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Academic Catalog 2023-2024

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Security and Resilience Studies, MS

2023-2024 Edition

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Security and resilience studies is an emerging field of inquiry that focuses on how global, national, and subnational actors manage a range of chronic transnational challenges—such as terrorism, organized crime, weapons proliferation, cyberattacks, bioterrorism, climate change and catastrophic disasters, migration, and radicalization—that can be destabilizing to societies. It explores how strategic doctrines, organization processes, bureaucratic behaviors, and security tools and tactics are adapting to these challenges by placing greater emphasis on resilience. Resilience is a concept rooted in multiple disciplines that is gaining widespread currency at the community, societal, and global levels given the prevalence of human-made and naturally occurring threats that do not lend themselves to preventive and protective measures. Strategies for dealing with these threats emphasize measures that mitigate, respond to, recover from, and adapt to risk in order to safeguard essential functions and societal values. Many of these measures involve the role of technologies, system design, and engineering as well as policy, regulatory, and governance issues. Students at Northeastern who enroll in the Master of Science in Security and Resilience Studies have an opportunity to become prepared to inform and support domestic and international efforts to deal with the major sources of turbulence in the 21st century. 

The master’s program offers an optional cooperative education experience (co-op) to eligible students. Cooperative education is central to both the Northeastern experience and to the College of Social Sciences and Humanities experiential liberal arts framework. Northeastern’s signature co-op ecosystem provides qualified master's students with six-month work experiences in businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies in Boston and across the United States. Graduate students take their work from campus learning spaces, apply their knowledge outside of the classroom, and then bring knowledge and skills gained in community learning spaces back to our campus learning spaces during the cocurricular experiential integration course.

To earn the Master of Science in Security and Resilience Studies degree at Northeastern, you must successfully complete 32 semester hours (34 semester hours with co-op). Full-time students can expect to complete the degree within one calendar year. This program can be completed either at Northeastern University’s Boston campus or online. Cost per semester hour may vary based on the college that offers the course. See Tuition and Fees for more information.

Academic Standing/Progress

Satisfactory progress in the MS program includes maintaining a minimum grade-point average of 3.000.

Complete all courses and requirements listed below unless otherwise indicated.

Core Requirements

Course List
Code Title Hours
Required Core Courses
POLS 7341Security and Resilience Policy 14
Research Method
INSH 6300Research Methods in the Social Sciences4
or INSH 6500 Statistical Analysis
or PPUA 5263 Geographic Information Systems for Urban and Regional Policy
Core Elective Courses
Complete 8 semester hours from the following:8
CRIM 6200
Criminology 1
CY 5010
Foundations of Information Assurance 1
POLS 7343
Counterterrorism
POLS 7346
Resilient Cities
or PPUA 7346
Resilient Cities
POLS 7369
International Security
or POLS 5408
International Security
POLS 7441
Cyberconflict
PPUA 5390
Special Topics in Public Policy and Urban Affairs 1

Capstone

Course List
Code Title Hours
Choose one of the following options in consultation with faculty advisor and program director:4
POLS 7980
Capstone Project 1
or PPUA 7673
Capstone in Public Policy and Urban Affairs

Electives

Electives are organized by themes to allow students to think thematically.

Course List
Code Title Hours
Complete 12 semester hours from any combination of the following elective themes:12
  • Administration, Management, and Policy
  • Counterterrorism and Conflict Studies
  • Criminal Justice
  • Cybersecurity Policy 
  • Resilient Cities

Administration, Management, and Policy

Course List
Code Title Hours
CRIM 6202
The Criminal Justice Process
POLS 7387
Global Governance
POLS 7704
Critical Infrastructure Resilience 1
PPUA 6502
Economic Analysis for Policy and Planning
PPUA 6503
Managing People in Public and Nonprofit Sectors 1
PPUA 6505
Public Budgeting and Financial Management 1
PPUA 6506
Techniques of Policy Analysis 1
PPUA 6507
Institutional Leadership and the Public Manager 1

Counterterrorism and Conflict Studies 

Course List
Code Title Hours
CRIM 5201
Global Criminology
POLS 7343
Counterterrorism
POLS 7344
Hard Power, Soft Power, and Smart Power
POLS 7366
Genocide in a Comparative Perspective
POLS 7369
International Security
or POLS 5408
International Security

Criminal Justice

Course List
Code Title Hours
CRIM 5201
Global Criminology
CRIM 6200
Criminology 1
CRIM 6202
The Criminal Justice Process
CRIM 6262
Evidence-Based Crime Policy

 Cybersecurity Policy

Course List
Code Title Hours
CY 5001
Cyberspace Technology and Applications
CY 5010
Foundations of Information Assurance
CY 5200
Security Risk Management and Assessment
CY 5210
Information System Forensics
CY 5240
Cyberlaw: Privacy, Ethics, and Digital Rights
CY 5250
Decision Making for Critical Infrastructure
PHIL 5005
Information Ethics
PHIL 5010
AI Ethics
POLS 7441
Cyberconflict 1

 Resilient Cities

Course List
Code Title Hours
CRIM 6200
Criminology
CRIM 6262
Evidence-Based Crime Policy
CRIM 6270
Crime and Community Context
LPSC 7312
Cities, Sustainability, and Climate Change
POLS 7346
Resilient Cities
or PPUA 7346
Resilient Cities
POLS 7704
Critical Infrastructure Resilience 1
PPUA 5261
Dynamic Modeling for Environmental Decision Making
PPUA 5262
Big Data for Cities 1
PPUA 5263
Geographic Information Systems for Urban and Regional Policy
PPUA 5266
Urban Theory and Science
PPUA 6201
The 21st-Century City: Urban Opportunities and Challenges in a Global Context
PPUA 7237
Advanced Spatial Analysis of Urban Systems

Optional Co-op Experience

Course List
Code Title Hours
Four-month co-ops require registration at 1 SH for one term. Longer co-ops require registration at 1 SH per term for two consecutive terms.1-2
POLS 6964
and INSH 6864
Co-op Work Experience
and Experiential Integration

Program Credit/GPA Requirements

32 total semester hours (33-34 with optional co-op) required
Minimum 3.000 GPA required

1

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