My teaching expertise and interests cover the following fields: intelligence and strategic studies, international relations, national security, critical and emerging technologies, and energy security. While most of my teaching is at the graduate level, I greatly enjoy teaching a highly interactive, intensive seminar-style course on intelligence statecraft that I designed as a Practitioner-in-Residence at Bates College.
My teaching pedagogy is centered on a deep commitment to diversity in all of its kinds, and to fostering a learning environment where students from all walks of life feel nurtured and thrive.
The following are courses I have developed and taught as the instructor of record:
National Security & Critical and Emerging Technology Practicum
– Johns Hopkins University
This Practicum is an innovative, experiential partnership between SAIS Hopkins, the U.S. State Department, and tech companies. This pioneering course offers an experiential learning experience to students interested in working on critical and emerging technology sectors in the private sector, and/or in public service. Students work directly with clients to address a pressing problem. Prior projects have examined issues around US cybersecurity capacity building, ethics of AI applications, mis/disinformation in presidential elections, anti-trust regulations of big tech, digital privacy governance, etc. This course is by application only.
Chinese Foreign Direct Investment & U.S. National Security Vulnerabilities
– Johns Hopkins University
This course examines the American and the Chinese conceptualizations of national security, and their implications on how each nation defines their grand strategies vis-à-vis one another. The first part of the course takes a deep look at the Chinese economic statecraft model, with a specific focus on how the state instrumentalizes commercial actors and foreign direct investment. The second part of the course explores the American response via the work of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, with a focus on foundational and critical technologies in telecom, biotech, computing, semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and the internet of things.
This course examines how China is challenging American supremacy geopolitically around the world, and strategically in the critical and emerging technology race. As China's role on the international stage grows, how will its behavior change the world? Specifically, how will its growing engagement affect conflict dynamics in other countries? Beijing has long espoused a principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other states, but as China’s overseas presence and interests grow, how is it adjusting its approach to global challenges and influencing the interests of other states? This course takes a deep dive into China’s ascendancy as a global power, its role, ambitions, and goals around the world, and how it is contesting its new place vis a vis the United States and American sphere of influence around the world.
This course introduces students to the basic concepts of global security studies (GSS), including theories of international relations (IR), perception and misperception, the varying concepts of security, and the elements of national power. It also includes a brief introduction to social movement, gender, and critical theories. It applies these conceptual tools to selected security issues such as international cooperation, global economics, and the causes of war.
Understanding the complex interactions between actors involved in global governance is necessary to understanding world politics today. Global governance focuses on how states, international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and other actors manage transnational challenges in areas that include economic development, international security, the environment, humanitarian assistance, global health, etc. We also examine the role of powerful nonstate actors, and less formal global governance initiatives in confronting regional and global problems. The course examines the broad issues related to global governance before turning to close examinations of the major institutions and actors involved with global governance. We also examine informal governance initiatives, and case studies that offer examples of how regime complexes work in practice.
Intelligence is at the heart of US national security. This course examines the role of the intelligence community (IC) within the US national establishment. Students explore the missions, structures, and modus operandi of the intelligence community and its interactions with policymakers and the executive branch of government. This course is highly interactive and designed to mimic “a day in the life of an intelligence officer.” Students will have the opportunity to explore key transnational issues through hand-on exercises simulating a real-life conflict. Special attention is given to examining some of the most pressing ethical and moral issues involving the intelligence community and US national security.
The courses trace Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States’a history, situating its role and impact within the USG’s interagency process, and diagnosing how this powerful body has accommodated emerging geopolitical threats. The second part of the course considers CFIUS’ role in relation to both research and development and foreign direct investment flows from key competitors. We will look specifically at case studies covering critical and emerging technology transactions in the biotech, telecom, IoT, and AI sectors.
This course examines the nexus of energy, natural resources, and the environment with conflict, war, terrorism, crime, development, diplomacy, politics, and technology. Students critically examine the ways that increased competition for environmental and energy resources, strained resources, and changing conditions can threaten national security. The course also examines how such threats may be mitigated.