Public Policy: Government (PPOG)
This course will provide an overview of current research techniques in the field of public policy. Students will also hone and apply professional writing skills by completing a final research paper fully incorporating appropriate research and citation techniques.
Offered: Resident and Online
Prerequisite: PPOG 500 (may be taken concurrently)
This course will study markets and market failure, the effects of Public Policy on economics, the effects of economics on Public Policy, and the role of government in economic issues particularly in the areas of trade, enterprise, debt and taxation, from a biblical worldview. The class will emphasize the Judeo-Christian foundations and principles of economic activity.
Offered: Resident and Online
Prerequisite: PPOG 500 (may be taken concurrently)
This course studies the most influential political philosophers who substantially influence the Western political and legal thought processes, for better or worse, from ancient Greece, through Western European development and the American Founding era to the modern era.
Offered: Resident and Online
Prerequisite: PPOG 500 (may be taken concurrently)
This course will provide an examination of the fundamentals and characteristics of diligent, principled-based servant leadership from a Judeo-Christian perspective. This course will be as practical as it is philosophical.
Offered: Resident and Online
Introduction to Geopolitics and International Diplomacy will provide a Judeo-Christian perspective on international affairs; American foreign policy; international governments, groups, organizations and coalitions; sovereignty issues; the influence of Christianity and competing worldviews on the changing global arena; and the role of America in the world.
Offered: Resident and Online
This course is a survey of U.S. domestic policy. It will focus on domestic public policy-making at the national level, beginning with the processes, institutions and actors engaged in the creation, advocacy, development, enactment, and implementation of domestic policy, and followed by a discussion of several contemporary public policy issues.
Offered: Online
This course is a survey of U.S. foreign policy. It will focus on the processes, institutions and actors engaged in the creation, advocacy, development, enactment, and implementation of foreign policy, followed by a discussion of several contemporary foreign policy issues.
Offered: Online
This course will allow a student to work individually with a professor to do extra readings on a specific topic related to Public Policy form a Judeo-Christian perspective. This course will be as practical as it is philosophical.
Prerequisite: PPOG 500 (may be taken concurrently)
This course is a one-on-one study directed by the professor that involves specialized readings pertaining to Public Policy.
Offered: Resident
Prerequisite: PPOG 500
Prepares students to engage in in-depth policy analysis research in keeping with a think tank approach. This is a repeatable course that students can build upon research from one semester to the next.
Offered: Resident
Online Prerequisite: PPOG 500 (may be taken concurrently)
Presidential Leadership is a course studying the role, powers, dynamics, and impact of the American presidency. The course will analyze the effects of the worldview, philosophies, and personal experience of the President as well as methods, strategies, and tactics that Presidents employ in shaping public policy, structuring the court, and communicating with and persuading the American people.
Offered: Online
Legislatures are at the heart of policy-making in the United States. This course will help students learn how to ask and answer original research questions related to the study of U.S. legislatures, their members, and policy-making within the legislature. The course has two goals; to introduce students to a broad range of legislative research and to explore how to critically assess and extend that research.
Offered: Online
This course examines the challenges of running public sector organizations at the state and local level from the perspective of those who lead them. With trust in government plummeting and greater expectations from both the federal government and citizens, senior executives in state and local governments face significant challenges in governing. Students will develop the knowledge, skills, and tools necessary to operate as ethical and effective statesmen at the state and local level. Additionally, students will learn the need for public officials to be ready to lead strategically, think creatively, and act collaboratively in a dynamic governing environment.
Offered: Online
Online Prerequisite: PPOG 500 (may be taken concurrently)
Speech Writing for Candidates and Officeholders is a research and writing course instructing students in the drafting of comments, sound bites, and full campaign and policy speeches for use by candidates and office holders.
Offered: Online
Online Prerequisite: PPOG 500 (may be taken concurrently)
Middle East Laws and Policy provides an introduction to and survey of the legal, political, legislative, and judicial systems of the Middle East. The course will analyze the political parties that wield power, the ideologies that drive them, the policies they produce, and the impact of those policies both in the Middle East and abroad.
Offered: Online
Online Prerequisite: PPOG 500 (may be taken concurrently)
U.S. Middle East Foreign Policy will build upon PPOG 640, providing a detailed analysis of the foundations, motivations, formation and impact of U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East. The course will study the history and status of U.S.-Israeli relations, the substance of U.S. foreign policy, and the mechanics of how that policy is communicated, negotiated and carried out.
Offered: Online
The re-emergence of China as one of the world’s most powerful economies means that the study of China’s development is no longer a parochial concern but central to an understanding of the world's economy. This course explores current research on the politics and political economy of China and prepares students to conduct their own research in Chinese politics and political economy. The emphasis is on what is permanent about Communist rule in China, the changing nature of the Chinese Party-state, as well as relations between state-economy and state-society. Stemming off of this focus, this course gives attention to the dynamics and challenges associated with reform and resistance. Finally, we consider China’s economic development comparatively, in contrast to capitalism in the U.S. and the historical development of the U.S. economy.
Offered: Online
This course considers the role of Chinese ideology in determining Chinese state behavior. The emphasis is on both the permanent and changing nature of the ideology, from Confucianism—what has been termed China’s imperial ideology—through liberal republicanism, Communism, Maoism, Xi Jinping thought, and well as potential post-Communist ideologies. Attention is given to historical, theoretical, and practical manifestations of Chinese ideology, with a focus on China’s enduring and current national interests.
Offered: Online
This course explores current research on the politics of China and is designed to prepare students to conduct their own research in Chinese politics, policymaking, national security, and the Chinese Communist Party. The emphasis is on the changing nature of the Chinese Party-state, and the relations between state, economy, military, and society. Throughout the class, we also pay attention to the history, dynamics, and challenges of the Chinese Communist Party’s rule.
Offered: Online
The rise of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to great power and even superpower status compels us to consider of the causes of its foreign policy. This graduate research course examines the international relations of the PRC, both in theory and practice, and prepares students to conduct their own research in Chinese foreign policy. It considers the structure and context of foreign policy decision-making within the PRC, as well as domestic and external influences on Chinese foreign policy. Particular attention is paid to the ideological influences on Chinese foreign policy, its historical similarities and differences in the Cold War and current periods, and the role of the People’s Liberation Army and Party in foreign policy development and formulation. The course also considers the PRC’s relations with its allies and its enemies, with particular attention paid to Sino-American relations.
Offered: Online
This research-oriented course examines the ideas of major Chinese and Western strategic thinkers and provides an understanding of the differences and similarities between Chinese and Western strategic thought and how these ideas inform contemporary grand strategies. Students will read works by major strategists, which may include Sun Tzu, Sun Bin, Xenophon, Machiavelli, Frederick the Great, Clausewitz, Mackinder, Brodie, and Kahn.
Offered: Online
The study of grand strategy entails the long-term, large-scale examination of the means (political, military, diplomatic, and economic) by which states advance their national interests. The course evaluates how China has defined its interests, threats to those interests, and means to address threats through imperial, Republican, and Communist periods. The course considers the similarities across Chinese grand strategies as well as the significant differences, to discern how unit level and systemic factors influence Chinese grand strategy.
Offered: Online
Students will collaborate with a faculty advisor to develop their thesis proposal. It is expected that the proposal for the thesis project will be relevant to the student's studies in their master's degree program and will direct their research to make an academic contribution to the body of knowledge in public policy. At the completion of this course, the student will be ready to begin data collection and research.
Registration Restrictions: Completion of 30 hours of coursework toward the degree program with a GPA of 3.0. No more than two grades of C may be applied to the program.
Offered: Resident and Online
Prerequisite: PPOG 688 (may be taken concurrently)
This course is designed to help students complete their master's thesis in public policy. It is expected that research for the thesis project will be relevant to the student's studies in the master's degree program and will make an academic contribution to the body of knowledge in public policy.
Offered: Resident and Online
Prerequisite: PPOG 689
Intended to demonstrate a student's ability to carry out orignial research. Thesis may be designed to answer practical research questions, or address theoretical or ethical issues of interest to scholars and professionals in the field of public policy. Credit is not allowed until the thesis has been accepted.
Offered: Resident and Online
Offered: Resident and Online