For Mark Rozell, dean of George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, the distinctive characteristic of the school’s master’s programs in security studies is their academic breadth combined with practical applications.
“Although there is a strong presence of traditional security focused on military and intelligence, the program covers a variety of security threats facing the nation and the world,” Rozell said. “Among these are transnational crimes, biodefense, threats to the climate and the food system.”
The wide-ranging fields of study, coupled with a faculty with superlative academic credentials and deep experience and connections in the highest levels of the U.S. government, have helped make security studies the fastest growing master’s programs at Schar, Rozell said.
It also was ranked third nationally by U.S. News & World Report in its 2019 evaluations of graduate programs dedicated to homeland and national security, behind only the Naval Postgraduate School and Harvard.
Three of Schar master’s programs contributed to the ranking: public administration and biodefense, both of which have concentrations in homeland security, and the international security program, which has almost doubled the number of students participating (44 to 84) since the spring 2016 semester.
When Carlton Haelig began his master’s studies in international security at George Mason, he did so with high expectations.
With what he called a “top-notch faculty” at his disposal, “I was convinced this was the type of program that would set me up with academic knowledge to be credible in the field, and the professional criteria to break into a highly competitive job market.”
Haelig, who graduated in 2017, also took advantage of Mason’s proximity to Washington, D.C, securing three internships, including one at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. That internship, suggested by University Professor James Pfiffner, helped Haelig land a full-time job as research coordinator at the school’s Center for Ethics and Rule of Law.
“All my expectations were realized,” Haelig said of his time at Mason.
“Our students are well-suited to go into careers in everything from the nonprofit sector to the federal government, “ said Ellen Laipson, director of Schar’s Center for Security Policy Studies. “And in the federal government there is quite a wide range of agencies these programs would equip them for: intelligence, homeland security, diplomacy, as well as civilian and military positions in the defense establishment.”
“What is distinctive,” Laipson added about Schar’s master’s programs, “is the rich balance of full-time faculty who are established scholars in the world of ideas, alongside former practitioners from the policy world.”
Faculty such as distinguished visiting professor Michael Hayden, the former CIA and NSA director, who founded Schar’s Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy and International Security; Bob Deitz, a professor of public policy and former general counsel at the NSA; Laipson, the former president of the Stimson Center, a non-partisan think tank that promotes international peace and security; University Professor Louise Shelley, a leading authority on terrorism and transnational crime; professor Jack Goldstone, one of the world’s leading authorities on revolution and social change; and Greg Koblentz, a leading scholar of biodefense issues.
“We’re equipping students for the challenges they will face in the future, so in the hope that they can make a positive contribution to trying to solve many of the complex problems emerging around the world,” Rozell said.