Security and Foreign Policy Program Concentration

This concentration prepares you to analyze global security challenges and operate within the institutions that shape foreign policy decisions, from national governments to multilateral organizations.

Learning Outcomes and Skills

Students will build a foundation in the causes of war and the structure of the international system. You’ll then examine how states assess and manage security risks internally and how foreign policy is formulated through real-world institutional processes. By graduation, you’ll have developed skills in areas such as: 

  • Geopolitical and strategic analysis
  • Policy analysis and memo writing
  • Institutional and decision-making mapping
  • Risk assessment and scenario analysis
  • Diplomatic communication and negotiation
  • Working across multilateral and cross-sector environments

Through applied coursework, simulations, and a final capstone or practicum, you’ll produce policy-relevant outputs such as strategic assessments, policy memos, and stakeholder analyses grounded in real-world cases. 

Career Opportunities and ROI

In a security environment defined by geopolitical competition, institutional complexity, and evolving threats, employers are increasingly looking for professionals who can combine strategic analysis with an understanding of how decisions are actually made inside governments and international organizations.

This concentration reduces career ambiguity by providing a clear pathway into security and foreign policy roles, anchored in how power, risk, and decision-making operate in practice. Students build the ability to interpret geopolitical developments, map institutional processes, and translate analysis into policy-relevant outputs.

Graduates leave with demonstrated capabilities in strategic assessment, policy writing, and institutional navigation, skills that are directly legible to employers in government, defense, multilateral organizations, and political risk environments. They’re prepared for roles such as:

  • Policy analyst
  • Foreign affairs specialist 
  • Intelligence analyst 
  • Political risk consultant
  • Program officer in government agencies, international organizations, think tanks, and global consulting firms

Specialized Courses

In addition to core courses, students who select the Security and Foreign Policy concentration will take the following courses:

Security From Inside the State

How do politics, organizations, and policy processes inside states create conditions for peace and conflict? To what extent do regime type, the perceptions of leaders, and past history influence a state’s security goals in the international system? In this course, students will answer these questions by understanding and applying core concepts from security studies, domestic politics, and foreign policy. In other words, this course uses characteristics from inside a state as a tool for understanding security relations between states and their abilities to identify, prevent, and resolve conflict.

The Making of United States Foreign Policy: Institutions and Processes

This course introduces the institutions and processes involved in making U.S. foreign, defense, and intelligence policy. The course provides a brief overview of the foreign and national security challenges facing the United States and focuses on the institutions, decision-making processes, and politics of U.S. foreign and national security policy making. Students will study the State and Defense departments, the intelligence community, the White House, interagency processes, Congress, and outside participants in the policy process.

Causes of War

What factors and conditions explain patterns of peace and conflict in a global system of political, social, and economic actors competing for power, influence, and advantage? To answer this question, this course introduces core concepts, paradigms, and seminal debates from broadly defined security studies. Students will establish a foundation for investigating the causes and dynamics of conflict at the interstate, regional, and global levels of analysis. By integrating theory and practice, students can contextualize and assess the strategies actors employ to advance their interests as well as the underlying structural and configurational constraints shaping how these actors make decisions.

Global Dimensions and Challenges of Modern Diplomacy

This course delves into the evolving practice of diplomacy, examining its global dimensions, pivotal role in foreign policymaking, and the contemporary challenges it faces. Beginning with the structural model used in crafting twenty-first century U.S. national security strategies, the course then contrasts these approaches with those of other nations and historical periods, showcasing how diplomatic strategies have adapted over time to reflect varying geopolitical contexts. Throughout, the course highlights examples and builds the analytical and problem-solving skills that characterize effective diplomacy.

Careers in U.S. Foreign Policy and National Security

The Security and Foreign Policy concentration prepares students to apply the skills they learn — including geopolitical analysis, policy memo writing, risk assessment, and diplomatic communication — in government agencies, defense and intelligence, multilateral organizations, and global consulting firms. Potential career paths include positions as policy analyst, foreign affairs specialist, intelligence analyst, political risk consultant, and program officer in government agencies, international organizations, think tanks, and global consulting firms.

Students may work within this field in areas such as:

  • Foreign affairs and diplomacy
  • Security and intelligence analysis
  • Political risk consulting
  • Multilateral and cross-sector program management

The School of International Service also offers the following programs from International Relations Online: Master’s in International Relations and International Service for Experienced Professionals, as well as an on-campus master’s degree, the International Development Program, in Washington, D.C.

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