American Politics Electives

Decision-making structures, processes, and outcomes relevant to American security policy; comparison with major foreign powers.

Analysis and discussion of social, economic, and political problems and proposed solutions in changing urban environments.

Overview of the role of intelligence in the formulation and execution of US national security policy. Will include a detailed look at challenges facing both the analysis of intelligence information and the introduction of that analysis into the national security policy process. Will also entail close reading and discussion of selected declassified intelligence documents.

This course will focus on strategic intelligence analysis in the US context: the analysis of major foreign trends and situations prepared for the President and other top national security officials.  It will examine the role of analysis in the overall intelligence process, the basic components of analysis, and several of the crucial challenges that analysis faces in helping policymakers understand the current global environment.

The evolving relationship between law and religion has had a profound influence on American political life and discourse since the country's founding. This course is designed to develop familiarity with that history and the resulting major tenets of the First Amendment's religion clauses. Taking as our starting point the concept of the separation of church and state, we examine what this idea has meant in U.S. Constitutional law. Class time will be structured around in-depth study of the Constitution and of Supreme Court precedents, and will integrate these formative Supreme Court decisions and decisions from state and lower federal courts into the social and historical contexts from which they derive meaning. In addition, the course will survey the scholarly treatment of such threshold questions as the meaning of "religion" in society, and will evaluate the evolving notion of religious liberty in a pluralistic society. We conclude with an examination of current legal debates and cases and of the prominent role of religious discourse about law, social change, politics and culture in today's society.

Analysis of the constitutional guarantees of civil liberties in the U.S.

Examination of the manner in which attitudes about politics and political problems are acquired from exposure to music and television, and the manner in which such attitudes lead to political action.

Students will learn about public opinion, including how it is measured and what is its role in a democratic country.   In addition, students will learn what leads people to hold specific opinions.

Human security is an emerging paradigm that places individuals, rather than states, at the center of security considerations. This course is designed to provide a foundational understanding of the concept of human security, and the ways in which human security challenges have been addressed by the international community.

Legal status of women in America, including constitutional protections, marriage and family relationships, educational and vocational opportunities, political rights, criminal law.