Fall 2016 - 60730 - PA388K - Advanced Topics in Public Policy

Strategy & Military Operations

This course seeks to give students an insight into the elements of strategy and military operations that will provide a baseline of knowledge for their work toward their Masters in Security Studies and beyond in their professional careers. We will explore the following issues in detail:

The development of national decisions to use military force, the derivation of strategy and strategic aims that follow, and the operational plans and execution of campaigns to achieve those aims.
Civil-military relationships in the development of strategy and the execution of campaigns.
The evolution of operational capability and the relative roles of air, land, and sea power as they change over time.
The impact of technology upon operations.
The differing demands of conventional and unconventional warfare on the conduct of operations.

Students' course grade will be based on a research proposal and a sixteen page paper drawn from it as well as on class participation.