Academic Courses

This course focuses on the international aspects of security challenges, blending a look at relevant international law precepts with a practical understanding of the international context in which certain challenges arise.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to discuss and evaluate theories of international relations; analyze destabilizing factors in the region and their implications on GCC countries; evaluate the approaches and methods used to face these challenges, particularly the social and economic dimensions; and assess the significance and nature of international law and governing theories.

The United Arab Emirates, like all nations, faces challenges in providing the best opportunities for its people to reach their potentials. This course is designed to examine public and private efforts to create and enhance competitive social and economic environments.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to describe and discuss UAE human and natural resources infrastructure; evaluate human and natural resources issues in the UAE and how they affect national security; and analyze the impact of human and natural resources issues on national security.

This course examines the origins of modern strategy, using great strategic thinkers to examine the relationship between strategy and policy.

Upon successful completion of the course students will be able to discuss and evaluate the components of strategies and their application in different settings; apply elements and tools of strategy to selected case studies; and create a framework for setting up a national strategy.

This course addresses the challenges of strategic leadership. The concept of strategic leadership serves as the framework and provides underpinnings in four specific areas: (1) strategic leadership concepts; (2) strategic leader competencies; (3) organizational change; and (4) creating resilient and effective organizations. The key ideas of the course are designed to establish an understanding of environmental complexity, leader competencies and skills, meeting ethical challenges, leading change and transformation, and enhancing critical thinking.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to recognize and define aspects of leadership required at the strategic level; evaluate the strategic leadership skills (interpersonal, conceptual, and technical) necessary to sustain innovative and agile organizations in a multinational environment; and evaluate the role of strategic leadership in leading the organization through the change processes necessary to realize the strategic vision.

The course aims to help students examine and understand modern national economies, including potential threats and opportunities, how they are integrated into the regional and global economies, and how they may be affected by recent economic trends and international relations relating to trade. In sum, students will comprehend the importance of national economy as an element of national power/statecraft.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to evaluate theoretical and practical issues of macroeconomics and microeconomics, including national income accounts such as GDP, inflation and deflation, growth and stagnation, and regulation; explain the internal pillars of the UAE economy and how the national economy is integrated externally into the GCC and global economy, especially with respect to natural resources; analyze the potential impact of conflicts on the global economy; and analyze the uses of economic concepts for strategy.

This course will enable students to apply the basic concepts of International Relations through specific case studies. Students in the course will also analyze the role of the diplomatic instrument of national power in serving national interests.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to describe, discuss and analyze major concepts of international relations, of both scholars and practitioners; apply basic concepts of diplomacy to new international situations and events; analyze the roles, tasks, and interests of international alliances and NGOs; understand the pillars of IR built on international law, including the role of military power; and understand the use of diplomatic power to achieve state goals.

This course examines defense components in the United Arab Emirates and the importance of cooperation in comprehensive national development.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to evaluate the roles of Armed Forces, Police, and Civil Defense in the UAE in the management of defense resources; identify UAE defense components and analyze their role in the comprehensive national development (including internal security and crisis and disaster management issues); synthesize a framework to evaluate defense components in a manner that serves national decision-making; and understand the participation of UAE Armed Forces in peacekeeping and humanitarian aid operations at regional and international levels.

This course examines the impact of information tools and cyber instruments on policy and strategy. In addition, this course aims to explore the impact of social media, weaknesses in cyberspace infrastructure, the challenges of managing information, and the difficulties in dealing with cyber warfare threats and activities. The course will also include an examination of the application of traditional laws of armed conflict to the new cyber domain. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to articulate a current perspective on information and information communication technologies and bring that perspective to bear to respond to future threats and opportunities. They will be able to examine and analyze issues relating to the organization of the Internet and of governments’ response(s) to information and cyber threats, and explain and discuss concepts relating to the private sector and civilian government engagement in cyberspace.

This course examines the general concepts of crisis management and strategic planning, based on potential threats from human intent, accidents, and natural causes. The course seeks to support students’ skills in crisis action planning, and joint action and decision-making. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to describe, discuss and evaluate theories and concepts relevant to crisis management; explain, apply and analyze nationallevel strategic planning for crises, especially in the UAE; employ available national resources at the strategic level within a coordinated planning environment; make decisions effectively in crisis situations; and work with the media effectively in crisis situations.

This course draws all other courses and themes taught at NDC together in a climactic national security capstone practical exercise. This course reviews the elements/components of strategy – ends, ways and means – and develops critical thinking skills of students. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to apply critical and strategic thinking skills to national security challenges; synthesize themes taught about how domestic, national, transnational and international factors shape policy and strategy; and demonstrate competence to orchestrate all instruments of national power (diplomatic, military, economic, and information/cyber) to resource strategy.

This course is designed to examine the fundamental changes in the regional landscape, and will also discuss how global powers (the United States, European Union, Russia and China) have responded to unprecedented national and transnational developments since 2011. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to identify and evaluate current destabilizing factors and challenges to the UAE and the GCC region; and analyze contemporary controversial issues within the prevalent strategic context.

This course balances the goals of analysis and decision-making by applying research methodologies to strategic problems.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to create a research plan using the general approach of the scientific method to evaluate a selected security issue; apply as may be useful social science research approaches to support decision-makers at different levels; understand how the choice of methods shapes the generation of knowledge for policy-making and implementation; choose effective methods for communicating findings and recommendations serving decision- and policy-making; and create a capstone project.

The major academic product of the program is designed to enable students to create a research plan to evaluate the security environment, and the behavior of actors, and security decisions; apply as may be useful social science research approaches, including quantitative and qualitative analysis, case studies, cost-benefit analysis and tools, such as concept mapping, to support decision-makers at different levels; improve effective methods for communicating findings and recommendations focused on serving decision- and policy-making; and to create a capstone project for potential government use.

This course requires participants to analyze other nations' national security approaches to current issues and compare those approaches to the strategies of the UAE. During this course participants will travel internationally to meet with senior government officials, visit Ministries, Universities and Think Tanks, and evaluate the country-specific approaches they analyze for possible utility for the UAE. Prior to the travel period participants will have studied the national and regional context of the nations to be visited to understand the conditions under which those nations develop their approaches to national security. Upon completion of this course participants will brief the results of their evaluation and will have at least one of other national model or framework from which to develop approaches to national security issues during their future service.

This course uses an ongoing case study as a heuristic to identify and critique the moral theories and legal regimes that govern the conduct of modern war. Students will be introduced to the normative principles and sources of the law of armed conflict—the lex armorum, the Lieber Code, the Hague Conventions, the Geneva Conventions, other treaties and customary international law relating to means and methods of warfare, and relevant domestic and international caselaw—that authorize the use of force and permit combatants to kill lawfully while at the same time protecting categories of persons and objects. Through an analysis of war objectives and of specific issues arising in the conflict, including allegations of disproportionate attacks, deliberate attacks on civilians, the use of impermissible weapons and tactics, collective punishment of civilians, destruction of cultural property and infrastructure, and violation of the rights of detainees, students will learn that the creation, interpretation, implementation, observance, and adjudication of law generally and of the law of war particularly is a political process that, like all political processes, is governed by strategic interests and considerations.

This elective teaches negotiation theory and its practical application. Negotiation is one of the most important instruments in conflict resolution and is used routinely by all humans to resolve conflict and potential conflict successfully. Negotiation integrates the diplomatic and information elements of power and entails the use of these instruments to increase the information available, reduce the costs associated with decision making, discover new strategic options, identify threats and opportunities, and obtain objectives more effectively and efficiently. As such, it is a crucial tool in the trategist's arsenal. Negotiation skills are learned by understanding strategy and theory, and students will have the opportunity to experiment through classroom exercises and simulations. The class will encompass a combination of readings, discussion and in-class exercises in which students will conduct negotiations and role-play. In-class negotiations will draw from many potential scenarios, including business transactions, international disputes, and labor and contract negotiations. Students will be evaluated based on in-class contribution, results achieved in the mock negotiations, an individual research paper concerning inter-state negotiations and a group presentation on a national security negotiation.

This course examines the history and theory of compulsory military recruitment, and then asks participants to analyze contemporary national service and compulsory military recruitment in other countries around the globe. The course begins with a survey of conscription, nationalism, democracy, and labor economics, and then examines two historical case studies with relevance for the UAE: Brazil and Switzerland. The last half of the course will consist of participant presentations on national service and compulsory military recruitment systems around the world today. Countries examined could include Finland, Russia, North Korea, Albania, Egypt, Israel, Syria, Turkey, Bulgaria, and Vietnam, among others.

For over thirty years the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has been a forum for member countries to discuss common interests and regional challenges. Based in Abu Dhabi, the GCC is of particular interest to the UAE and offers a means for the UAE to achieve its national objectives. The purpose of this elective is to provide students with an opportunity to understand and analyze the opportunities and challenges of the GCC and then assess that will be required for future union. This course will also enable participants to understand and evaluate the opportunities of the UAE within the GCC. During the course each participant will develop a short briefing on a topic of import to the GCC.

This course explores the resourcing of strategy into the national budget. All strategies must be executed by government entities that plan, program, develop, and execute sub-strategies to meet national interests. Today’s decisions on force planning will fundamentally influence future strategy and force posture. Done well, such decisions and choices are a powerful investment in the future, done poorly, such decisions can bankrupt a nation. This course requires participants to think about resource decisions in a strategy driven way and will require an analysis of the UAE defense posture to link strategy to requirements and acquisition decisions.

Geography is deeply intertwined with Strategy, and any understanding of the context within which one is making or implementing strategy requires that he have some knowledge of Geopolitics. This is particularly true today, when competing forces seem to diminish and magnify the significance of geography. This course is designed to assist participants in developing an understanding of the significance of geopolitics, an ability to relate its broad lessons to the UAE’s own strategic environment, and to think strategically about how to best utilize this knowledge in pursuit of the UAE’s national interests.

This course is designed to give selected participants the opportunity to study the military profession, its ethos and standards of conduct, and its role in modern society, in order to gain a better understanding of the national security environment. Participants in this course will be required to write a short paper on the profession and discuss their findings to their fellow students during weeks nine and ten of the course.

The purpose of this course is to introduce participants to past and present non-traditional strategic leaders, largely from the Islamic world and Asia, to understand how these leaders applied or misapplied the elements of strategy to achieve their objectives. We look at range of leaders, starting with possibly the most famous strategist in the business world, and of Arab decent, Apple Inc co-founder Steve Jobs. We also look at the strategic approaches of H.H. Vice-President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid al-Maktoum, Saladin, Khalid Ibn Waleed, Saddam Hussein, Ayatollah Khomeini, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Gandhi, Mao and South Korean leader Lee Kuan Yew. This elective course gives the participants an opportunity to apply models of strategy used throughout the academic year to non-traditional strategists in areas of military, economic and political aims. It also provides participants an opportunity to compare and contrast the strategic approaches of different leaders.

The economic and political re-emergence of China as a global power is one of the defining characteristics of the 21st century. China's economic development has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and has led to the creation of a middle-class that is changing the dynamics of the global economy. The Chinese government has spent much of the past decade forging closer relationships with not only neighboring countries, but also with countries as far away as the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Having weathered the global financial turmoil better than other major economies, Chinese leaders and public alike are now growing increasingly proud of China’s role as a global power. While programs such as the "Belt and Road Initiative" (BRI) are presented as opportunities, not all are persuaded. Decision makers in China’s neighboring states are growing increasingly concerned about the military modernization that has accompanied economic growth and Beijing’s surging confidence. Indeed, some leaders have begun to worry that China’s charm offensive will be followed by a future marked more by competition and conflict than by cooperation. This course will examine the rise of China from both Chinese and non-Chinese perspectives. Specific attention will be devoted to China's "BRI" as well as how the rise of China impacts the Middle East and the Indian Ocean Region.

This course is designed to give selected participants the opportunity to create a guided analytical study of a current strategic problem in order to develop proposed solutions for possible implementation by government officials. Working in consultation with a faculty member, the participant will develop a plan of research and investigation in order to analyze the issue and propose potential solutions. The participant will be required to brief findings to the faculty mentor in week nine, write a 3,000 — 3,500 word policy analysis paper and brief the results of the study to selected faculty and staff during week ten, and submit a final policy paper in week twelve.

This elective uses cases drawn from past military campaigns to examine the employment of the military instrument of power in order to meet strategic aims. The conceptual frame is that area between strategy and operations, or between the outcome intended by the national leadership and the result obtained through military action. Rather than conducting a cursory examination of many different campaigns, you will focus on one famous example, as method of learning critical models and creative solutions to campaigning problems, and from there further learn by exploring cases relevant to contemporary operations. Finally, you will develop an operational concept, using the skills developed over the elective, for a hypothetical campaign against a contemporary threat. The elective begins by introducing the idea of the campaign, and explores fundamental concepts about time, space and forces in relation to higher objectives. From there, it introduces operational planning and decision-making models as a method for examining a series of classical cases drawn from the Peloponnesian War. You will then apply these models to the study of more modern campaigns, which required cooperation among air, land, sea and special operating forces, in conventional and unconventional wars. The elective concludes with a practicum on decision-making models introduced at the outset, which you already will have used to explore the historical cases.

Developing a national security strategy is a difficult task. Implementing it successfully is even more challenging. Unforeseen events can change our priorities and limit our available resources. Meanwhile, adversaries and even allies may undermine our attempts to achieve our objectives. In light of these factors many scholars and practitioners have questioned the value of developing and implementing strategy over the long term. If the future cannot be predicted, perhaps the best approach is simply to remain flexible and respond to events as they occur? This elective proceeds from the assumption that it is better to attempt to shape events than to wait passively for them to arrive. At the same time, however, it recognizes that no strategy provides all the answers. Decision makers will invariably face unforeseen situations, in which they are forced to make choices based on incomplete information. This elective complements NDC 5002, Strategy and Comparative Defense Strategies. It will examine in greater depth the challenges associated with developing and implementing strategy, and consider a range of methods that can help senior leaders cope with these challenges and become more effective strategic thinkers. It will apply these methods to a series of case studies of pivotal strategic decisions.

In this course, we examine extremism as a broad, global socio-political phenomenon linked to contested ideas in modern political life. In this sense, extremism is distinct from either criminal activity or doomsday cults on the one hand, and/or terrorism and insurgency on the other. For our purposes, extremist groups and movements are ones that use a mix of identity politics and religious and/or political ideology to justify calls political changes -i.e. defending certain ethno-cultural or religious values, as a form of resistance, to either foreign occupation or the decisions made by domestic political leaders. In this sense, extremism represents a broad spectrum of activity that encompasses multiple modalities of activism, both peaceful and violent. In weeks 1-4, we explore contextual and definitional aspects associated with understanding extremism, including its role in the global security environment and concepts such as radicalization and violent transformation. In weeks 5-7, we unpack the role of religious and political ideology as a source of extremism. In weeks 8-11, we explore State responses to extremism in terms of how issues associated with extremism impact national security policy making in general terms and then how this is implemented via “hard” and “soft”– i.e. ‘kinetic’ and ‘P/CVE’ approaches to countering violent extremism.

This course examines the concept and terminology and theories of military strategy, which provides an opportunity for learners to grasp military strategy and military policy with a focus on the role of the armed forces in maintaining national interests, and methods of making strategic military decisions to contribute to national security. Note: Arabic language course.

Artificially intelligent swarms of drones, climate change, information warfare, pandemics, quantum computing and refugee crises — contemporary security challenges form the basis of wicked social problems. Moreover, these challenges reflect that national security policy is in a state of flux that requires developing new skills among decision makers. Skills that allow for more innovative decision making and the development of strategies that address the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous nature of contemporary security challenges. Blending knowledge from different academic disciplines this course will equip participants to analyze and evaluate threats and challenges using a systematic approach entitled the “Eightfold Path”2. Through a series of interactive activities; including syndicate discussions, exercises and lectures, this course will equip strategic leaders with the skills they need to turn these challenges into opportunities.

The purpose of this elective is to provide the course members with a detailed appraisal of the role played by nuclear weapons in world politics, with an emphasis on the implications for the UAE national security. More than six decades after their invention, nuclear arms shape the international security environment more than any other arsenal. They trigger arms races in several regions of the world, they still constitute a central part of global power plays between the US, China and Russia and they also represent a major component of alliance politics through the mechanism of extended deterrence (e.g.: NATO or US-Japan Treaty). Overall, understanding the role of these weapons does not only help to read technical or operational implications but it allows us to grasp national security strategies and potential regional conflicts.

In 1970 Ted Gurr wrote the classic book Why Men Rebel that explored why people engage in political violence and how regimes respond. Though written before the Iranian Revolution, Arab Spring, and formation of Hamas, it creates the foundation to study the phenomena of resistance. Gurrs’ examination of frustration-aggression theory, relative deprivation, and grievances are considered basic concepts in understanding various social movements, revolutions, and insurgencies. This course seeks to provide students with a general understanding of why people rebel in the Middle East. The course will critically examine the central concepts and theories of social movements and contentious politics from Western and non-Western perspectives. The course will also examine why some social movements escalate to violence while others do not. This course will examine rebellion and resistance through the case studies of the Arab Spring, Iranian Revolution, and Hamas. In each case, participants will examine the domestic and international political context of the movement, claimed grievances of the movement, and their ideological response to those grievances upon which they base their legitimacy. For all, we will identify the reasons for their successes and failures.

The oceans cover 70% of the Earth’s surface, 80% of the world population lives within 60 miles of the coast, and 90% of the world trade is carried through maritime transportation. Oceans and seas act as a source of minerals and resources, an avenue of transportation and communications, and an arena of competition and conflict. Maritime security is about maintaining good order at sea. Maritime security challenges include the key technologies and technological trends which affect maritime security, the role of Great Powers, disputes over maritime boundaries, “gray zone” operations, piracy near strategic chokepoints, terrorism, trafficking of people, weapons and illicit goods, illegal fishing and pollution. The next 20 to 30 years in the Indian and Pacific oceans are fraught with risks—this is where some of the world’s most powerful states are forging new alliances,arms racing, pursuing mercantilist policies, extracting resources, and viewing competitors with distrust and engaging in containment of peer competitors. A “cold war”-like base race is underway to build/acquire/access forward bases from the Western Pacific to the Western Indian Ocean. Force modernization and maritime expansion plans currently underway would change the naval power balance and usher in a complex multipolar strategic order. This elective’s focus will be on maritime interests, strategies, and the activities of nations from Guam to the Gulf in order to understand the impact of naval power on strategic decision-making. The key questions are: how are small and medium-sized nations—often with conflicting agendas and rival alignments—leveraging or being caught up in great power maritime competition? Are international laws (e.g., UNCLOS), norms, institutions, and mechanisms capable of dealing with old geopolitical and new transnational security challenges? Students taking this elective will emerge with an understanding of the classic works on sea power (by strategic thinkers like Alfred Thayer Mahan and Julian Corbett), key trends and emerging security challenges and opportunities in the maritime domain. Presentation and writing skills receive considerable attention. The use of case studies and analytical frameworks will help develop skills in applying concepts, perspectives and cooperative approaches to real-world problems.

Ever wonder why US generals fondly refer to the UAE as “Little Sparta?” It comes from Greek historian Thucydides. In this elective we take a deeper look at three pillars of classic strategic through: Thucydides (author of the Peloponnesian War), Ibn Khaldoun (author of Al-Muqadima) and Machiavelli (author of The Prince). Thucydides’ account of the Greek civil war between Athens and Sparta is required reading for any serious student of international relations and anyone aspiring to be a geo-political strategist. Studying the dynamics of this war will provide insights into the minds of those involved in great power statecraft, including the thinking of George Bush’s justification for the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea, Mao’s revolution in China, the US decision to wage war in Vietnam, and Barak Obama’s pivot to Asia. After discussing Thucydides, we will spend two lessons on Ibn Khaldoun’s Al-Muqadima, which discusses the cycle of the rise and fall of empires, with a focus on the socioeconomic dynamics at play in the Arab world. We conclude the elective studying Machiavelli, who provides insights into the statecraft of small princedoms operating in an environment of republican sentiments, great power rivalry, foreign power hegemony and competing religious authority. This elective is not for the casual listener, as there will be a lot of required reading. Since many participants might be unfamiliar with the historical context of these two strategists, the majority of the readings and lesson discussions will be in Arabic.

This course will explore classic and contemporary issues in international security through the media. The class will examine the origins of war, international terrorism, just-war theory, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. More broadly, the course will critically analyze central issues of human nature, wartime experiences, heroism, national identity, and the conception of the “other” through film and other forms of media. The goal of this elective is to prompt participants to examine their own assumptions historical narratives of security and recognize the relationship between culture, international relations, and security.