International Security

Security used to mean states protecting themselves from other states with armies; this course pushes you past that narrow frame to ask what counts as a threat once you take cyber, climate, migration, energy, and identity seriously, while also taking seriously why great-power rivalry is back on the table. You'll work through the dominant IR theories of conflict and deterrence alongside a crisis simulation, a case study, and the usual midterm/final, using Williams and Betts as your anchor texts. It's a junior-year required course that turns the abstract IR theory from your earlier semesters into something you can actually apply to current events, and it's the natural launching pad if you're thinking about a security-focused thesis or grad school.