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HSEC 620
Warfare and Homeland Security

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Principles, rules, and laws of warfare. Offensive and defensive tactics and strategies related to homeland security. Relationship of warfare to grand strategy. Asymmetrical warfare tactics and strategies and their use to exploit power constraints inherent to democracies and their institutions. Changing nature of battlefields in contemporary warfare.

Required Readings

  • Martin Gilbert, The First World War: A Complete History, 2nd ed. (Holt 2004) (No Kindle)
  • Antony Beevor, The Second World War (Little, Brown & Company, 2012) (Kindle)
  • John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War: A New History (Penguin, 2006) (Kindle)
  • John Lewis Gaddis, Surprise, Security and the American Experience (Harvard, 2005) (No Kindle)
  • Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia (Kodansha Globe, 1992) (Kindle)
  • Peter Hopkirk, Like Hidden Fire: The Plot to Bring Down the British Empire (Kandasha Globe, 1994) (Kindle)
  • Peter Hopkirk, Setting the East Ablaze: Lenin's Dream of an Empire in Asia (Kondasha Globe, 1995) (Kindle)
  • Gregg Jones, Honor in the Dust: Theodore Roosevelt, War in the Philippines, and the Rise and Fall of America's Imperial Dream (NAL, 2012) (Kindle)
  • Robert Kaplan, The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us about Coming Conflicts and the Battle against Fate (Random House, 2012) (Kindle)
  • David Kilcullen, The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One (Oxford, 2011) (Kindle)
  • James S. Robbins, This Time We Win: Revisiting the Tet Offensive (Encounter Books, 2012) (Kindle)

Course Schedule · Spring 2013

** TENTATIVE AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE **

Jan 21 No class-MLK Birthday
Jan 28 Introduction to course/The Great Game I
Read: Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia (Kodansha Globe, 1992)
Feb 4 The Great Game II
Read: Peter Hopkirk, Like Hidden Fire: The Plot to Bring Down the British Empire (Kandasha Globe, 1994)
Feb 11 The Great Game III
Read: Peter Hopkirk, Setting the East Ablaze: Lenin’s Dream of an Empire in Asia (Kondasha Globe, 1995) (Kindle)
Feb 18 America Ascendant
Read: Gregg Jones, Honor in the Dust: Theodore Roosevelt, War in the Philippines, and the Rise and Fall of America's Imperial Dream (NAL, 2012)
Feb 25 The Great War I
Read: Martin Gilbert, The First World War: A Complete History, 2nd ed. (Holt 2004)
Mar 4 The Great War II
Read: Martin Gilbert, The First World War: A Complete History, cont.
Mar 11 The Great War III
Read: Martin Gilbert, The First World War: A Complete History, cont.
Mar 18 The Second World War
Read: Antony Beevor, The Second World War (Little, Brown & Company, 2012)
Watch: Ken Burns, The War (PBS, 2007): 1-2
Mar 26 No class: Dr. Mack in American Samoa
Read: Beevor, The Second World War, cont.
Watch: Ken Burns, The War (PBS, 2007): 3-4
Apr 1 Spring Break
Read: Beevor, The Second World War, cont.
Watch: Ken Burns, The War (PBS, 2007): 5-6
Apr 8 The Second World War II
Read: Beevor, The Second World War, cont.
Watch: Ken Burns, The War (PBS, 2007): 7
Apr 15 The Cold War
Read: John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War: A New History (Penguin, 2006)
Apr 22 The U.S. War in Vietnam War
Read: James S. Robbins, This Time We Win: Revisiting the Tet Offensive (Encounter Books, 2012)

Professor in Cambodia: Class may be cancelled if a guest lecturer is not secured. If not, this book will be discussed along with Kilcullen’s next week.
Apr 29 Small Wars and Accidental Guerillas
Read: David Kilcullen, The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One (Oxford, 2011)
May 6 On Proactive Unilateralism
John Lewis Gaddis, Surprise, Security and the American Experience (Harvard, 2005)
May 13 Looking to the Future
Read: Robert Kaplan, The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us about Coming Conflicts and the Battle against Fate (Random House, 2012)