Fall 2014 - 62524 - PA388K - Advanced Topics in Public Policy

This course covers the political and military history of South Asia, with a focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan, since 1979.  Students will identify and understand the recent security challenges facing those two countries—insurgency and counterinsurgency, terrorism, political Islamism, militarized international peacebuilding and reconstruction, and externally-supported democratization.  Students will evaluate each country’s success or failure in meeting these challenges.  Students will also be asked to understand and use basic concepts of comparative political science:  they will identify, understand, and apply, as appropriate, lessons that can be learned from other states that have confronted similar challenges elsewhere in the world.  Finally, students will evaluate the prospects not only for the international stabilization and counterterrorism missions in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but for long-term democracy and development in the region.  The goal of this course is to prepare students to be long-term South Asia area experts who can critically examine the security challenges of the region and are able to evaluate and apply the concepts of this course in an academic, policy, intelligence, or military setting