Global 451 Access, Security, and Intercultural Contexts in Global Communication, 3 cr
Section 202 Fall 2018 Completely Online Instructor: Geoffrey R Skoll
NB This is a course description, not the syllabus. The syllabus will be posted April 30.
Course Description—This upper division undergraduate course covers global communication as a source of information about access and security.It examines different sources of information and different kinds of communication as ways to assess matters of global security.
What students will do—Students will act as analysts for the United Nations (UN) Security Council. They will prepare reports on matters of international security using materials supplied in the course. Five reports are required throughout the semester, and they will be the sole basis for grading.
Required materials—Students will have to buy one book: Manifest Destiny:Democracy as Cognitive Dissonance by F. William Engdahl (Wiesbaden, Germany: mine.Books, 2018) ISBN 9783981723731 for under $25. All other required material will be on the course D2L site in downloadable formats. Students are strongly urged to also buy A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations by Kate L. Turabian, 8th edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013) ISBN 9780226816388 for about $5 online.
How the course proceeds—The first one-third of the semester (5 weeks) will be devoted to background information. Students must read two books: Engdahl’s Manifest Destiny and the instructor’s book, Globalization of American Fear Culture: The Empire in the Twenty-First Century (NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) ISBN 9781137570338, which is downloadable on D2L. Based on the reading, students must submit a report identifying the gravest threats to global security. During the remainder of the semester students will submit four reports on selected topics. Each of the five reports counts for 20% of the final course grade. All sources of information for the last four reports will be on D2L. Students will be given templates for the form of the reports. Each report should be about one to two thousand words.
The rationale for the course—Students will have a chance to learn how to evaluate different forms of communication, analyze them, and synthesize them into meaningful summaries and policy recommendations. The course is meant to be an instance of experiential learningin which students actually do what analysts and investigators do for policy makers who devise measures for global security. In the process, students are exposed to alternative perspectives and alternative sources for information. The course presumes students’ competence in using D2L.
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