Students will develop and hone digital investigation techniques as they learn a risk-based approach to tracing the source of blockchain funds and de-anonymizing cryptocurrency transactions with cryptocurrency forensic tools. From Cryptocurrency 101 to writing reports to aid law enforcement with writing subpoenas, after the completion of the course students will be able to:

-Trace the source of blockchain funds and de-anonymize cryptocurrency transactions with cryptocurrency (or blockchain) forensic tools

-Quickly risk-rate tokens, transactions, and digital asset businesses

-Use advanced open-source techniques (like darknet research) to help complete enhanced due diligence reports

-Produce reports that can be given to law enforcement for asset recovery

Students will develop and hone digital investigation techniques as they learn a risk-based approach to tracing the source of blockchain funds and de-anonymizing cryptocurrency transactions with cryptocurrency forensic tools. From Cryptocurrency 101 to writing reports to aid law enforcement with writing subpoenas, after the completion of the course students will be able to:

-Trace the source of blockchain funds and de-anonymize cryptocurrency transactions with cryptocurrency (or blockchain) forensic tools

-Quickly risk-rate tokens, transactions, and digital asset businesses

-Use advanced open-source techniques (like darknet research) to help complete enhanced due diligence reports

-Produce reports that can be given to law enforcement for asset recovery

This course will cover the basic concepts involved in the design and operation of nuclear reactors. Students will build an understanding of how nuclear reactors work and how they relate to nuclear weapons. The course will cover how various designs are more or less proliferation resistant and how reactors use and produce nuclear material. This course is strongly recommended for students considering taking the J-Term practicum held at the Czech Technical University’s VR-1 “Sparrow” research reactor.

This course provides students with a solid foundation in scientific and technical fundamentals critical to nonproliferation and terrorism policy analysis. Such policy analyses often require strong foundational knowledge of basic scientific and technical concepts in order to understand, create, and inform policy decisions. The course begins with an introduction to science and the scientific method and then evolves into the three main areas: biological weapons, chemical weapons, nuclear weapons and relevant technologies. Topics covered in the biological component include fundamental concepts related to microorganisms, DNA, RNA, proteins, and processes of infection and disease. Topics covered in the chemistry component include fundamental concepts related to atomic structure and the periodic table, chemical structural representations, functional groups, reactivity, toxicity, as well as modern separation, purification and analytic techniques commonly used for chemical species. Applications of the fundamental concepts in the first two topics are further developed in relation to features of chemical and biological weapons and warfare, including agents, delivery methods and effects. Topics covered in the nuclear component part of the course includes radioactivity, uranium, nuclear weapons, radiation detection instrumentation and applications, environmental plumes, and various instrumentation and analysis techniques. Upon completion of this course students will have a deeper appreciation for the debate on various verification solutions that have been proposed for compliance under the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC), Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and nuclear treaties.

Cybersecurity: An Operational Perspective

This course will provide an overview of enterprise cybersecurity programs, introduce the evolution of cybersecurity threats and associated impacts to the private and public sectors globally over the last decade, and offer an operational, “on the ground” perspective to participating in building programs while responding to threats. The content will be welcoming to non-technical audiences, and will thread how current legal and policy norms are maturing in response to geo-political necessities. The second weekend will include a guided use case in which students will have the opportunity to “war game” a scenario based on real world events.

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the issues surrounding the proliferation of nuclear, biological, chemical, and radiological (NBCR) weapons and their means of delivery, the consequences of proliferation, and means to stem it or ameliorate its dangers, including:

• Nuclear, biological, chemical, and radiological weapons technologies

• Means of delivery, including ballistic and cruise missile technology

• Alternative perspectives on the dangers of proliferation and the utility of the term “weapons of mass destruction” (WMD)

• Factors affecting why states do or don’t pursue and obtain nuclear, biological, chemical, and radiological weapons and their means of delivery

• Potential and actual non-state actor pursuit, acquisition, and use of NBCR weapons

• Profiles of key countries and their NBCR programs and policies

• Deterrence vis-à-vis states and non-state actors

• Counterproliferation, including the possible use of force

• The nuclear nonproliferation regime, including the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards system

• The Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC)

• The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)

• Missile control regimes and other export control arrangements

• Cooperative threat reduction and various post-9/11 initiatives

• Alternative futures, including new nuclear abolition debates

In this course, you will learn the essentials underlying cryptocurrency, Web3, and DeFi; go hands-on with crypto transactions; learn to monitor the blockchain (and understand what you are looking at); and comprehend the various ways the ways crypto and blockchain are used in real life, where the technology is headed, and how it can be abused.

The course is an introduction to the subject of terrorism. The course will focus on a range of fundamental questions, such as: What is Terrorism? What causes Terrorism? Why do terrorist groups emerge and how do they end? What is extremism? Why do individuals join terrorist groups? What are lone wolf terrorists? What is leaderless jihad? These are but a few of the elements that will be explored over the course of the semester. The course also aims to expose students to a wide range of terrorist groups and ideologies.

The counterterrorism seminar is designed to address the challenges of terrorism in the current and future global security environment in a participatory format. Specifically, the seminar briefly reviews the threat terrorism poses to liberal democratic states, citizens and policymakers, then explores how liberal democracies can best predict, prevent, preempt and, if necessary, directly combat terrorism and terrorists. The course will assess the history and future of terrorism; analyze terrorist and state strategies; and then focus on the tools to fight terrorism - military, intelligence, police, diplomatic institutions and approaches; the "targets" of counterterrorism - leaders, finances, safe havens, networks, ideologies; and the technologies used to counter terrorism - drones, social media, and more. Case studies and simulations will be used throughout the course.