This course is an introduction to open source analysis used in the context of nonproliferation and terrorism studies. The instructors will give policy lectures as well as hands-on training in the lab. The course is designed as an overview of geospatial and data analysis techniques which are only just recently being applied to the nonproliferation and terrorism research fields. Students will study policy and intelligence analysis using deep web searching, ground and satellite imagery analysis, basic GIS, 3D modeling, crowd-sourcing, text mining, and network analysis.

This practicum is organized within the framework of a partnership between the James Martin Center for Non-proliferation Studies, Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS) and the Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic (CTU).

This course relates directly to issues having to do with nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism. The technology, materials, and know-how involved in running a nuclear reactor are potentially “dual use” and can be diverted to efforts to develop nuclear weapons. For these reasons, international efforts to prevent proliferation and terrorism require putting nuclear reactors under safeguards and providing physical security of the nuclear materials. The course will enable students to observe how safeguards and nuclear security measures are implemented in practice.

Strategic export controls – which include export, brokering, transshipment and transit controls, as well as sanctions and supply chain security mechanisms – are important tools used in international and national security efforts, including countering WMD proliferation and terrorism. Traditionally, they have focused on raising the cost of WMD development programs and reducing access to advanced military capabilities by terrorist organizations or states active in proscribed proliferation activities or regional conflict. Strategic export controls have also become a prominent feature of the international trade landscape, and as such, are calibrated to facilitate legal trade in dual-use goods and technologies while reducing risk of instability and conflict.

This lecture course will explore the role of strategic export controls in balancing security and trade. Course participants will learn how strategic controls are applied at global, multilateral, national and industry levels. Course participants will also acquire an understanding of policies and legal-regulatory frameworks used by governments to shape strategic export controls – as well as strategies used by exporters in industry and the private sector to comply with them. The course will also examine challenges to these controls, in the form of illicit trafficking networks, evolving supply chains and new means of distribution, and emerging dual-use technologies – and implications for the future of balancing security and trade.

The course will also feature a ‘red-teaming’ exercise, simulating the operation of trafficking networks. The exercise will give course participants an opportunity to apply knowledge gained through the lectures and readings to better understand illicit procurement and diversion of dual-use goods and technologies – and consider strategies for addressing this challenge while facilitating legal trade and its advantages for global prosperity and human welfare.

Tabletop Exercise Design and Operation

A tabletop exercise (TTX) is a guided discussion of a scenario—a time-compressed sequence of events—that facilitates group problem solving. TTXs are particularly advantageous to governmental and nongovernmental organizations, as well as private businesses because they permit participants to practice response to high-consequence/low-frequency problems. Based on results from a TTX, organizations can develop new plans, or enhance existing plans, for how they will meet the challenges of catastrophic events such as floods and fires, disease outbreaks, sabotage of facilities, and others. Public agencies and private sector entities alike have to ensure business and service continuity, as well as protecting the safety and security of employees, during times of duress, and thus all can benefit from testing their preparedness and response plans using TTXs. Given their utility in illuminating anticipated performance, expectations, and assumptions, TTXs can be also useful in many other situations that would benefit from enhancing teamwork and multi-agency collaboration while assessing the content of plans and policies. Following successful completion of this workshop, students will be able to plan, execute, and evaluate a TTX, as well as make appropriate decisions regarding when and where it is an applicable tool for planning and response purposes.

Workshop: Writing and Briefing Memos

The goal of this workshop is to hone students’ professionally-relevant, policy-oriented communication abilities, including memo writing and briefing. The course will include a combination of lectures, seminar-style discussion, small working group engagement, and individual student work.

The "crime terror nexus" is a major area of concern for policymakers. In a globalized world, extremist groups use criminal relationships or skills for a range of purposes: from sourcing weapons to smuggling operatives into and out of countries to 'simply' circumventing financial regulations designed to starve such groups of needed monetary support. Thus far, countermeasures have had uneven results in disrupting or deterring transnational criminal activities by violent non-state actors. This course will explore the problems of international crime and terrorism in today's strategic environment, with a particular emphasis on the 'why' and 'how' of the crime-terrorism relationship. Students will gain an understanding of the factors that have contributed to the proliferation of transnational crime and terrorism, the types of crimes that pose the greatest threat to lawful societies, the institutions and tactical responses that have been developed to combat transnational crime, and the extent to which transnational crime and terrorism threaten the national security interests of the United States and the world community. By the end of this course, students should be familiar with the prevailing explanations for why terrorist groups use crime in the modern era, the organizational consequences of such a funding stream, and  how states can and should respond to these challenges.  

This workshop will examine human trafficking as an emerging public issue, while focusing on the real-world challenges to identifying and rescuing victims, prosecuting traffickers, while also addressing the socio-economic and cultural dynamics that are leveraged by traffickers. This course will focus heavily on the multi-disciplinary, victim-centered approach promoted through international and domestic anti-human trafficking protocols and policies, including the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 and the subsequent reauthorizations.

The course will include an examination of relevant existing data, types of trafficking, legal definitions, domestic and international efforts to combat trafficking, challenges faced by law enforcement, the nexus between trafficking and other transnational crime, the role of traditional NGOs and social entrepreneurs, and corporate social responsibility. Finally, we will examine potential career opportunities related to combating human trafficking and the leadership, collaboration and consensus-building skills necessary for success, whether working in the global arena or for a local agency.

This course is a comprehensive introduction to the study of Israel’s nuclear history and policy within the broader context of understanding the nuclear dimension of Middle East politics. The course focuses on the uniqueness and the exceptionality that constitutes Israel’s nuclear history and policy. By that uniqueness we mean the original policy which Israel devised to acquire and possess nuclear weapons that ultimately made Israel an exceptional case both vis-à-vis the United States non-proliferation policies and vis-a-vis the non-proliferation regime. That policy is known as Israel’s policy of “nuclear opacity” or “nuclear ambiguity,” under which Israel has never officially acknowledged to acquire or possess nuclear weapons, even though since 1970s Israel is universally presumed as a nuclear weapons state. The course ends with reflections about challenge that Israel’s nuclear uniqueness poses both to the United States nonproliferation policy and the non-proliferation regime as a whole.

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.

This course is divided into two components. The first is an introduction to ballistic missiles including discussions about why missiles matter and the history of their development, rocket components, propulsion, steering, guidance, structure, launchers, trajectories and cruise missiles. Then we will start to apply what we have learned to understand the current status of ballistic missile defense. How difficult is it to hit a bullet with a bullet? We will discuss defense-in-depth and layered defense, defended footprint and radars, boost-phase, mid-course and terminal-phase intercepts, discrimination of warheads and decoys, missile defense effectiveness modelling and evaluating testing, drone-based and space-based missile defense, and cost and status of programs around the world. It is recommended that students will have taken the Science for Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies course but a handout will be given before the course starts as a refresher of the main concepts. This will be a pass/fail course.