GWU review

So classes have started. For the most part I've tried to avoid writing about school, but it has happened, and now I'm going to purge this need by writing about my classes. Yes, if you've ever been curious about classes for a Master of Arts in International Affairs at the George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, here's your chance to read up.

IAFF 290 US Foreign Policy in Gulf--Not the Gulf of Mexico, which given the state of affairs, any policy would be useful; but the Persian Gulf, also in a sad state of affairs. This class is taught by former Ambassador Edward Gnehm, and I when I took it, not only was it my first graduate course, but it was his as well. Hopefully he's made some improvements, like no required SINGLE SPACE 15 page paper for a final. There's a ton of reading, but it is a seminar like class so expect to raise your hand.

ECON International Trade and Finance (the one for dummies who don't want to take two semesters)- I'm wretched with economics. I don't get it. To me its a pseudo-science based on assumptions about human behavior that got turned into hard science. That's my rant and I'll stop now. This class was taught by Skancke, who mostly lectured. I have to say I did learn something as he required us to analyze a news article each week relating to our lessons.

IAFF 201 Diplomatic Negotiations Skills-Taught by former Ambassador McNamara. Actually was quite work intensive for a 1 credit, had a paper due nearly every week. Requires lots of class participation, but it's fairly easy to stay anonymous. Actually learned some non-intuitive things about negotiating. Useful also for job or other negotiations.

IAFF International Affairs of South Asia-My one class taught by an academic during my entire 04-05 Academic year, Professor Ollapally. Background in this subject is useful prior to taking the class. Requires an in-class blue book midterm and a final research paper.

PSC Theories of International Relations-Taught by a Foreign Service Officer, Edward Lacey. Lacey knows his stuff, and he will not shy away from letting the entire class know that he's a realist. However, I was not a big fan of his in-class midterm which was a T/F multiple choice thing mainly based on memorizing the readings. How awful, I took several theory courses in undergrad and I was pretty sure you could only explore this subject via discussion and writing theory papers. Although I have to give him credit for giving us a rather 'fun' take-home final exam which was a policy paper.

IAFF Responses to Terrorism-So far most awesome class to date. I have to admit, because of work I'm fairly inundated with this subject but I liked Rhea Siers, who's a policy person within the Department of Defense. It's primarily a discussion course and we had a great mix of former military, NGO & non-profit workers, lawyers, and government employees, so it was LIVELY.

IAFF Transnational Security Issues-Taught by former CIA analyst George Fidas. Fairly interesting as it covers the broad spectrum of transnational issues, from AIDS to ethnic conflict. Primarily lecture based with two policy papers (means little research--woohoo!).

In December or January, look for a review of HIST Uses of History in International Relations, PSC National Security Making Process and IAFF Introduction to Formal Briefing.

Well that's it folks. Apologies to those who could give a sh*t about my GWU classes.