Online Master's in Homeland Security

This course provides a thorough review of the primary components of criminal justice: law enforcement, courts and corrections. The focus is on analyzing the primary components of the criminal justice system, their relationship to one another, and to the policy-making process.

This course examines the current discipline of criminology based on current research and its applications, in a variety of contexts such as Victimology, crime prevention, juvenile justice, and other issues. Students will analyze crime policy and synthesize existing and emerging criminological theory affecting the development of criminal justice policy. Students will utilize contemporary criminological theory and research to inform and develop public policy designed to address the causes and concerns of contemporary crime.

Regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, political or cultural affinity, crime has an impact on all of our lives. Today’s criminal justice practitioner must understand the reality of a globally connected world, and appreciate how our differences can affect the way we deal with crime and criminal justice. The focus of this course is to analyze how issues of diversity influence all aspects of the criminal justice system, and to develop ways to effectively and ethically address issues of diversity to achieve positive outcomes in a variety of criminal justice settings.

This course covers security management, including risk assessment, planning and program administration, and explores the intergovernmental system relationships in homeland security. The course will provide the student with an interdisciplinary approach in defining the various threats facing the U.S. criminal justice system and its strategies for preparedness, response, and recovery.

This course addresses topics of current interest in the field of criminal justice, with an emphasis on research, and the application of research results to drive policy. The course content will vary based on the evolution of the discipline. The syllabus for a particular session will announce the topics for the course.

In today’s Information Age, Homeland Security (HLS) professionals and the agencies they lead are more dependent than ever on technology and information-sharing to strengthen national preparedness. The need to share information through the use of interoperable technologies and to collect and synthesize data in real time has become critical to our national security. This course provides HLS professionals with the requisite knowledge to be able to leverage technology to prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from terrorist and natural-born incidents. It also provides an in-depth understanding of: inspection, detection, and surveillance technologies; information sharing and knowledge management systems; and communication systems. Students explore and analyze management challenges currently facing HLS professionals, such as: Information Assurance; voice, data and sensor interoperability; and technology implementation and acceptance. This knowledge will facilitate HLS professionals to become more effective technology consumers and help them to recognize opportunities where the application of technology solutions can provide a strategic advantage. The ultimate objective of the course is to enable HLS professionals to effectively evaluate, select, and implement technology to better strengthen capability-specific national priorities.

The War on Terror has focused the nation's attention on homeland security. This course examines key questions and issues facing the U.S. intelligence community and its role in homeland security and homeland defense. Students will have the opportunity to fully address policy, organizational and substantive issues regarding homeland intelligence support. Course reference materials will provide an overview of diverse intelligence disciplines and how the intelligence community operates. Course emphasis will be on issues affecting policy, oversight, and intelligence support to homeland defense/security and national decision-making. The 2004 Intelligence Reform and Prevention of Terrorism Act is addressed and the course is shaped to focus on homeland intelligence support issues at the State/Local/Tribal levels.

Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) is one of the cornerstones of homeland security. HSPD-7 lists the following critical infrastructure and key resource sectors: Agriculture and Food, Banking and Finance, Chemical, Commercial Facilities, Communications, Dams, Defense Industrial Base, Emergency Services, Energy, Government Facilities, Information Technology, National Monuments and Icons, Nuclear Reactors, Materials and Waste, Postal and Shipping, Public Health and Healthcare, Transportation Systems, and Water. The course begins with an overview of risk, its definition and application to critical infrastructures as it relates to the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP). We then investigate measures, tools, and techniques for CIP assessment. The course develops a network theory of vulnerability analysis and risk assessment called Model-Based Risk Assessment (MBRA) used to extract the critical nodes from each sector, model the nodes' vulnerabilities by representing them in the form of a fault-tree, and then applying fault and financial risk reduction techniques to derive the optimal strategy for protection of each sector. The sectors are studied in detail in order to learn how they are structured, how regulatory policy influences protection strategies, and how to identify specific vulnerabilities inherent to each sector and its components. At the completion of the course, students will be able to apply CIP techniques (MBRA and others) to any critical infrastructure within their multi-jurisdictional region, and derive optimal strategies and draft policies for prevention of future terrorist attacks or natural disasters.

The purpose of this course is to provide participants with an insight into the structural, conceptual and intellectual underpinnings and implications of the homeland security project. Looking at a wide range of topics and problems, the course seeks to stimulate a comprehensive discussion of how homeland security professionals and the general public think about homeland security; whether/why there may be significant differences in professional and public perceptions of homeland security; and how those differences constrain/leverage various elements of the homeland security effort. By incorporating a selection of key texts in Western political and social thought alongside current topical writings, the course seeks to equip participants with a deeper understanding of the prevailing discourse and its impact on the homeland security project.

The Homeland Security Capstone is designed to integrate and synthesize all coursework in the MSM-HLS program and related areas, allowing the student to demonstrate the professional competencies associated with a broad conceptual and practical understanding of the homeland security field. Students will evaluate case studies and other materials to demonstrate written competency in the areas of research, law, policy, critical infrastructure protection, and planning, allowing students to incorporate knowledge and experience as they apply ethical principles in developing effective strategies to confront issues facing practitioners within the realm of homeland security.