Economic Security: Challenges, Prescriptions, and Opportunities in the Post-9/11 Era

Traditional concepts of security have focused on politico-military strength as a means of power projection in international relations with little emphasis on economics and other variables. Many pundits, however are challenging this traditional notion by highlighting such disparate but inter-related factors as economics, ideology, demography, culture, and geography. Can a superpower remain one in the face of severe structural economic balances? What are the potential symmetrical and asymmetrical threats to national and global economic vitality? This course not only aims to highlight and better explain the economic drivers behind national security but also to examine these drivers and their impact on national security in a more holistic and integrated fashion. In this debate, traditional concepts of national security are being challenged and re-defined. This course weaves economic assumptions and underpinnings into the fabric of national security aiming to provoke analysis, thought, and discourse regarding the impact of the global economy on national security and national security on the geo-economy.