Overview
The Strategic Studies Program explores the relationship between politics and the many kinds of military power—from the use of terror by small, non-state groups to the threatened use of nuclear weapons.
Employment Outcomes
SAIS graduates are in great demand by employers in the public, private and nonprofit sectors. Economics knowledge, analytical abilities, regional expertise, diplomatic skills, language proficiency and the capacity to apply theory to real-world problems give our students a distinct professional advantage.
Meet Our Faculty
View All Faculty VideosStrategic Studies offers first-rate classes in topics from military history and theory to contemporary defense policy, supplemented by an ambitious program of staff rides, field trips, film series and lectures. Students learn not only by talking about the campaigns but by walking the battlefields; not only by reading the new counterinsurgency manual but meeting the general who wrote it; not only by studying bureaucratic politics but hearing from people who have spent more time than they care to remember in the White House’s Situation Room.
Eliot A. Cohen, --Strategic Studies
The Curriculum
Students concentrating in Strategic Studies take at least three courses within this program, including Strategy and Policy, and also fulfill the general requirements for the International Relations Program. Strategic Studies concentrators must pass Theories of International Relations as one of their core courses and complete a capstone requirement for the program.
Program Highlights
Simulations
The program’s Seminar in Crisis Simulation explores the literature and concepts surrounding simulated crisis enactments, leading to a voluntary school-wide exercise. The seminar seeks to develop scenarios and use them to uncover the dynamics of national decision-making and policy response. The one-semester-credit course meets across both semesters, and students design and manage the simulation in early March. Non-seminar students from all programs may participate in the spring crisis simulation exercise.
Additional Opportunities
Extracurricular Activities
Extracurricular activities such as film seminars, speaker series, Defense Against the Dark Arts, You Were There Series and field trips to military installations are an important supplement to the program.
Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies
The program is part of the Phillip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies, which conducts workshops and seminars for scholars, teachers and practitioners in the security studies field.
Staff Rides
The Strategic Studies Program continues to plan and execute a large number of staff rides. The many excursions allow on-site views of military operations, historical events and museums that offer perspectives a classroom often cannot deliver.
Strategic Studies Alumni
The group is focused on connecting alumni-and friends-and updating them on all lectures, programs and fundraising events hosted by the Strategic Studies Program.
Events and Announcements
Upcoming Events
Announcements
Faculty
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Eliot A. Cohen, Ph.D.
Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies, Director of the Strategic Studies Program, Director of the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies
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Eric Edelman, Ph.D.
Roger Hertog Distinguished Practitioner-in-Residence at the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies
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Mary R. Habeck, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Strategic Studies
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Thomas Keaney, Ph.D.
Executive Director of the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies, Associate Director of the Strategic Studies Program, Senior Adjunct Professor
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Thomas Mahnken, Ph.D.
Director of External Programs at the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies, Senior Research Professor of Strategic Studies
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John McLaughlin, M.A.
Distinguished Practitioner-in-Residence at the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies
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