This interactive course introduces students to novel, applied methods to study terrorism and security, including simulations, wargaming exercises, red teaming, and horizon scanning. This course assumes no prior experience with these methods. Throughout the course, students will work in groups to complete interactive strategy-based activities to understand the behavior of terrorist and criminal groups and develop security strategies to counter violent non-state actors.

This course examines why non-state actors (terrorist groups, paramilitary groups, drug cartels, organized crime groups, gangs, and private security companies) resort to violence and crime, what tactics and strategies they use, how they fund their existence, how they undermine the state, and what can be done to counter the instability they cause. By the end of the course, students will have an in-depth understanding of the problems that plague individual countries throughout Latin America, as well as issues that afflict the region as a whole.