Civil-Military Relations - Curriculum 685

Program Officer

Adam Arndt, CDR, USN

Code 38, Glasgow Hall, Room 336

[phone], DSN 756-3781

[e-mail]

Academic Associate

Carolyn C. Halladay, Ph.D.

Code 38, Glasgow Hall, Room 317

[phone], DSN 756-6256

[e-mail]

Brief Overview

The Civil-Military Relations curriculum is an interdisciplinary program tailored to the needs of international officers and civilians. It is open to members of the U.S. armed services and eligible U.S. Federal Government Civilians. The program is designed to meet three related requirements. First, it offers an in-depth understanding of civil-military relations. Second, it prepares students to address the civil-military issues raised by participation in U.N. peacekeeping operations, membership in the Partnership for Peace and other alliances, and security cooperation between other nations and the United States. Finally, it gives international students the skills needed to address the security problems confronting new and emerging democracies.

Courses conveying Phase I JPME certification, as well as selected U.S. Marine Corps PME courses, are available to NSA students while in residence. JPME courses are taught by the Naval War College satellite program, which is described elsewhere in this Catalogue.

APC

The minimum APC requirement for entry to this program is 265.

Convenes

Students may enter in any quarter. Please refer to the Academic Calendar for quarterly start dates.

Program Length

• For students who wish to complete JPME Phase I while in residence, curriculum 685 is a six quarter (18 month) program.
• For all other students, curriculum 685 is a five quarter (15 month) program.

Degree

Master of Arts in Security Studies (Civil-Military Relations)

Subspecialty

Navy P-Codes: None

Curriculum Requirements

Curriculum 685 is comprised of required core courses and curricular electives. Core requirements are spelled out below. Curricular electives are identified in NSA’s annual Teaching Plan, which is available at https://nps.edu/web/nsa/courses. Core courses and curricular electives combined must total at least thirteen, of which at least three must be taught at the 4000 level.

In addition, students are expected to take sufficient general electives to maintain a full-time course load (16 hours per quarter). General electives may be freely chosen from all courses offered at NPS. Some students may not have space for general electives in their plan of study. For those that do, the number of slots may vary depending on service affiliation and sponsor requirements.

All students must write a Master’s thesis. The first step is completion of NS4080, Thesis Proposal, no later than six months prior to intended graduation. NS4080 does not count as one of the 4000-level courses required above. Thereafter students may enroll in NS0810, Thesis Research, up to three times; or, with the permission of the Academic Associate, they may take additional curricular electives.

Students in curriculum 685 must complete seven core courses, as follows:

Course Number	Title	Credits	Lecture Hours	Lab Hours
NS3005	Great Power Conflict in Modern History		4	0
NS3011	Research and Writing for National Security Affairs		4	0
NS3023	Introduction to Comparative Politics		4	0
NS3024	Introduction to International Relations		4	0
NS3021	Defense Capability Development		4	0
NS3025	Introduction to Civil-Military Relations		4	0
NS4225	Civil-Military Relations and Transitions to Democracy		4	0

Educational Skill Requirements (ESR)

1. Basic Graduate Level Skills
   1. Conduct Research: Assemble information from the full range of data sources to understand international political, economic, and military issues.
   2. Analyze Problems and Demonstrate Critical Thinking: Frame issues as research questions; logically combine evidence and theory to analyze and explain international political, economic, and military developments; and formulate innovative solutions to strategic problems.
   3. Communicate Information: Clearly summarize large quantities of information and persuasively present positions and courses of action using a broad range of verbal and written communications formats, including short oral arguments, visual briefs, policy memos, position papers, and comprehensive student theses.
2. General Political Science, International Relations, and Security Studies
   1. Great Power Competition:  Analyze the factors shaping the new era of increasing geopolitical competition among the major powers.  Understand Chinese and Russian activities and potential U.S. responses across all dimensions of power, including diplomacy, economic competition, influence campaigns, and traditional military force. 
   2. International and Comparative Politics: Understand international relations theories, including realist, liberal, and cultural paradigms; the conditions and world views that shape state interactions in the international system; the history of modern nationalism and the state system; and the roles of domestic politics, non-state actors, and transnational social movements in shaping international politics.
   3. International Economy: Understand the economic factors that shape the international security environment, including the economic dimensions of national security policy and the ways in which economic policies and interests affect military strategy and force structure.
   4. International and Military History: Grasp the principal causes of war in the modern era, and understand the political, technological, economic, and other influences that have governed its conduct; understand the social, political, economic, and cultural forces that have contributed to periods of stable peace; and analyze relations between states, including negotiations of peace settlements, military alliances, arms limitation agreements, economic arrangements, and human rights accords.
   5. International Organizations: Understand the history of international organizations and their role in world politics, including international mediation and negotiations, formal and informal security arrangements, treaty regimes, and the role of international institutions and non-governmental organizations in peacekeeping and humanitarian operations.
   6. U.S. Security Policy and Strategy: Understand how U.S. national security policy and strategy are formulated. Understand the roles of nuclear forces in the security policies of the United States and other nuclear powers; U.S. nuclear force acquisition, planning, deterrence policy, and employment concepts from the Second World War to the present; and the role of nuclear weapons in alliance politics and international relations.