Pakistan’s National Security Doctrine. This course analyzes the evolution of Pakistan’s national security doctrine from the founding of the state in 1947 until the present day.  Students will examine how several generations of Pakistani national security planners grappled with the overwhelming threat from India by participating in Cold War alliances with the West, developing unconventional warfare strategies, selective conventional force modernization and, finally, nuclear weapons. The course ends on a cautionary note: although Pakistan believes it has ‘purchased’ security via a nuclear deterrent, the reality is that the modern Pakistani state faces a formidable array of threats from within, including separatist groups, transnational terrorist organizations, and homegrown militants with a very different vision of what Pakistan should be.

Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Many experts now feel that the next global flashpoint will be in northwestern Pakistan. In order to give our students a better understanding of the situation, this course examines the crisis in Pakistan's FATA from the perspectives of (1) geopolitics; (2) tribal society and culture; (3) tribal leadership structures; (4) history; (5) economic and political development challenges; (6) the evolving insurgency; and (7) the domestic and regional implications of that insurgency.