Teaching/Courses

Teaching Interests

  • International Relations
  • American Foreign Policy
  • Intelligence Studies
  • Cyber Warfare
  • Covert Action
  • Weapons of Mass Destruction

East Carolina University

At ECU I teach mostly at the graduate level but one or two courses per year are at the undergraduate level.

Undergraduate Lecture Courses

  • POLS 2020: Introduction to International Relations

This is an introductory course into the academic discipline of International Relations. The course focuses on four major aspects that define the discipline, namely IR theory, the study of international organizations, the political instruments of global governance, and finally major debates about international development, human rights and intervention, and globalization.

  • POLS 3144: American Foreign Policy

This course will introduce students to the institutions, interest groups, and political processes involved in the making of U.S. foreign policy in a historical and contemporary context. Students will learn specifically about the roles of the President, the State Department, Congress, the government bureaucracy, lobbying groups, and the American people in shaping, formulating, and implementing foreign policy. The course will cover basic IR theory and other relevant theories, approaches, and concepts for explaining U.S. foreign policy. It will also outline some of the most important instruments for the practical implementation of foreign policy, namely diplomacy, economic measures, and military measures. Finally, the course will discuss the most important future challenges and possible directions for American Foreign Policy. Of particular importance here is the relative decline of American power in the international system due to the rise of emerging and resurging powers (BRICS).

  • POLS 3180: The U.S. Intelligence Community

The course presents a historical survey of the development of the US Intelligence Community (IC) from the War of Independence to the War on Terror. The approach chosen is to divide the history of the IC into the distinct historical development of the main intelligence functions and disciplines. Each of the lessons will trace the organizational and operational history of the respective functional component of the US IC. The first part of the course will be focused on the history of American espionage, counterintelligence, covert action, and counterterrorism. The second part of the course will be focused on technical and defense intelligence. The concluding part of the course will deal with IC management, oversight, and reform issues.

Postgraduate Lecture Courses

These are asynchronously taught online courses that I have developed at ECU since 2013.

  • POLS 6080: American Foreign Relations

This course focuses on the past, present, and future of US foreign policy. There are three parts. The first deals with the process, factors, and institutions involved in the making of US foreign policy. The second part covers the history of US foreign policy from the beginning of the 20th century to the end of the Cold War. The third part explores current issues and challenges in US foreign policy and future perspectives.

  • SECS 6260: Intelligence and National Security

This elective course introduces students to the theory, practice and history of intelligence. The general approach taken is to examine the role of intelligence and security services in both democratic and one-party states through historical case studies and through the focus on specific intelligence functions and disciplines. This seminar covers the practice of intelligence and clandestine activity in the 20th and early 21st century with particular reference to US, British and Soviet/Russian intelligence services. The course broadly aims to introduce students to intelligence studies as a relatively new field of serious academic intellectual inquiry, including its varied historiography, its strengths and weaknesses as an academic subject, and its broad multi-disciplinary foundation. The students will have the opportunity to study and discuss the fundamental issues and challenges facing intelligence services and democracies around the world as concerns the use and abuse of intelligence.

  • SECS 6270: Intelligence Analysis

Intelligence analysis is the process by which information relevant for national security is converted into a ‘product’ that is meant to inform U.S. policymaking. This course will explain the various steps in the intelligence cycle, including the collection, processing and dissemination of intelligence, the role of the analyst vs. the policymaker, and some commonly used methodologies for making sense of data, for dealing with denial and deception, and for avoiding bias. A particular emphasis is given to the use of exercises that are meant to develop the critical thinking abilities of students and their ability to express their rationales and results of their analyses clearly in writing. The concluding part of the course will be devoted to the discussion of several case studies to investigate and highlight causes and origins of major intelligence failures.

  • SECS: 6320: Cyber Warfare and Security

This elective course will discuss cyber warfare as a new vulnerability to national security, a new domain of warfare, and as a new tool of statecraft. The course will explain some of the technology and principles of operating in cyberspace as it related to offensive and defense cyber operations. Attention will be given to differences in approaches by major state actors such as the U.S., Russia, and China, as well as the dangers that relate to nonstate actors. The course will also outline the technical and practical limitations of cyber warfare and discuss the possibilities internationally governing its use and for making cyberspace safer.

  • SECS 6350: Weapons of Mass Destruction

This course will discuss so-called weapons of mass destruction in terms of their specific characteristics, their historical uses, attempts to limit their use, proliferation, terrorist uses, and their future. The course will cover issues related to WMD and state actors, as well as WMD and non-state actors (WMD terrorism). In addition to discussing the characteristics of certain WMD and technologies related to them there will be a focus on their military uses and on potential terrorism uses.

  • SECS 6380: The Art of Statecraft and International Security

This is an introductory level strategic studies course that discusses various instruments of power (diplomacy, information, military, and economic) available to the Great Powers in pursuit of their foreign policy objectives. The course will focus mostly on economic and military measures, ranging from foreign aid to major war and deterrence. In addition, students will learn about important concepts such as soft power (diplomacy and strategic communication), as well as about the legal framework that regulates international security, for example arms control/ disarmament and the international governance of force.

University of Texas at El Paso

I taught at UTEP for four years from 2009 to 2013 in the Intelligence and National Security Studies Program.

Postgraduate/Undergraduate Lecture Courses 

  • INSS 3302/5302: Seminar in Intelligence and National Security

This core seminar introduces students to the theory, practice and history of intelligence.  The general approach taken is to examine the role of intelligence and security services in both democratic and one-party states through historical case studies and through the focus on specific intelligence functions and disciplines.  This seminar covers the practice of intelligence and clandestine activity in the 20th and early 21st century with particular reference to US, British and Soviet/Russian intelligence services.  The seminar broadly aims to introduce students to intelligence studies as a relatively new field of serious academic intellectual inquiry, including its varied historiography, its strengths and weaknesses as an academic subject, and its broad multi-disciplinary foundation. The students will have the opportunity to study and discuss the fundamental issues and challenges facing intelligence services and democracies around the world.

Lecture Topics/Course Structure: 1. What Is Intelligence?, 2. Researching in Intelligence Studies, 3. HUMINT, 4. TECHINT, 5. Intelligence Analysis, 6. Intelligence and Policy, 7. Intelligence Failure, 8. Counterintelligence, 9. Covert Action, 10. Intelligence Liaison, 11. Intelligence Services in Authoritarian States, 12. Intelligence and Democracy, 13. Intelligence in the Information Age, 14. Intelligence Ethics.

  • INSS 5306: Contemporary Security Studies

This core seminar introduces students to the broad academic field of security studies, covering both traditional and critical approaches to security. The seminar is divided into four main blocs: the first three weeks deal with the continuing problem of interstate conflict, as well as the mechanism for managing and resolving these conflicts; the second bloc shifts the focus to the growing problems of intrastate conflict, failed and failing states, and international responses to them such as humanitarian intervention and the privatization of security; the third bloc concentrates on threats posed by nonstate actors such as transnational criminal organizations and terrorist groups/ terrorism, including new forms of terrorism such as WMD terrorism; the final bloc discusses non-traditional security threats that have come to prominence in the post-Cold War world, namely energy, the environment and health, and migration and poverty. In the course of the seminar students will gain knowledge of the key political and academic debates in the area of international security and to apply many key concepts in security studies such as the ‘security dilemma’, ‘securitization’, and ‘human security’.

Lecture Topics/Course Structure: 1. Introduction to Security Studies, 2. National Security, Technology, and the Security Dilemma, 3. Regional and Collective Security, 4. Aggressive States and WMD, 5. New Wars: Causes and Characteristics, 6. Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Intervention, 7. Privatization of Security, 8. Transnational Criminal Organizations, 9. International/Global Terrorism, 10. WMD-, Economic-, and Cyberterrorism, 11. Energy Security, 12. Environmental and Health Security, 13. Migration and Poverty, 14. From National to Human Security.

  • INSS 5306: Contemporary Security Studies Online Course

See above.

  • INSS 5335: Transnational Criminal Organizations

This elective course introduces students to the threat of Transnational Criminal Organizations to national and international security. The seminar will discuss the history of organized crime, its main characteristics, main business areas, and in particular its transnational dimensions with references to the Sicilian and American Mafia, the Russian Mafia, the Japanese Yakuza, and the Chinese Triads. There will be a focus on the particular challenges posed by TCOs to the political integrity, the economy, and the overall security of nations and what can be done to address these challenges in terms of law enforcement and legal measures, national intelligence activities, and international cooperation in fighting TCOs.

Lecture Topics/Course Structure: 1. The History and Characteristics of Organized Crime, 2. The Globalization of Crime, 3. Racketeering and Extortion, 4. Drug Trafficking, 5. Arms Trafficking, Piracy, and Environmental Crime, 6. Human Trafficking and Trade in Human Organs, 7. Counterfeiting, Fraud, and Cybercrime, 8. Money Laundering, 9. Political Corruption and Terrorism, 10. The Legal and the Shadow Economy, 11. The Rise of the Criminal State, 12. Legislation, Law Enforcement, and Border Control, 13. International Cooperation on Fighting TCOs, 14. The Future of Organized Crime.

  • INSS 3301/5301: Historical Development of the US Intelligence Community

The course presents a historical survey of the development of the US Intelligence Community (IC) from the War of Independence to the War on Terror. The approach chosen is to divide the history of the IC into the distinct historical development of the main intelligence functions and disciplines. Each of the lessons will trace the organisational and operational history of the respective functional component of the US IC. The first part of the course will be focused on the history of American espionage, counterintelligence, covert action, and counterterrorism. The second part of the course will be focused on technical and defense intelligence. The concluding part of the course will deal with IC management, oversight, and reform issues.

Lecture Topics/Course Structure: 1. The Origins of the US IC, 2. US HUMINT, 3. US Counterintelligence (1908-1972), 4. US Counterintelligence (1973-present), 5. US Covert Action (1942-1972), 6. US Covert Action (1973-present),7.  US Counterterrorism (1960-present), 8. US US SIGINT (1914-1952), 9. US SIGINT (1953-present), 10. US IMINT (1940s-1972), 11. US IMINT (1973-present), 12. US Defense Intelligence, 13. US IC Management, 14. US Intelligence Oversight and Reform.

  • INSS 4309/5309: Technical Intelligence – History and Transformation

More than 80 percent of the IC’s resources are allocated to technical intelligence collection. The course gives a general introduction into the capabilities, methods, uses, history, and future of technical intelligence collection and analysis. There will be a particular focus on the uses and history of signals intelligence and imagery intelligence and its main applications with respect to strategic intelligence, tactical intelligence, and arms control. The Second part of the course deals with the increasing transformation of technical intelligence through the development of new and revolutionary technical collection and analysis capabilities as a result of the growth of information technology and other emerging technologies, such as the Internet, artificial intelligence, robotics, and nanotechnology. The uses, the opportunities, and the dangers resulting from these new technologies for intelligence collection and analysis will be discussed, in particular in view of their impact on warfare and society.

Lecture Topics/ Course Structure: 1. The Origins of Technical Intelligence, 2. SIGINT: Listening Stations and Collection Platforms, 3. SIGINT: Geolocation and Traffic Analysis, 4. SIGINT: Processing/Cryptanalysis, 5. IMINT: Platforms and Missions, 6. IMINT: Analysis and GIS, 7. IMINT: Arms Control and Counterproliferation, 8. OSINT: Commercial Imagery, 9. MASINT: Indications and Warnings, 10. Technical Support and Program Management, 11. Defense Transformation: The RMA, 12. HACKINT: Cyber Espionage, 13. Robotics and Nanotechnology, 14. Automated Intelligence Processing, 15. The Uberveillance Society.

University of Salford

Postgraduate Lecture Course (module)

  • Contemporary Intelligence Studies

This was a postgraduate course I taught in Winter Term 2005. It was an introductory course into intelligence studies that tried to explore the history, theory, and practice of intelligence work from an international perspective, covering US, British, Soviet/Russian, and French intelligence services. The course later became the Seminar in Intelligence and National Security (see above), which has a very strong US focus.

Undergraduate Seminars

  • Intelligence and International Relations (Level 2)

This was an introductory seminar to intelligence studies on an introductory level. The seminar focused on Cold War history from an intelligence perspective. About half of the seminar related to Western intelligence and the remaining half to Soviet intelligence (the KGB).

  • Introduction to Contemporary Military History I (Level 1)

The seminar covered the history of warfare from the Napoleonic Wars to the end of the First World War with particular focus on tactical and technological innovations, as well as major societal developments that influenced warfare.

Topics covered: French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War, the American Civil War, the Wars of German Unification, Developments in Naval Warfare, the Revolution in Armaments, the Boer War, WW I: the Western Front, WW I: Eastern Front, WW I: the Southeastern Front, WW I in the Colonies and the High Seas.

  • Introduction to Contemporary Military History II (Level 1)

This is a follow-on seminar to above seminar. It covers the history of warfare from 1918 to the 1990s. Its focus is the Second World War and the Cold War period.

Topics covered: WW II: Blitzkrieg, WW II: War of Extermination in the East, WW II: the Pacific Theater, WW II: the Defeat of the Axis, the Nuclear Revolution, the Korean War, the Indochina War, the Algerian War, the Vietnam War, the Falklands War, Peacekeeping.

  • Vietnam Wars (Level 2)

This seminar discussed the military and political history of the Vietnam Wars. The main learning objective of the seminar was to explore the reasons why a superpower lost the war against a weak Third World country.

Topics covered: the Indochina War, American Support to South Vietnam, the Strategic Bombing (Operation Rolling Thunder), the Counter-insurgency, Expansion of the War into Laos and Cambodia, Vietnamization of the War and Making Peace.

  • Democracy and Communism I (Level 1)

The seminar covered the diplomatic and political history of the West during the Cold War period. Half of the seminar focused on US foreign policy and the second half provided snapshots of the politics and diplomacy of major Western countries from the Second Word War until the early 1990s.

Topics covered: US foreign policy and strategy during WW II, the beginning of the Cold War and the strategy of containment, NSC-68 and the Korean War, Eisenhower’s New Look, Detente, the Second Cold War and the Collapse of the Soviet Union, France from the Fourth Republic to the Fifth, Germany’s ‘Ostpolitik’, Spain After Franco, Italy and the Rule of the Christian Democrats.

  • Democracy and Communism II (Level 1)

The seminar covered the diplomatic and political history of the Soviet Union and Communist China. Half of the seminar was devoted to Soviet political history and diplomacy and the second half dealt with the Chinese Revolution and China’s history from Mao to Deng Xiaoping.

Topics covered: the Russian Revolutions (February and October Revolutions), Lenin and the New Economic Policy, the Revolution from Above, the Great Terror, the Expansion of the Soviet Empire, from Stalin to Khruschev, the Brezhnev Era, Gorbachev and the End of the Soviet Union, the Chinese Civil War, Maoism, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, the Sino-Soviet-Split, the Death of Mao and the Period of Reform, Deng Xiaping and the Opening Up of China, the Tiananmen Massacre.

  • International History I (Level 1)

The International History I and II modules replaced the Democracy and Communism modules. The International History I seminar covered the diplomatic history from the end of Bismarck’s alliance system to the end of the Second World War. Most of it related to US foreign policy.

Topics covered: Bismarck’s Alliance System and How It’s Dismantlement Led to WW I, Grand Strategy of WW I, Wilson’s 14 Points and the Versailles Treaty, the Washington Naval Conference, the Rise of Fascism in Italy, the Kellogg-Briand Pact, Japanese Expansion in China, Italy’s Abyssinia War, German Revisionism, the Causes of WW II.

Other Teaching

  • Psychological Operations (single lecture)
  • US Special Operations in Small Wars (single lecture)
  • Nigeria Crisis Simulation Game

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