Master of Arts in Strategic Studies

This program is six courses (36 credits), each of which is 11 weeks in length. Students master one course at a time, with each course building on the next to create a strong foundation of knowledge and context for future topics.

The coursework will provide students with a broad exposure the relationship between politics and the various kinds of national power to better equip graduates with working collaboratively with agencies on matters of national security.

• National Security Strategy: Theory and Frameworks

  NT505 6 credit hours

  Students analyze the theoretical and practical frameworks within which national security objectives are developed at the highest levels of government. Students are introduced to the prevailing lenses through which nations attempt to achieve their national security goals and a range of theoretical approaches to the formulation of policy objectives.

• Strategy and Policy

  NT510 6 credit hours

  This course sharpens students’ ability to assess a variety of situations and compare alternative courses of action to achieve overall national political purposes. Students are asked to think in a disciplined, critical, and original manner about the international environment and a range of potential strategies involving joint, interagency, and multinational partners. Strategy has been viewed traditionally as the relationship between war’s purpose and the means to achieve a political end. Strategy provides a theory of victory that explains how a state can translate the employment of the specific means of national power into the achievement of overall national objectives.

• Theory and the International System

  GD510 6 credit hours

  You will review the basic theories that govern international relations and political science. The course also traces the historical evolution of diplomacy within the international system, providing a sense of its progression and an awareness of the milestones of diplomatic interaction within that system.

• Economics and the International System

  GD530 6 credit hours

  You will explore the international economic system, examine the impact of modernization within the system, and investigate the controversy over the concept of globalization and the debate of free trade versus protectionism. You will become familiar with the international financial network and its institutions. Special attention will be given to Third World development issues and the concept of economics as a tool of diplomacy and military power.

• The Military and the Use of Force

  NT550 6 credit hours

  This seminar is an in-depth study of the operational level of war throughout the full spectrum of military operations. The course prepares students to excel in the operational arena through an understanding of the effective use of operational level planning involving joint/coalition forces and interagency partners to achieve military objectives.

• Capstone Planning Exercise

  NT560 6 credit hours

  The capstone planning exercise provides an opportunity for the student to integrate extensive research along with the concepts and principles of the program that results in a student-derived plan to achieve a theater-strategic objective. Each student will complete the plan using all the elements of national power in concert with one another. The purpose of the capstone project is for the student to apply theoretical and methodological skills to real-world issues. The expectation of the program is that the capstone project will demonstrate a student’s overall knowledge in the discipline and the skills necessary to achieve a mastery of strategic planning.