The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs Launches New One-Year Master of Science in International Security

Posted November 25, 2019

The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology announces a new Master of Science in International Security (MSIS) program. The International Security program will be the first of its kind in Georgia, serving a growing interest in specialized and professional master’s degrees. 

“Georgia Tech is uniquely positioned to offer a Master of Science in International Security that prepares graduates for an increasingly complex global security landscape,” said Frank Neville, Georgia Tech’s senior vice president for Strategic Initiatives and chief of staff. “Technological advances have transformed international security over the past decade, and continued disruption is a virtual certainty for the foreseeable future. Students who complete the Master of Science will have both the strong technology background to make sense of this ongoing disruption and the policy and analytical skills to devise meaningful solutions.”

The Nunn School one-year program is designed to accommodate both recent graduates in the social sciences and engineering, as well as working professionals, who are looking to gain specified knowledge on International Security Policy in a concentrated timeframe and format.  

The program provides students with the theoretical foundation and practical policy analytical skills to tackle issues directly related to contemporary international security challenges. The curriculum allows students to customize their program of study among a diverse set of subjects—including 21st Century great power rivalry; defense policy analysis and military strategy; crisis decision-making; comparative forms of statecraft; transnational terrorism; peacekeeping; regional security; arms control; geopolitics of energy, environmental security, and space; proliferation of nuclear weapons and emerging technologies; cross-cultural bargaining and negotiations; and cyberwarfare. In addition to exposure to qualitative and quantitative research methods, students can acquire proficiency with tools such as data and visual analytics and modeling and simulation—in understanding ongoing international security challenges.

“Our world, especially as it relates to international policy and security affairs, is ever more challenging,” said General Phil Breedlove, USAF, ret., distinguished professor in the Nunn School and former Supreme Allied Commander Europe. “We need young leaders who understand this complexity, and embrace the challenges of hard issues. Our MS in International Security is preparing those leaders every day.”

The 30-credit hour course load prepares graduates with the substantive knowledge and skills to distill, assess, and communicate the drivers and strategic consequences associated with emerging global security problems as experts and leaders in foreign and security policymaking, defense planning, the intelligence community, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector.  

The Sam Nunn School offers related courses in U.S. Foreign Policy, International Security, Scenario Writing and Path Gaming, and Modeling and Simulation taught by scholars and distinguished policy experts in the field.

The International Security program strengthens the Nunn School’s mission to develop global policy makers for the 21st Century.