Course Details

The Biden administration faces major national security challenges following its messy withdrawal from Afghanistan. Russia has launched a major and sustained military mobilization that threatens a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. At a minimum, Moscow may hope to coerce the Atlantic Alliance into imposing a Munich-like "peace agreement" that subordinates Ukraine to Russia's geostrategic designs. At worst is the prospect of a major war in Europe. Simultaneously, Washington faces a Chinese government that is rapidly modernizing its military capacity that includes a major expansion of its nuclear arsenal. The threat of conflict over the unresolved territorial status of Taiwan and China's claims over the South and East China Sea loom large in the Western Pacific. Third is the difficulty of the US disentangling from the Greater Middle East while dealing with the prospect that Iran may acquire a nuclear arsenal. Finally, there are the military technological challenges of this decade that include the emergence of robotic means of combat in all dimensions of warfare. The Biden administration must address all of these national security issues while dealing with the severe and sustained political and economic problems prompted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the aftermath of the failed January 6th, 2021 insurrection. This study group has a high class size capacity.