Using a series of case studies that jump off the front page, this course examines critically the hardest US national security law and policy challenges of the decades ahead. Topics include:

• Decisions to intervene and what laws apply if we do intervene in humanitarian crises, insurrections, or civil wars.
• Dealing with the “Arab Spring.”
• Dealing with Iran and North Korea, related to nuclear weapons.
• Anticipating and controlling new technologies in warfare and surveillance.
• Managing civil/military relations in protecting the homeland.
• Countering cyber threats to our infrastructure and cyber attacks waged by nation states, such as China and Russia.
• Managing public health as a national security issue.
•  Resource depletion and global warming as a national security issue.

This course concerns US and international law responses to terrorism and include a brief overview and history of terrorism. Topics include:

• Legal definitions of terrorism.
• Investigation and intelligence collection in the US and abroad.
• Apprehension of terrorists across borders.
• Immigration and border controls.
• Prosecution of terrorists.
• Sanctions against terrorism and its supporters, including reprisal, assassination, and asset freeze and forfeiture.
• Crisis and consequence management in the event of terrorist attacks, including martial law and detention, domestic use of the military, catastrophic emergency measures, and hostage and rescue operations.
• Law reform issues.

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This is a three-credit, one semester course on the legal, policy, and management aspects of cybersecurity. It is conducted through a series of seminars co-taught by a professor from the School of Information Studies and a professor from the College of Law’s Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism. The course combines legal, political economy, and technology perspectives, examining cybersecurity from the standpoint of private sector activities, national governments, and international law and politics. In recognition of the interdisciplinary nature of cybersecurity problems, the co-teaching between Law and iSchool provides a richer environment for the students. The course also welcomes students from public administration, policy studies, communications, and computer science. Students will be exposed to some basic technical material regarding the nature of the Internet, cyberspace, vulnerabilities, exploits and incident response techniques and methods, but this is not a technical course and does not require computer science expertise.

Offered by William Snyder (College of Law) and Lee McKnight (iSchool).

This seminar examines US engagements with foreign governments, organizations, and individuals. We will focus on the diversity of legal orders, actors, and spheres of action implicated in contemporary foreign relations. Central questions include:

1. How does the US government negotiate coexisting obligations under conventional, customary, constitutional, statutory, and administrative legal orders?
2. What roles do legislatures, executives, courts, agencies, non-state entities, non-governmental organizations, and multi-national corporations play in ordering foreign relations?
3. How do the foregoing legal orders and actors function differently across contexts of war, occupation, migration, trade, aid, intervention, and reconstruction?

We also will consider normative debates surrounding the preceding descriptive questions. By both canvassing and critiquing the law, policy, and history of US foreign relations, students will acquire the basic knowledge and skills required for analysis and argument within the field.

This course provides students with a thorough, broad-based understanding of the multiple challenges faced by the federal government in protecting the nation from a variety of threats, both human and natural. Upon completion of the course, students will understand the complexities of the current security environment and the most important policy and operational questions facing federal, state. and local government.

Class discussions, case studies, and a simulation will provide an opportunity for students to become directly engaged in the implementation of various policy options. There are no prerequisites for this course. Even students who do not plan to work in a security agency will find this course invaluable as security issues pervade policy decision-making in almost every sector of the government. Offered by Keli Perrin.

The National Security and Counterterrorism Research Center serves as a working research laboratory for law and other graduate students interested in national security and counterterrorism issues. Students will work in teams on research projects assigned by the director. Other faculty within Syracuse University and experts outside the University may also participate in the development and implementation of research projects. Typically, the projects will involve assessments of legal and law-related issues of concern to federal, state, and local government officials in responding to national security and terrorism threats. Other projects may examine private sector security concerns. Research projects may by arrangement with sources external to Syracuse University, while others may be developed from within the College of Law or the University.

A course that covers the fundamental topics in national security law, using case studies, simulations, and class discussions.

• Part 1: Framework of National Security Law
• Part II: International Law as ”Our Law”
• Part III: Using Force Abroad
• Part IV: Intelligence Operations and Collection
• Part V: Homeland Security