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While old paradigms seem to be failing us in war and peace, the creative management of national security challenges are more important than ever. We require new approaches – not reading the same, old texts, or using the same, old methodologies and theories.  It is primarily for this reason – the need for imaginative, strategic leaders – that this class uses fiction as the launching point for discussion. As the 9/11 Commission noted in their report, “The most important failure was one of imagination.” Students in this course will use fiction as a springboard will hone several key student skills including creativity, the ability to better empathize with complex situations and potential opponents, understanding unfamiliar or strange cultures in order to consider unseen challenges and potential solutions and, grappling with ambiguity, contradictions, complexity, and ambivalence – entertaining for fiction but critical when considering the real world. Perhaps most importantly, students will hone their ability to ask the right questions – a prerequisite to finding least bad options, which is increasingly their job as they move into higher leadership positions. Finally, students will emerge from this course changed readers – better able to deconstruct (and reconstruct) text, think critically about what is read, and know when, and when not to, apply these frameworks.

Maymester 2024 Courses (May 13 - May 21) Maxwell-in-Washington

Online Information session: Wednesday, April 17th 4-6 p.m.

GEO 700 | Authoritarianism Today | Natalie Koch 

This is an advanced course on the political geography of authoritarianism. Authoritarianism is often imagined as fitting in the neat political borders of a territorial state: some countries are democratic, others authoritarian. Yet scholars, policymakers, and practitioners all understand that authoritarianism today is not territorially-bounded – that authoritarian ideas, actors, and practices routinely stretch across international borders. How, then, should we define and locate authoritarianism? For those committed to democratic governance, how should we address the non- or extra-territorial challenges of authoritarianism? This class addresses these questions through examining authoritarianism outside of the traditional state-focused approach, asking how actors in different institutions and policy fields deal with the phenomenon. It draws on case studies from around the world, and testimonials from individuals working in various institutions around Washington, D.C. to examine the challenges of authoritarianism today.