The 9-11 attacks ushered in a new era of international terrorism. Over the course of the Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations, experts have grappled to employ an effective strategy for countering Al Qaeda, ISIS, and their affiliates. This course explores the lessons of this long, troubled chapter, especially through our engagement in Afghanistan, and seeks to apply those lessons to countering future terrorist threats at home and abroad.

This survey course that introduces students to the history, politics, and economic and social significance of the major challenges facing 21st century U.S. policymakers. Examples of topics that may be explored include: the federal deficit and debt, the rise of China and India, health care costs, climate policy, energy security, economic opportunity in an era of globalization, the future of public higher education, and U.S. foreign policy.

This course explores key challenges in global development policy & our complicated roles as global citizens in the twenty-first century. We'll grapple w/key questions: Why some countries escape poverty, while others fail or see poverty worsen? How development economists & policy experts approached global development in the past? What roles do governments, aid agencies & stakeholders play in alleviating poverty? What's worked, what hasn't, & why?

Through global case studies in regions including Africa, the Middle East, the US, & Australia, course explores relationship betwn education & conflict: how education systems exacerbate conflict through curricula, inequalities such as access & knowledge gaps; how educ systems can alleviate poverty & other factors leading to armed conflict; how external factors (resource scarcity, global climate change,political instability) impact educ & conflict.

Investigates a selected issue in public policy or leadership.

The first part of a two-semester sequence in research methods and tools used to evaluate public policies. This course reviews basic mathematics and statistics used by policy analysts, and introduces regression methods for empirical implementation and testing of relations among variables. The purpose of this course is to develop skills that can be used throughout your profession and civic life.

"This course offers an exploration into the evolution of constitutional rights, liberties, and justice from 1953 to the present day, focusing on the tenures of Chief Justices Warren, Burger, Rehnquist, and Roberts. Emphasis is placed on landmark Supreme Court cases and the distinct personalities and leadership styles of the aforementioned Chief Justices. Students will examine the means by which the Constitution can be ""changed,"" such as through interpretation, convention, or societal shifts. By the end of the course, students should be able to critically engage with constitutional debates, understand the evolving nature of rights and liberties in the U.S., and appreciate the significance and power of the Supreme Court in shaping American society."

This class examines how citizens, leaders, interest groups and activists work to reshape our understanding of problems over time and investigates why some problems gain policy attention while others languish. The class emphasizes the complexity of understanding, designing, and implementing large scale policies that attempt to address problems that are ultimately experienced by people in specific contexts and communities.

This course will provide an overview of research methods and data analysis in public policy, integrating basic statistical modeling. The class will promote a critical understanding of what good research is, how people sometimes lie with statistics, and how flawed research can be identified, and an appreciation of the relationship between researchers and the rest of society, and how researchers can most suitably deal with the existence of skeptics

An overview of the fields of social psychology and behavioral science. We will explore behavioral research in basic social psychology, leadership and organizational behavior, and the ways in which social science methods and research are currently being used in public policy and to solve major societal problems. The ultimate goal is to teach students how to think like behavioral scientists.