Instructor: Phil Kaplan

This year-long joint Yale Law School/Yale Jackson School course is designed to facilitate student exposure to high-level national security policymakers and will address the question: “How does the national security policy process work?” Embedded in this question are subordinate questions about how that process works at different relevant departments and agencies, the answers to which look strikingly different from one to the next. The study of national security policy process touches the very structure and functions of the federal government of the United States, the national security tools at its disposal, the nature of policymaking, and its relation to law. Since its creation by statute in 1947, the National Security Council (NSC) has served as the primary forum in which the United States has engaged in national-security policymaking. The processes employed have varied across presidential administrations and different agencies. While they have been the subject of some historical inquiry, they remain in flux, and are largely opaque to the general public, even while they form an essential element for understanding some of the government’s most consequential decisions and actions.

Instructor: Casey King

This seminar is taught in collaboration with the United States Department of State’s Diplomacy Lab and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. By January 2023, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine caused eight million people to flee the country and nearly 5.4 million more to be displaced within its borders, affecting almost one-third of Ukraine’s population. It is estimated that around 90 percent of those who fled are women and children, with more than half of Ukraine’s children being displaced. These groups are particularly susceptible to human trafficking, both within Ukraine and abroad. Ukrainian victims are exploited in sex trafficking and forced labor not only in Ukraine but also in Russia, Poland, Germany, other parts of Europe, China, Kazakhstan, and the Middle East, with an increasing number being exploited in EU member states. Data suggests that most victims are trafficked for forced labor, but the evidence of sex trafficking and of criminal networks that exploit women and children suggest that it sex trafficking has been significantly underreported. This seminar is a consulting-style class working with the United States Department of State, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (J/TIP), and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to develop practical solutions and strategies to assist TIP and OSCE in their current efforts against human trafficking of Ukrainian refugees. After first gaining a better understanding of human trafficking including legal frameworks, vulnerability factors, prevention and intervention strategies, students are instructed in methods to use AI and generative AI tools to detect actual signals in employment advertisements potentially intending to traffic Ukrainian refugees in Europe.

Instructors: Ted Wittenstein and Les Oberg

The outer space domain is increasingly important to global security and prosperity. Space capabilities enable unprecedented economic opportunities across multiple fields of endeavor, ranging from environment and agriculture to transportation, science, and banking.  At the same time, space has become essential to national defense: it underpins the ability of advanced militaries to navigate and track forces, to maintain robust communications, to detect missile launches, and to ensure effective command and control.  Yet the evolution in uses of space, and advances in space technology, create novel risks, vulnerabilities, and threats. This course aims to equip students with an understanding of the dynamic, rapidly evolving domain of outer space.  After analyzing some of the unique technical and legal features of the space domain, the class explores the strategic significance of space to American national security interests, particularly as space becomes more competitive among nations. The course also focuses on the rise of the commercial space industry, the growing number of space activities undertaken by corporations, and the role of public-private partnerships in ensuring the resilience of national space assets and the global space economy. In collaboration with the U.S. Air Force Academy, students also participate in an intensive space conflict tabletop exercise, assuming the roles of key stakeholders in an engaging simulation.

Instructors: Maria J. Hierro and Deepika Padmanabhan

There are over 130 active separatist movements in the world today. In the last decade, seventeen referendums were organized in fourteen different territories. Referenda are not the only response states use to address secession challenges within their territory. The repertoire of counter-secession strategies is wide, ranging from some form of recognition to assimilation, displacement, and repression. Improving our understanding of the causes of these conflicts and the political economy of these conflicts, as well as learning about states’ choice for one or another response, is not only academically relevant but important for domestic and international realpolitik. This seminar provides specialized instruction, combining a theoretical and an applied approach to the topic of self-determination and secession. Crucially, the class employs case studies as a pedagogical tool to inspect the complexities of secession conflicts in multinational countries with different geographical locations, security considerations, size, and other factors that make the comparison more enriching. The cases center on an advanced Western democracy (Spain – Catalonia) and a leading country in the Global South (India –Tamil Nadu). Exploring the nuances of the cases provides students with a more comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted nature of these conflicts.

Instructor: Daniel Mattingly

How has China’s return to great power status changed the global political and economic order? What can Chinese history and broader theories of international relations teach us about China’s role in the contemporary global order? This course is an advanced seminar on Chinese foreign policy. Topics include war, diplomacy, trade, technology, AI, cybersecurity, territorial disputes, and international organizations. In addition to the typical elements of a seminar, such as readings and discussion, the course may lead up to a dialogue between Chinese and American academic, government, and military officials. Students would staff this dialogue by briefing participants and, if appropriate, participating and observing. Less likely but still possible, the course could also involve travel to the Yale Center Beijing for a small number of participants in May. However, both of these elements will depend on feasibility, both are being planned but are not yet certain.