National Security Challenges (AIT687-DL1)

Professor J.D. Maddox

Contact: or (703) 509-9539

Fall 2013

Description: In this course, we will examine the prevailingrange of special challenges to US national security and the difficulties of countering them. The US is confronted by an increasingly diffuse and hidden adversary. US technical capabilities, from detection to intervention, are a useful but limited means of countering this adversarial threat. Students will be challenged to develop meaningful solutions to security challenges that feasibly counter the adversary while avoiding legal and ethical pitfalls.

Expected Outcomes: Understanding the complexities of technology application in the national security context. Experience in developing technical solutions to national security challenges.

How this class will work: This class will be taught online using GMU’s Blackboard system. Each Monday morning, the professor will provide a lesson, supported by the pre-assigned readings/videosin this syllabus, to begin a virtual classroom discussion. Students are expected to have read and watched all materials in preparation for the discussion. The professor will provide one or more written questions to initiate an online, asymmetric discussion of class topics that will begin on Monday morning and end on Thursday morning. The professor will provide more guidance and answer questions during the first class.

Examinations: Mid-semester, students will write a 5-page paper cogently assessing the implications and potential impact of one of the national security challenges covered in the first half of this course, providing one or more feasible technical solutions to the challenge. Students will post their papers to the online forum. These papers will serve as discussion topics for the next week and authors will be expected to explain their views to the class. For the final examination, the professor will provide a number of research questions to choose from, and students will again write a 5-page paper and post it to the online class forum for discussion. In addition to this written examination research paper, students will post videos of themselves presenting their research paper topics. Students should not read from their papers.

Grades: Students will be assigned a grade based on their onlineclass participation (30%), written projects (50%), and final examination presentation (20%). Quality of online class participation will be judged based on mastery of substantive issues and writing/communication skills, including the content of students’ answers to the professor’s questions.(Note: All online communications must be in full sentences. Use of internet shorthand (i.e., “omg,” “fwiw,” etc.) will negatively impact students’ grades.)

Credit note: Students cannot receive credit for both AIT690.DL1 National Security Challenges and AIT678 Intelligence Problems and Challenges.

Schedule and readings:

  1. Overview, introductions and online course de-bugging

Mid-term examination research paper assignment: 5-page paper cogently assessing the implications and potential impact of one of the national security challenges to be covered in the first half of this course, and providing one or more feasible technical solutions to the challenge.

I. CURRENT TECHNICAL CHALLENGES:

  1. The “lone wolf” attacker
  2. History of recent attacks
  3. Vulnerabilities to detection
  4. Limitations of detection

Readings:

Post, Jerrold M. “Terrorist psycho-logic: Terrorist behavior as a product of psychological forces.” Origins of Terrorism.Washington: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1998. 25-42,

Gartenstein-Ross and Grossman,Homegrown Terrorists in the US and UK: An Empirical Examination of the Radicalization Process,FDD Press, 2009.

Jenkins, Brian M. “No Path To Glory: Deterring Homegrown Terrorism,” RAND Corporation, 2010.

United States. Congressional Research Service. Government Collection of Private Information: Background and Issues Related to the USA PATRIOT Act Reauthorization,Washington: CRS, 2010.

Videos:

Public Broadcasting Service, Frontline: Spying on the Home Front, 2007.

Optional BBC video documentary on Anders Behring Breivik:

Optional MSNBC documentary on Timothy McVeigh:

  1. Radicalization
  2. Contributing factors of radicalization
  3. US-based and external radicalization trends
  4. Counterradicalization theories

Readings:

Bandura, Albert. “Mechanisms of moral disengagement.”Origins of Terrorism.Ed. Walter Reich. Washington: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1998. [Pages 161-191.]

“Reform OrRadicalisation,”RAND Corporation, 2010.

Jenkins, Brian M. “Would-be Warriors: Incidents of Jihadist Terrorist Radicalization in the US Since 2001,” RAND Corporation, 2010.

Rabasa, Pettyjohn, Ghez and Boucek.“Deradicalizing Islamist Extremists Summary,” RAND Corporation, 2010. [Read the 15-page summary document only.]

New York Police Department.Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat, New York, 2007.

  1. Internet-based adversaries
  2. Recent trends: non-state actors
  3. State responses

Readings:

Kimmage, Daniel. “Al-Qaeda Central and the Internet,” New America Foundation, 2009.

United States. Congressional Research Service. Terrorist Use of the Internet: Information Operations in Cyberspace, Washington: CRS, 2011.

Fishman, Brachman and Felter. “The Power of Truth,” Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, 2009.

“Country Profile: United States and Canada,” OpenNet Initiative, 2010.

Videos:

Public Broadcasting Service.Need-to-Know: The Revolution Will Not be Firewalled, 2011.

  1. Border security
  2. Immigration vulnerabilities
  3. History of border incursions
  4. Difficulty of detection
  5. Difficulty of disruption

Readings:

Alden and Roberts. “Are US Borders Secure?” Foreign Affairs July/August 2011.

United States. Congressional Research Service. Border Security: Key Agencies and Their Missions, Washington: CRS, 2011.

United States. Congressional Research Service. Securing America's Borders: The Role of the Intelligence Community, Washington: CRS, 2010.

United States. Congressional Research Service. Homeland Security: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Border Surveillance, Washington: CRS, 2008.

Willis, Predd, Davis and Brown.“Measuring the Effectiveness of Border Security Between Ports-of-Entry,”RAND Corporation, 2010.

Videos:

Unattributable Video: “Illegal Immigration – Clip 1 – Border Crossing – Mexico”

Unattributable Video: “Illegal Aliens Sneaking into the US”

  1. Improvised Explosive Device (IED) proliferation
  2. History of use and effects
  3. Ease of manufacture
  4. Difficulty of defeat and detection

Readings:

United States. Congressional Research Service. Improvised Explosive Devices in Iraq and Afghanistan, Washington: CRS, 2008.

Benmelech, Berrebi and Klor.“Counter-Suicide-Terrorism,”RAND Corporation, 2010.

United States. Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization. JIEDDO 2010 Annual Report, Washington: JIEDDO, 2010.

United States. Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization. JIEDDO 2012-2015 Strategic Plan, Washington: JIEDDO, 2012.

Optional Videos:

Unattributable Video: “Children Playing Suicide Bomber Game” [Pakistan]

Unattributable Video: “IED Emplacement Engagement” [Iraq]

Unattributable Video: “Footage of Car Bomb Explosion in Juarez”

Unattributable Video: “Baghdad – Car Bomb Footage – 10-26-2009”

Unattributable Video: “Suicide Bomber Detonates on Camera “[Kabul]

Unattributable Video: “Suicide Bomber Blowing Herself Up in Russia’s Ingushetia”

  1. Mid-term examination research papers due to be posted by the next weekon the course Blackboard site. Students should read each other’s posted research papers as they become available, and prepare to discuss them.
  1. Online class discussion of mid-term examination research papers.
  1. Radiological/nuclear technology proliferation
  2. Radiological/nuclear principles
  3. Explosion and radiation effects
  4. History of use
  5. Difficulty of development

Readings:

“NBC Acquisition and Covert Delivery.” America’s Achilles Heel. Falkanrath, Newman and Thayer eds. Cambridge: MIT Press. [Pages 97-159.]

United States. Congressional Research Service. Securing Nuclear Materials: The 2010 Summit and Issues for Congress,Washington: CRS, 2011.

Haphuriwat, Bier and Willis.“Deterring the Smuggling of Nuclear Weapons in Container Freight Through Detection and Retaliation,” RAND Corporation, 2010.

Videos:

CBS Australia,84 Missing Russian Suitcase Nukes, 1998.

Inside Washington,7 26 2006 Rep Dan Burton Interview with Rep Curt Weldon Regarding Suitcase Nukes, 2006.

  1. Chemical/biological weapon proliferation
  2. Chem/bio principles
  3. Effects
  4. History of use
  5. Difficulty of development

Readings:

United States. Congressional Research Service. Small-scale Terrorist Attacks Using Chemical and Biological Agents: An Assessment Framework and Preliminary Comparisons, Washington: CRS, 2004. [Pages 1-52 only.]

United States. Congressional Research Service. Safeguarding the Nation's Drinking Water: EPA and Congressional Actions, Washington: CRS, 2010. [Pages 1-15 only.]

Videos:

Unattributable Video: “The Poor Man’s James Bond Strikes Again” [start watching at 43:53]

II. EMERGING CHALLENGES:

  1. The changing face of al-Qa`ida
  2. Al-Qa`ida Core
  3. Al-Shabaab
  4. Al-Qa`ida in the Arabian Peninsula
  5. Al-Qa`ida in Iraq
  6. Al-Qa`ida in the Islamic Maghreb
  7. “Al-Qaeda After bin Laden” and relations to the Arab Spring

Mueller and Mark. “Hardly Existential: Thinking Rationally About Terrorism,” Foreign Affairs, 2 April 2010.

Mudd, Philip. “The Death of UBL: Threat Implications for the Homeland,” Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, 2011.

Connable and Libicki.“How Insurgencies End,” RAND Corporation, 2010. [Read pages xi-xviii and scan pages 27-125.]

Videos:

Public Broadcasting Service, Frontline: Fighting for Bin Laden, 2011.

  1. Technology Implications of the “Arab Spring”
  2. Origins of the various movements
  3. Casus belli of the movement
  4. Immediate outcomes
  5. Unexpected outcomes

Readings:

Wolman, David. “Facebook, Twitter Help the Arab Spring Blossom,”Wired, 16 April 2013.

Norton, Quinn. “How Anonymous Picks Targets, Launches Attacks, and Takes Powerful Organizations Down,” Wired, 3 July 2012.

Alden and Roberts.“Demystifying the Arab Spring,”Foreign Affairs July/August 2011.

Byman, Daniel. “Terrorism After the Revolutions,” Foreign Affairs July/August 2011.

Springborg, Robert. “Sisi’s Islamist Agenda for Egypt,” Foreign Affairs, 28 July 2013.

Videos:

Public Broadcasting Service, Frontline: Revolution in Cairo: How It Started, 2011.

  1. Future uncertainty
  2. Debt crisis
  3. Technology competition
  4. Military power shift

Readings:

Schwartz, Peter. The Art of the Long View. New York: Doubleday, 1996. [Read chapters “The Scenario-Building Animal” and “Rehearsing the Future.”]

United States. National Intelligence Council. Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds, Washington: US GPO, 2012. [Readpagesi-xiv.]

Bremmer and Roubini. “A G-Zero World,” Foreign Affairs March/April 2011.

  1. Final examination research paper assignment: 5-page paper answering one of five research questions provided by the professor. Send the paper directly to the professor. Papers will serve as the bases of video-presentations by each student. Video presentations also should be posted to the class forum. Video presentations will be discussed by the class during the next class.
  1. Student online video presentations; classroom discussion.