Wintersession 2024 Courses (January 2 – January 12) Maxwell-in-Washington

PAI 700 | Geopolitics of Energy and Climate Change | William Hederman

Understanding international relations requires an appreciation for the international dynamics of energy and closely related environmental issues. This course provides students with the essential information and tools to help analyze a broad range of energy and environmental matters from an international policy perspective.

PAI 771 | Public Management of Technological Development | Sean O'Keefe

This course provides a survey of major public policy influences on the formulation and implementation of commercial technology and innovation strategies.

The primary public influence of commercially developed technology and innovation is regulatory in nature, but also pertains to public financed contracts and grants managed by public agencies to support technology developments for application to public programs and services.  Government policy and statutory requirements can create the need for technology solutions or impede the development of others.  Similarly, the public sector can actively affect market opportunities through the promotion of specific policies and government sponsored programs, as well as the elimination of others.

Technology development offers public and private organizations new avenues to explore productivity enhancement and improved service delivery or increased profitability and market expansion which, in turn, leads to the imperative for innovation change. Successful technology strategies are closely linked to business strategies which match the organization’s existing capabilities or offer a road map to a new service or product developments.  To the extent there is an application or impact to public objectives, public policy and public management practices can either facilitate or deter market incentives to achieve the objectives.

The public sector is frequently both the consumer and regulator of technology advances.  For aspiring public managers, this course will examine the active and passive government influences, which can and have been exerted over technology and innovation management.  For aspiring business managers and technical professionals in engineering or information systems, this course will provide a perspective of the applications of public policy and public management practices and will offer constructive avenues on how government actions on behalf of the public may be anticipated.

Spring 2024 Courses (January 16 – April 29) Maxwell-in-Washington

DC COURSES: Following are the courses offered in Washington, DC for spring 2024.  All classes meet one evening a week from 6:00pm-8:40pm

PAI 895 | Managerial Leadership | Joe Funderburke

This is the Leadership and Strategy in Global Affairs course and a core requirement for the EMIR degree. Objectives are to establish an understanding of the schools of leadership thinking, especially current trends, to practice requisite skills, and to plan for additional learning and development through assessment and action planning.

Course readings focus on leadership theory and practice and their application in the changing organizational environment in a global workplace. Case studies and groups discussion. 

PAI 996 | Master's Capstone | Barbara Petzen (EMIR students only)

This is the capstone course and a core requirement for the EMIR degree. Students complete substantive research projects while embedded in one of the thematic or regional programs at CSIS. Students work directly with CSIS experts on capstone projects designed to hone and showcase their capacity for both cogent analysis of real-world problems and effective policy communication.

Based on interest, working teams of master's candidates conduct research reports to craft actionable policy analysis and recommendations on a complex issue area. Since valuable policy recommendations may be lost if they are not communicated well, teams also learn to transform their policy analysis into an online project that communicates their results with clarity, creativity, and compelling multimedia storytelling.

Professional development workshops on data collection, analysis, analytic writing, and presentation are covered to support students in the development of their projects and to help prepare them for personal career advancement.

Project teams receive mentorship and guidance from CSIS faculty and media advisors throughout the duration of their projects.  A final oral presentation and a written report to CSIS and the faculty advisor are the major course requirements.

EMIR candidates who successfully complete the capstone project will be able to:

• Understand complex and fast-changing international security and foreign policy issues;
• Analyze complex data sets to discern key patterns and trends;
• Formulate insightful analysis of an issue area and design appropriate policy recommendations or compare likely repercussions of different policies;
• Craft compelling policy narratives combining cogent analysis and creative data visualization;
• Communicate findings effectively both orally and across a range of multimedia platforms;
• Collaborate effectively on diverse teams to produce a high-impact product.

PAI 700 | Environmental Security | Marisol Maddox

This course focuses on the role of natural resources/environment/climate change in conflict and security, including its foundational role in economic and military security, from driving conflict and migration to being used as a tool in resolving conflict and peacebuilding.

PAI 700 | Foresight, Insight, and the Fiction of National Security | Tammy Schultz 

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.

Summer Practicum 2024 Courses (June 10 – July 29) Maxwell in Washington

PAI 700 | Disinformation and Influence in the Digital Age | Nina Jankowicz

Monday and Thursday evenings 6:00pm – 8:45pm

Disinformation has always been a tactic of political and social influence, but the advent of social media and targeted advertising has increased its potency and efficacy. How are nation states and domestic actors using online disinformation to shore up power and profit, and how can policymakers address this threat to democracy while keeping its values intact? This course will examine the elements of foreign policy, tech policy and regulation, changes in the media environment, and government responses that affect digital disinformation and its success, and equip students to critically observe and analyze this fast-changing sphere.

PAI 700 | Washington Practicum | Andrew London
Students can earn up to three credits working as an intern for an agency or organization that focuses on public and international affairs.