International Security Studies
Graduate Certificate
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The International Security Studies certificate consists of four courses or 12 units. Courses are drawn from a variety of topics, such as conflict in the Middle East, climate change, foreign policy of Russia, American foreign policy, American national security, international security, global political economy, European security, terrorism, and terrorist networks, energy security, and Japanese and Chinese nationalism. Students who register for this certificate program take the same courses as students who are enrolled in the Master of Arts program in International Security. Moreover, all courses taken through the certificate program will count toward the M.A. degree. Students with a GPA of less than 3.0 are encouraged to apply for the certificate first.
All courses are taught by regular UA faculty members. However, none of these courses are available on campus, and all of them have been designed specifically for the certificate program and the M.A. degree. Each course is six to eight weeks long. Students can register for up to three courses per semester.
*Residents of some U.S. Territories may not be eligible. Please see our Eligibility & State Authorization page for more information.
The curriculum for this degree program includes:
Students will then learn about what small-scale laboratory research has told us about when and why conflict versus cooperation might result from group interactions. In this course, students will spend a considerable time examining how this research has been applied to understanding a range of international security issues, including war and peace, ethnic conflict, terrorism, genocide, international trade, foreign aid, immigration, and refugees.
This course provides an introduction to the politics of cybersecurity in the U.S. as well as the European Union (EU). Starting with a discussion of key concepts of cybersecurity, the class continues to analyze how U.S. and EU cybersecurity policymaking differ.
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the mass media, and the role the mass media plays in American democracy. This course considers several key questions pertaining to the role of the media in democracy, such as: What effects do mass-mediated messages have on voters?
This course addresses the political causes and consequences of the use of terrorist violence as well as the variety of methods employed by the state in response to this violence. Graduate-level requirements include reading three additional documents and critically reviewing them as instructed.
