2025-2026 Academic Year

Fall 2025

INST 290 Global Security
Cross-listed with POSC 290-05. The course offers an introduction to Security Studies as an academic field and a practical foundation for professional engagement with security affairs. The search for security is basic to all social and political interaction, but security itself is a contested concept that can be applied in different ways to individuals, states, and the global system. Traditionally, the formal study of International Security has focused on the nation-state, including territorial defense, the role of military assets in pursuit of national interests, and the struggle for power. These concerns remain vital, but in the 21st century the security challenge has broadened to include new kinds of issues and approaches. These include the alternative discourse of Human Security as well as transnational challenges such as criminal trafficking, terrorism, environmental disintegration, pandemic disease, etc. Our course will look closely at both traditional and new security challenges. We will confront the problem of global security conceptually, develop a comprehensive portrait of global security challenges, and explore ways and means available to address them.

POSC 290 Global Security
Cross-listed with INST 290-04. The course offers an introduction to Security Studies as an academic field and a practical foundation for professional engagement with security affairs. The search for security is basic to all social and political interaction, but security itself is a contested concept that can be applied in different ways to individuals, states, and the global system. Traditionally, the formal study of International Security has focused on the nation-state, including territorial defense, the role of military assets in pursuit of national interests, and the struggle for power. These concerns remain vital, but in the 21st century the security challenge has broadened to include new kinds of issues and approaches. These include the alternative discourse of Human Security as well as transnational challenges such as criminal trafficking, terrorism, environmental disintegration, pandemic disease, etc. Our course will look closely at both traditional and new security challenges. We will confront the problem of global security conceptually, develop a comprehensive portrait of global security challenges, and explore ways and means available to address them.

Spring 2026

RUSS 260 The Geopolitics of Eurasia
Cross-listed with INST 290-05 and POSC 290-02. Eurasian is undergoing a process of dramatic change. Our course examines the region’s evolution, with focus on emerging geopolitical competition. The Eurasian plate, covering about forty percent of Earth’s land mass and containing more than seventy percent of the world’s population, has become a platform for intense geopolitical rivalry. We will attempt to identify the factors driving interstate competition in the area, analyze what is at stake, evaluate the consequences of unhinged strategic rivalry, and investigate prospects for the future. Is a “battle for Eurasia” underway? How might inevitable interstate differences in this vast region be channeled in more positive directions? Course taught in English.

INST 290 The Geopolitics of Eurasia
Cross-listed with POSC 290-02 and RUSS 260-02. Eurasian is undergoing a process of dramatic change. Our course examines the region’s evolution, with focus on emerging geopolitical competition. The Eurasian plate, covering about forty percent of Earth’s land mass and containing more than seventy percent of the world’s population, has become a platform for intense geopolitical rivalry. We will attempt to identify the factors driving interstate competition in the area, analyze what is at stake, evaluate the consequences of unhinged strategic rivalry, and investigate prospects for the future. Is a “battle for Eurasia” underway? How might inevitable interstate differences in this vast region be channeled in more positive directions? Course taught in English,

POSC 290 The Geopolitics of Eurasia
Cross-listed with INST 290-05 and RUSS 260-02. Eurasian is undergoing a process of dramatic change. Our course examines the region’s evolution, with focus on emerging geopolitical competition. The Eurasian plate, covering about forty percent of Earth’s land mass and containing more than seventy percent of the world’s population, has become a platform for intense geopolitical rivalry. We will attempt to identify the factors driving interstate competition in the area, analyze what is at stake, evaluate the consequences of unhinged strategic rivalry, and investigate prospects for the future. Is a “battle for Eurasia” underway? How might inevitable interstate differences in this vast region be channeled in more positive directions? Course taught in English.