LEAD 364
Domestic Politics of National Security Spring 2016
Division II
Cross-listed PSCI 364
This is not the current course catalog

This course examines the management of one of the largest, most complex organizations in the world: the US military. We will consider the relationships among civilian and military leaders and the citizens of the US, and the roles of the president, Congress, political partisans, interest groups, media, experts, and bureaucrats in shaping defense policy in the US. At the end of the course students should understand the range of domestic pressures that constrain and inform US strategic choices. The US is the most powerful country in the world, thinks of itself as a global power, and all-too-frequently uses military force to influence world events. Experts and informed citizens all over the world have a great interest in understanding the politics and processes affecting US defense policies. Because no other military can directly challenge the American military, much of the politics that drives its use, size, and composition is domestic: the particular characteristics of American military organizations, institutions, and strategic goals and the underlying political and bureaucratic choices that influence them.