreements in the Middle East, the end of ethnic conflicts and international multilateral negotiations.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 5388 Modern Turkey 3 Credits
This course brings historical and other scholarly perspectives to bear on the politics and society of Modern Turkey from the late Ottoman period to the present. We examine the seismic impact of the First World War and the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923; the contested, often violent, processes of nation-building and nationalism; the legacy of Turkey’s first president, Ataturk ( “Father of the Turks”); and Turkey’s emergence as a regional power and the politics of the so-called neo-Ottomanism today.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 5504 IBD Outsourc/Offshore/SrvTrade 3 Credits
Popular media and political rhetoric often reference outsourcing, both as a potential source of growth and a potential source of job destruction. This course goes beyond the buzz words to examine what we really know about global production networks. What is meant by the terms “offshoring” and “outsourcing”? Are traditional models of trade sufficient to handle increasing complex global production strategies? How do we measure trade in intangibles such as intellectual property and business services? What are the impacts of offshoring on both the countries doing the investing and the countries receiving the investment? How worried should you be about losing your job to someone in India? Is the world getting “flatter”? What policy responses are appropriate? These and other related questions will be addressed using both theory and empirical evidence.
Level: Graduate, Juris Doctor, Undergraduate
Course attribute: FS42 name
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 5536 The West after the Cold War 3 Credits
This course explores the political, social, cultural, and intellectual transformations in the wake of the Cold War’s end, from the late 1980s through the early 2000s. The focus is on North America and Western Europe, as well as on the developments in the former Eastern bloc and the reconfiguration of the international system. We want to investigate the search for a new global order and the ways in which contemporaries tried to make sense of the post-Cold War world, the key intellectual currents, and the distinct (political, social, and pop-) culture that emerged in the 1990s – thereby examining the rise of the present after what observers at the time briefly thought was the “the end of history.”
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 5537 Pol-Econ of Electoral Politics 3 Credits
In recent decades, the social and economic landscapes of Western democracies have undergone profound changes. From economic re-structuring and global recessions to demographic change, these transformations have deeply impacted the politics, policy strategies, and political outcomes of today’s most affluent industrialized societies. This course uses the tools of comparative political economy to understand the political origins and consequences of these transformations. We will cover questions such as: how do de-industrialization, globalization, and the transition to knowledge societies re-shape party competition and electoral choices? What are the economic underpinnings of popular dissatisfaction with politics and mainstream party decline? How do rising income and wealth inequalities restructure political conflict? What explains preferences for redistribution and social policies in an age of rising immigration and aging populations and how do governments (struggle to) adequately respond to urgent contemporary challenges like climate change?
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 5542 Econ of Energy and Oil 3 Credits
This course studies the links between the economy and politics of the major oil producers/exporters with a special focus on the main exporters of the Arab-Persian Gulf: Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar. Each of these states is attempting to diversify away for straight production of crude oil and expand in value adding energy-based products like petrochemicals. This transition will be reviewed in some detail, especially the internal and external political consequences of this evolution.
Level: Graduate, Juris Doctor, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 5701 Conflict Order in SE Asia 3 Credits
In recent decades, vast political and economic changes throughout Southeast Asia have combined with the region’s strategic importance to yield a wide range of security issues that have challenged countries in the region. This seminar examines domestic issues such as regime instability, insurgencies, and organized crime as well as international issues such as terrorism and maritime disputes in the South China Sea. The course draws upon theoretical frameworks from comparative politics and international relations to analyze the causes of security and insecurity throughout the region. Through this process, students will build an understanding of various conflicts and sources of insecurity in Southeast Asia.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 5733 Japan's Domestic Politics 3 Credits
This course will examine Japan's new politics and how they shape Tokyo's policy choices. The course will be divided into four sections. The first will examine the 1955-system and its aftermath. This section will compare and contrast single-party dominance in Japan (the 1995-system that shaped Japan's governance until 1993) and the two decade long effort to build new political parties beginning with the reforms set in motion in the early 1990s. Third, we will examine the results of this on-going political reform in Japan in three policy areas: managing the Japanese economy, coping with demographics and the transformation to an aging society, and adapting to a new regional strategic environment. Finally, the course will conclude with discussion of some of the ideas that shape contemporary debate in Japan. This section will consider some of the critical issues shaping Japanese citizen activism, including: What factors are motivating Japanese voter behavior today? Is there a growing sense of nationalism in Japan? Will Japanese embrace the notion of revising their Constitution? What was the impact on Japanese society of the 3.11 disasters? Students will be assigned a research paper on a topic of their choosing to analyze the political influences shaping Japanese policy today.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 5760 Ethnic Politics 3 Credits
In an increasingly interconnected world, many societies are becoming more ethnically diverse. This diversity presents both challenges and opportunities in interethnic relations. Why are some societies prone to ethnic conflicts while others are able to achieve interethnic cooperation? Do ethnically heterogeneous societies have less growth or higher inequality than more homogeneous societies? Are ethnically heterogeneous societies less likely to provide for public goods than homogeneous societies? In order to answer these questions among others, the course aims to build an understanding of how ethnicity and politics interact from a comparative perspective. By examining theory and evidence across a wide range of countries, students will learn to employ a rigorous analytical framework with which to analyze ethnic politics across a wide range of cases.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 5761 PoliticsDev in Southeast Asi 3 Credits
Southeast Asia has been acclaimed as one of the most dynamic and rapidly growing regional economies in the Asia-Pacific. However, there is limited consensus with regard to the region’s governance record. This unit places the region’s socio-political and economic experiences within a broader historical and comparative context. Such an approach allows us to better appreciate the variegated patterns of development, governance, political and policy reform. Themes include the role of the state in facilitating economic development, the relationship between democracy and development, the salience of ethnic tensions, the significance of performance-based legitimacy, the role of elections in facilitating regime legitimacy, dynamics of authoritarian resilience and political backsliding, policy contestations, nexus between political business (networks) and corruption, forces associated with political Islam and the reconfiguration of the secular state, efficacy of the regional grouping ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and impact of the economic 'rise’ of China within the context of the geo-political shifts in larger international community.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 5795 Rel/PolSoc Mvmnts:Mod SE Asia 3 Credits
Islam has been part of the Southeast Asian (SEA) region for over nine hundred years, arriving via Indian Ocean merchants, Chinese pirates, marriage, and missionaries. Today, it is estimated that SEA is home to almost twenty percent of the world’s Muslim population. Some of SEA’s Muslims are the majority such as in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. Others form a minority, such as in Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Cambodia, and Vietnam. SEA’s Muslims are hardly monolithic: their diversity is clearly seen in their interpretations and expressions of Islam. This course will explore Islamic social and political movements in SEA and provide ways to understand how they define, shape, and negotiate the place of Islam in contemporary SEA communities. The first part of the course will be surveying selected countries where the Muslims, be they the majority or the minority, have made a significant impact on the political, social, and religious milieu of SEA – in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines. The second part will be studying the various trends of Muslim movements in the SEA: the modernists, the traditionalists, the progressive-liberal, the Islamists, and the separatist and radical movements. The last part of the course will deal with selected issues that are debated and negotiated by these movements, such as Shari‘a, state and governance, gender and family, as well as Muslim/non-Muslim relations.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 5812 Ethics Gbl Human Devel 3 Credits
This course surveys approaches to the ethics of socio-economic development in the context of global justice and ethical issues in a select number of developmental activities. It also examines the uses of ethics in the field, within development organizations and for public advocacy.
The ethical theories will include: human rights, capabilities theory, global justice and cosmopolitanism. Specific topical issues to be considered are: sustainable development, trade and aid, healthcare, poverty reduction and inequality, humanitarian emergencies, peacebuilding and ethically informed leadership roles.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 5862 U.S-Russian Relations 3 Credits
This seminar examines the development of U.S-Russian relations since 1992 from both the American and the Russian perspectives. Topics covered will include: bilateral issues, such as domestic drivers of the relationship, the rise and fall of arms control and its implications for future military competition, and economic and energy ties; and multilateral issues in which both sides have important stakes, such as European security architecture, the Middle East, China’s rise, Ukraine and Latin America. We will examine the implications of the Trump-Putin era and beyond. Some prior knowledge of American and/or Russian foreign policy is recommended. Students will write a research paper on a topic of their choice.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 5867 Gender, Society Econ Dev 3 Credits
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 5887 Women, Peace, and Security 3 Credits
Often treated as “perpetual victims,” women are relegated to the sidelines in formal and informal processes of peace-building, governance and economic recovery. Yet women’s participation, inclusion and leadership are integral components of building sustainable and peaceful societies. These issues are becoming central components of the diplomatic, development and military policies of the United States, as well as many other nations. A familiarity with the field of women, peace and security is critical for negotiations, grant writing, preparation of field manuals or military doctrine, humanitarian relief operations, international crisis management, statebuilding processes, etc. The syllabus will cover a wide range of topics related to women’s experiences in conflict-affected and post-conflict settings and the impact of their participation in conflict prevention, peacemaking, peacekeeping, mitigating humanitarian emergencies, political transitions and economic recovery. The course will also examine different approaches and policies to gender mainstreaming in conflict and conflict resolution. Senior practitioner guest speakers from the diplomatic and practitioner communities will be invited occasionally to lead discussions and illustrate the practical implications of the issues covered.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 5896 Global Governance 3 Credits
Global Governance in the Era of Great Power Rivalry
Global governance is the way countries engage with each other to solve big problems collectively that no single state can fix. Against the current backdrop of wars, famine, climate change, pandemics, and other crises, effective systems of global governance – which require cooperation and compromise – have never been more important. Great power rivalry affects global governance acutely. The Biden Administration has committed to “relentless diplomacy” in the multilateral space. China is asserting its interests abroad with increasing vigor. Russia is embroiled in a UN Charter-busting war with its neighbor. And the European Union is striving to become a geopolitical force in its own right. Will these powers’ often contrasting global visions impede collective action to confront the world’s most urgent issues? How do medium-sized and smaller countries fit into the multilateral puzzle? Are current systems of global governance fit for purpose? What could a successful system of global governance look like?
The course focuses on the United Nations, which at 77 remains the main multilateral arena where the action of global governance plays out. Through case studies, with particular emphasis on the UN Security Council, it looks in detail at the way the United States, China, Russia, and Europe interact and pursue their interests in the fields of security, development, climate, and human rights policy. The course will also examine other global governance forums, such as the G20, G7, and subregional multilateral organizations.
The course directors are a former senior German diplomat who has served as ambassador to the United Nations and the United States and a current U.S. Foreign Service Officer who has held senior positions at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations and in Asia and Washington. Most of the case studies and class content will relate to the real-life professional experiences of the instructors. One of the major learning goals of this course is for students to gain uncommon insights into the mechanisms, tools, and skills of multilateral diplomacy. There will be guest speakers and simulations.
Global governance is the way countries engage with each other to solve big problems collectively that no single state can fix. Against the current backdrop of wars, famine, climate change, pandemics, and other crises, effective systems of global governance – which require cooperation and compromise – have never been more important. Great power rivalry affects global governance acutely. The Biden Administration has committed to “relentless diplomacy” in the multilateral space. China is asserting its interests abroad with increasing vigor. Russia is embroiled in a UN Charter-busting war with its neighbor. And the European Union is striving to become a geopolitical force in its own right. Will these powers’ often contrasting global visions impede collective action to confront the world’s most urgent issues? How do medium-sized and smaller countries fit into the multilateral puzzle? Are current systems of global governance fit for purpose? What could a successful system of global governance look like?
The course focuses on the United Nations, which at 77 remains the main multilateral arena where the action of global governance plays out. Through case studies, with particular emphasis on the UN Security Council, it looks in detail at the way the United States, China, Russia, and Europe interact and pursue their interests in the fields of security, development, climate, and human rights policy. The course will also examine other global governance forums, such as the G20, G7, and subregional multilateral organizations.
The course directors are a former senior German diplomat who has served as ambassador to the United Nations and the United States and a current U.S. Foreign Service Officer who has held senior positions at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations and in Asia and Washington. Most of the case studies and class content will relate to the real-life professional experiences of the instructors. One of the major learning goals of this course is for students to gain uncommon insights into the mechanisms, tools, and skills of multilateral diplomacy. There will be guest speakers and simulations.
Level: Graduate, Juris Doctor, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to students with a major in Arab Studies, Arab Studies, Arab Studies, Arab Studies, Foreign Service, Foreign Service, Foreign Service, Foreign Service, German and European Studies, German and European Studies, German and European Studies, German and European Studies, Latin American Studies, Latin American Studies, Latin American Studies, Latin American Studies, Russian East European Stud, Russian East European Stud, Russian East European Stud, Russian East European Stud, Security Studies, Security Studies, Security Studies or Security Studies.
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 5925 MAGES Internship 0.5-3 Credits
Permission needed from MAGES program
Level: Graduate, Juris Doctor, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to students with a major in German and European Studies, German and European Studies, German and European Studies or German and European Studies.
INAF 5999 Child Rights and Resilience 3 Credits
This class explores challenges faced by children in adversity globally and strategies to promote children’s protection and resilience in development and humanitarian settings. It also provides students with unique opportunities to learn from leading practitioners in the field.
Level: Graduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
INAF 6120 Foundations of Grand Strategy 3 Credits
The Foundations of Grand Strategy is open to students in the MSFS program and to doctoral candidates in the Government and History departments. The course exposes students to canonical authors such as Sun Tzu, Thucydides, Machiavelli, Kautilya, and Clausewitz. It examines the key components of great power strategy through a series of historical case studies. The class concludes with study of the current challenges confronting major powers as they seek to formulate and implement grand strategy. Students will read approximately one book per week; take part in weekly discussions; make one presentation to the class; and write one research paper.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Course attribute: XHIS name
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 6319 Arab Mideast Int'L Politics 3 Credits
The course addresses major scholarly works in the study of the international politics of the Middle East, while introducing students to core theoretical debates in International Relations. Through conceptual tools and historical review, the students will analyse relationships between domestic politics and regional/international processes, war and peace-making, the role of superpowers in the regional system, identity and security politics and the importance of strategic resources (oil, water).
Level: Graduate, Juris Doctor, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to students with a major in Arab Studies, Arab Studies, Arab Studies or Arab Studies.
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 6531 ISD Capstone: 3 Credits
Level: Graduate, Master of Laws
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 6532 ISD Capstone: The US and Iran 3 Credits
ISD Capstone: The US and Iran - Is Conflict Inevitable?
Mutual distrust and hostility have dominated the U.S.-Iranian relationship since the Islamic revolution of 1979, seriously exacerbating multiple conflicts and risking war over Iran’s nuclear program, the U.S. military presence in the Middle East, Iran’s proxies in the region, and terrorism. Nevertheless, U.S. and Iranian interests also converge on a number of issues, including stability in Iraq and Afghanistan, opposition to ISIS, the security and reliability of energy supply, and protecting the rights of religious minorities. This seminar – one of three that fulfills the capstone requirement for the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy’s Certificate in Diplomatic Studies (CDS) – will give students the opportunity to put themselves in the place of national leaders in considering whether it is possible to develop a constructive relationship with Iran that mitigates potential conflicts while preserving each country’s core interests, and building cooperation on those interests that converge. The seminar will discuss a brief history of U.S.-Iranian relations, survey current flashpoints, and assess each country’s interests in approaching the relationship. It will conclude with the seminar’s joint preparation of a policy paper recommending a new U.S. strategy for managing the problem of Iran. The course will be led by a U.S. Ambassador most recently responsible for implementing the Iran nuclear deal. Course is open to non-CDS candidates on a space available basis.
Level: Graduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 6533 ISD Capstone: New Silk Road 3 Credits
As Russia reasserts itself on the world stage and the ISIS threat shows no sign of abating, nations from Europe through South-Central Asia to East Asia struggle to cope in the absence of a fully functioning international security system. Revival of the New Silk Road, based on dramatic improvements in East-West rail, pipeline, air and fiber-optic connections, offers a new set of incentives for cooperation from the Caucasus to the Pacific. These incentives in turn hold strategic potential for the United States, Russia, Europe and China. Nations along the route are playing a new “Great Game” as they tailor their diplomacy to accommodate the eventual winners. At stake is whether any one country or movement will dominate Eurasia.
This course – one of three that fulfills the capstone requirement for the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy’s Certificate in Diplomatic Studies (CDS) – offers students the opportunity to put themselves in the place of national leaders as they calibrate their diplomacy to deal with shifting pressures and real threats to their nations’ existence. Taught by a senior Foreign Service officer who most recently served as U.S. Ambassador to Georgia, the course, which will draw on the Embassy Country Team model, will also examine strategic opportunities for the United States and other global players. The capstone course will conclude with a comprehensive strategy report by the capstone participants.
Open to non-CDS candidates on a space-available basis.
Level: Graduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 6534 ISD Cap: Marketing Nat Sec Pol 3 Credits
Students who complete this course will become familiar with the role that communications practitioners play in the national security decision making process, the influence communicators have on the formation of policy, the impact public diplomacy and strategic communications have on the success or failure of U.S. national security policy, and the influence of multiple stakeholders – including the American people, the U.S. Congress, the media, and international allies and adversaries – on U.S. foreign policy formation. The course will examine the policy debates and decisions surrounding key national security issues of the Obama Administration -- including the Iran nuclear deal, the diplomatic opening with Cuba, the Syria chemical weapons attack, the changes of government in Egypt, and U.S. counter-terrorism operations -- and will evaluate the effectiveness of communications strategies and tools used to explain and "sell" the policies to multiple constituencies. Taught by a Foreign Service Officer who most recently served as the White House National Security Council Spokesperson, the class will include a range of “real-world” simulations to encourage students to approach policy questions from a communications vantage point. This course – one of three that fulfills the capstone requirement for the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy’s Certificate in Diplomatic Studies (CDS) -- will also require students to complete a joint report outlining a policy recommendation regarding the closing of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility. Integral to the joint report will be the creation of a comprehensive communications strategy that employs a mix of techniques for reaching and influencing desired audiences, and which includes a persuasive narrative that advances the policy objective. Open to non-CDS candidates on a space-available basis.
Level: Graduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 6535 ISD Cap: Rebuilding Yemen 3 Credits
Always impoverished and fragile, Yemen is a microcosm of the forces that have battered the Middle East since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Those forces took hold with the Arab Spring of 2011 and continue today. Poor governance, embedded corruption, lack of basic services, and external meddling from within or beyond the region are shared factors. Prior to the collapse of the state in 2014, Yemen was water, food, and fuel insecure, with barely adequate levels of health care, sanitation, education and other basic services, coupled with a demographic explosion. Its governing structure was rudimentary. It is an ancient nation but not fully a state. From the Arab Spring through to the Houthi takeover of Sanaa, its transitional government functioned not at all.
Yemen looked to be one of the few success stories coming out of the Arab Spring – a negotiated transfer of power, a laudable if flawed and incomplete National Dialogue process, and strong political and respectable financial support from the international community. The Houthi, a “non-kinship affinity group,” waged a 10-year insurgency against the government of the late Ali Abdullah Saleh, and then constructively participated in the Change Square movement and the National Dialogue. Frustrated by the lack of change, in the autumn of 2014 they rolled into Sana’a and forced a National Partnership Plan and a technocratic cabinet on the transitional government of Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. Whether coup or not, it looked as if the “always almost failing state” would muddle through again. It didn’t.
The collapse was swift and violent. As the Houthi rolled south to Aden and west to Hodeidah, Hadi was forced into exile in Riyadh. An imminent civil war was internationalized by the Saudis and the Emiratis in March 2015 with the support of the US, the UK and, in April, the UNSC. While Aden was quickly retaken by the Emirate ground forces in July 2015, the battle lines have barely shifted, and the coalition – now without the Emirati forces – cannot defeat, dislodge or dissuade the anti-Hadi forces. It is a stalemate if not a quagmire.
This course is not a search for definitive answers on how to end the war, but an examination of what questions need to be asked on how this country, as a case study, can be repaired, reconciled and rebuilt, so that peace is sustainable. What are the roles and responsibilities of the belligerent, the regional players, and the international community? How does Yemen’s history, culture and political players shape the answers and the outcome? What lessons, good and bad, from elsewhere are applicable? How best can political, economic, social and security structures be reconstituted? Is a unified state still possible, still optimal? What are the implications if a sustainable state does not emerge from the rubble? This is a look at the Day After.
Yemen looked to be one of the few success stories coming out of the Arab Spring – a negotiated transfer of power, a laudable if flawed and incomplete National Dialogue process, and strong political and respectable financial support from the international community. The Houthi, a “non-kinship affinity group,” waged a 10-year insurgency against the government of the late Ali Abdullah Saleh, and then constructively participated in the Change Square movement and the National Dialogue. Frustrated by the lack of change, in the autumn of 2014 they rolled into Sana’a and forced a National Partnership Plan and a technocratic cabinet on the transitional government of Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. Whether coup or not, it looked as if the “always almost failing state” would muddle through again. It didn’t.
The collapse was swift and violent. As the Houthi rolled south to Aden and west to Hodeidah, Hadi was forced into exile in Riyadh. An imminent civil war was internationalized by the Saudis and the Emiratis in March 2015 with the support of the US, the UK and, in April, the UNSC. While Aden was quickly retaken by the Emirate ground forces in July 2015, the battle lines have barely shifted, and the coalition – now without the Emirati forces – cannot defeat, dislodge or dissuade the anti-Hadi forces. It is a stalemate if not a quagmire.
This course is not a search for definitive answers on how to end the war, but an examination of what questions need to be asked on how this country, as a case study, can be repaired, reconciled and rebuilt, so that peace is sustainable. What are the roles and responsibilities of the belligerent, the regional players, and the international community? How does Yemen’s history, culture and political players shape the answers and the outcome? What lessons, good and bad, from elsewhere are applicable? How best can political, economic, social and security structures be reconstituted? Is a unified state still possible, still optimal? What are the implications if a sustainable state does not emerge from the rubble? This is a look at the Day After.
Level: Graduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 6536 ISD Capstone: Engaging SE Asia 3 Credits
Much of the history of the 21st century will be written in Asia. This conviction underpinned the “Rebalance (or Pivot) to Asia” policy launched by the Obama Administration. This course will examine the origins, goals, and impact of contemporary U.S. efforts in Asia, with a specific focus on Southeast Asia. The ten countries of ASEAN are home to over 620 million diverse peoples, critical sea lanes, and more U.S. investment than China. In this course, students will gain a greater understanding of (i) the geopolitical context that has influenced U.S. policy formulation, (ii) accomplishments and challenges of the Rebalance from a diplomatic, military, and economic perspective, and (iii) the range of responses from China, longstanding allies, and emerging partners. Using case studies, including on ASEAN, the South China Sea, and Myanmar's democratic transition, students will evaluate the efficacy of U.S. policy, particularly against the backdrop of China’s growing assertiveness. What should the next chapter of U.S. engagement with Southeast Asia look like? How can U.S. policy makers most effectively promote a rules-based order and advance key national interests? This course, one of three that fulfills the capstone requirement for the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy’s Certificate in Diplomatic Studies (CDS), will require students to complete a joint report outlining policy recommendations for the next phase of our initiatives and interactions with this vital region. The instructor is an active duty Foreign Service Officer with over 10 years of diplomatic experience in Africa and Southeast Asia, including her two most recent assignments focused on maritime issues in Malaysia and promoting a diplomatic opening with Burma/Myanmar.
Open to non-CDS candidates on a space-available basis.
Open to non-CDS candidates on a space-available basis.
Level: Graduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 6537 ISD Capstone:Challeng US Power 3 Credits
The United States’ ability – or willingness – to project power and influence is in a state of transition as it navigates between an emerging China, a revanchist Russia, and an aspiring India, in addition to Iran and other regional powers. Will the new President aim to reassert the United States’ status as the Indispensable Nation? Through case studies, this class will examine how the new Administration should deal with China and tensions in the South China Sea; Russia’s interventions in Ukraine and Syria; Iran’s long-term regional ambitions and the future of the nuclear deal; as well as U.S. efforts to work with India on climate change and differences over the international trade system – all with a view to maintaining U.S. influence on the world stage.
This course is one of three that fulfills the capstone requirement for the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy’s Certificate in Diplomatic Studies (CDS). Students will be required to complete a joint report outlining “over the horizon” policy initiatives for projecting U.S. power and maintaining global influence. The instructor is a career Foreign Service Officer and currently a State Department Rusk Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. He has served overseas in India, Iraq, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, as well as on the Iran Desk in Washington.
This course is one of three that fulfills the capstone requirement for the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy’s Certificate in Diplomatic Studies (CDS). Students will be required to complete a joint report outlining “over the horizon” policy initiatives for projecting U.S. power and maintaining global influence. The instructor is a career Foreign Service Officer and currently a State Department Rusk Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. He has served overseas in India, Iraq, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, as well as on the Iran Desk in Washington.
Level: Graduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 6538 ISD Capstone: S. Sudan Cnflct 3 Credits
South Sudan came onto the scene in 2011, a new nation, welcomed into what all believed would be a new high mark for democracy in Africa. It was viewed as a U.S. policy success. Two years later, the country was torn apart by ethnic strife, weak leadership, and regional political machinations. This course – one of three that fulfills the capstone requirement for the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy’s Certificate in Diplomatic Studies (CDS) – will give students the historical and political context leading to the fragile peace and the return to conflict. It will look at the regional dynamics and U.S. policy decisions and address the leadership deficit. By the end of the course, the students will develop a set of joint policy recommendations to provide to U.S. policy makers for finding a peaceful solution to the conflict moving forward. The course will be led by Ambassador (ret.) Linda Thomas-Greenfield, former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs (2013-17). Course is open to non-CDS candidates on a space available basis.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 6887 Refugee Law Policy 2 Credits
This course examines domestic refugee law and policy, with particular focus on asylum and other refugee-related claims for protection that arise in the U.S. legal system. Students will become familiar with the key actors in the asylum and refugee law arena, including the U.S. Congress, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, the federal courts, and international entities.
The course objectives are: (1) to equip students with an understanding of the principles of refugee policy, asylum law, and the United States' procedures for refugee protection, and (2) to provide students with a practical appreciation for how refugee policy is formed and a working knowledge of asylum law, which will serve as a foundation for academic research, clinical study, employment, pro bono work, and/or internship opportunities within the U.S. government and the NGO community.
In addition to focusing on the refugee definition as interpreted by U.S. courts, we will examine the processes for adjudicating asylum claims -- where the system works and where it fails. We will also seek to understand the limits of asylum law and explore the toughest issues facing asylum adjudicators and policy makers today.
The course objectives are: (1) to equip students with an understanding of the principles of refugee policy, asylum law, and the United States' procedures for refugee protection, and (2) to provide students with a practical appreciation for how refugee policy is formed and a working knowledge of asylum law, which will serve as a foundation for academic research, clinical study, employment, pro bono work, and/or internship opportunities within the U.S. government and the NGO community.
In addition to focusing on the refugee definition as interpreted by U.S. courts, we will examine the processes for adjudicating asylum claims -- where the system works and where it fails. We will also seek to understand the limits of asylum law and explore the toughest issues facing asylum adjudicators and policy makers today.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to students with a major in Arab Studies, Arab Studies, Arab Studies, Arab Studies, Asian Studies, Asian Studies, Asian Studies, Asian Studies, Eurasian, Russian, E Euro Stud, Eurasian, Russian, E Euro Stud, Eurasian, Russian, E Euro Stud, Eurasian, Russian, E Euro Stud, Foreign Service, Foreign Service, Foreign Service, Foreign Service, German and European Studies, German and European Studies, German and European Studies, German and European Studies, Global Human Development, Global Human Development, Global Human Development, Global Human Development, Latin American Studies, Latin American Studies, Latin American Studies, Latin American Studies, Russian East European Stud, Russian East European Stud, Russian East European Stud, Russian East European Stud, Security Studies, Security Studies, Security Studies or Security Studies.
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 7325 Comp Politics of Middle East 3 Credits
What explains the recent wave of uprisings in the Arab world and their very different outcomes? How did Saddam Hussain stay in power for so long? Why hasn’t economic liberalization led to political reform in Egypt? What impact does oil have on politics in Saudi Arabia? Why did the Egyptian army maintain its distance from Mubarak, while the Syrian army has tied its fate to Asad? Can the Muslim Brothers be considered part of civil society? What - if anything - does Israel have in common with Iran?
This course seeks to address questions such as these by introducing students to political science debates on Middle East politics and, more specifically, comparative approaches to the region’s politics. Students will become familiar not only with the empirical characteristics of Middle East politics, but also with the major concepts and theories with which political scientists seek to understand the region’s politics. By adopting a critical approach to phenomena such as ethnicity, religion, nationalism and class, the course also seeks to explain Middle East politics with reference to its underlying social dynamics.
Themes addressed in the course include: state formation; nationalism; authoritarianism; the communal politics of religion, sect, and ethnicity; civil-military relations; economic and political reform; social movements; civil society; networks and informal politics; and the politics of revolution and popular protest.
Each seminar will focus on particular case studies as a means to examine key concepts and theories in political science, allowing students to expand their empirical knowledge of the Middle East as well as their knowledge of debates in the field. However, students may choose which countries to focus on in their assignments, so have the option of developing special expertise in particular areas of interest.
This course seeks to address questions such as these by introducing students to political science debates on Middle East politics and, more specifically, comparative approaches to the region’s politics. Students will become familiar not only with the empirical characteristics of Middle East politics, but also with the major concepts and theories with which political scientists seek to understand the region’s politics. By adopting a critical approach to phenomena such as ethnicity, religion, nationalism and class, the course also seeks to explain Middle East politics with reference to its underlying social dynamics.
Themes addressed in the course include: state formation; nationalism; authoritarianism; the communal politics of religion, sect, and ethnicity; civil-military relations; economic and political reform; social movements; civil society; networks and informal politics; and the politics of revolution and popular protest.
Each seminar will focus on particular case studies as a means to examine key concepts and theories in political science, allowing students to expand their empirical knowledge of the Middle East as well as their knowledge of debates in the field. However, students may choose which countries to focus on in their assignments, so have the option of developing special expertise in particular areas of interest.
Level: Graduate, Juris Doctor, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to students with a major in Arab Studies, Arab Studies, Arab Studies or Arab Studies.
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 7341 Data Analytic Regional Studies 3 Credits
This practical, skills-based course aims to give students a solid foundation in the acquisition, analysis, interpretation and presentation of quantitative data. The course begins by taking a step back from data to discuss the nature of the social scientific enterprise, with a special focus on causal inference. After building a solid foundation in descriptive statistics, we’ll discuss the challenges of research with observational data. We’ll spend a lot of time discussing and thinking about the central problem of endogeneity, and after diving into probability theory, we’ll begin to develop the tools to develop and test hypotheses. While we’ll be engaging with some of the most fundamentally bedeviling questions of social science, the focus throughout the course will be on conceptual understanding and applied, practical skills.
Level: Graduate, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to students with a major in Arab Studies, Arab Studies, Arab Studies, Arab Studies, Asian Studies, Asian Studies, Asian Studies, Asian Studies, German and European Studies, German and European Studies, German and European Studies, German and European Studies, Latin American Studies, Latin American Studies, Latin American Studies, Latin American Studies, Russian East European Stud, Russian East European Stud, Russian East European Stud or Russian East European Stud.
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 7500 McHenry Seminar
Level: Graduate
Grading: No Grade
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 7818 Immigration Law Policy 3 Credits
This course will examine the U.S. immigration system through constitutional, statutory, and policy perspectives. We will explore the source and scope of congressional power to regulate immigration; the executive branch implementation of immigration legislation, particularly procedures for entry and removal; and the administrative and judicial interpretation of immigration law and review of executive branch action. Close attention will be paid to how admissions and naturalization laws and policies are established and implemented: Who is eligible to become a legal immigrant? How are annual admissions numbers set? How and why are family and employment priorities created? How does the U.S. admit refugees? What laws and policies govern U.S. citizenship? Unauthorized migration will also be examined to understand why some migrants do not use the legal route into the U.S. and what laws and policies the U.S. has in place to deter such unlawful movements. We will analyze the impact of the 1996 immigration legislation and its implementation, with particular attention to detention and removal, and explore the immigration bureaucracy as well as the challenges of immigration law reform. Finally, we will consider immigration law in the national security context.
Level: Graduate, Juris Doctor, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 7949 Tutorial: INAF 1 Credit
Level: Graduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 9940 Fellows in Diplo Res Proj 1.5 or 3 Credits
Individual
Level: Graduate, Juris Doctor, Undergraduate
Grading: Main Campus (UGrad, Grad)
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.
INAF 9993 Continuous Registration 3 Credits
Level: Graduate
Grading: No Grade
Course registration restrictions:
Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.