Reading List

Read before the first day of class:

• A National Security Strategy Primer
• Interim National Security Strategic Guidance 2021
• National Security Council (NSC) and Interagency System
• NSPM (NSPM-4) describing the NSC and Interagency System
• The Armed Forces Officer Please read Chapters 1 & 2

Additional References

• One of President Obama’s last PPDs was entitled “United States – Cuba Normalization”  (for comparison)
• Directives specific to Homeland Defense
• National Security Presidential Directive  This was a term used by the G.W. Bush White House. During the Obama Administration, he used the terms “Presidential Policy Directives” (PPD) and “Presidential Study Directive” (PSD). The Trump Administration is calling them “National Security Presidential Memorandum” (NSPM) and all of them can be found at the White House.gov
• Federation of American Scientists, Presidential Directives and Executive Orders

The following is a suggested list of books on national security issues recommended by NDU professors. Purchase is not required.

• “The New Rules of War” by Sean McFate
• “Getting the Next War Right” by Thomas Marks
• “Back to the future- people’s war in the 21^st century” Dr. Thomas Marks and Dr. Paul Rich
• “FARC, 1982-2002: criminal foundation for insurgent defeat” Dr. Thomas Marks
• “A Double-edged sword: the people’s uprising in Ghazni, Afghanistan” Dr. Matthew Dearing
• “The North Caucasus: from mass mobilization to international terrorism” Dr. Elena Pokalova
•  “Cyberterrorism and Biotechnology: When ISIS meets CRISPR” Dr. Arabinda Acharya
• “China in the Middle East” Dr. Geoffrey Gresh
• “The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Negotiations: A Case Study” Monte Mallin
• “Foreign Military Education as PLA Soft Power”   John Van Oudenaren and   Benjamin Fisher
• “America’s Addiction to Mercenaries” Dr. Sean McFate
• “The Instructive Case of Sierra Leone” Dr. David Ucko
• “Colombia and the War-to-Peace Transition: Cautionary Lessons from Other Cases” Gen (Ret.) Carlos Ospina, Dr. Thomas Marks and Dr. David Ucko
• Charting a course: Strategic Choices for a New Administration by Craig Deare
• “Preventing Violent Extremism” Dr. Hassan Abbas
• “The Gulf Looks East: Sino-Arab Relations in an Age of Instability” Dr. Geoffrey Gresh
• “We disputed every word’: how Kyrgyzstan’s moderates tame ethnic nationalism” Dr. Erica Marat
• “Security, Identity, and British Counterterrorism Policy” Dr. Kathryn Marie Fisher

Listen to National Security podcasts produced by the NDU Foundation,  featuring NDU subject matter experts talking about relevant NS issues.