For Incoming Students
WELCOME!
Welcome to the Security Studies Program (SSP) in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. SSP is the largest academic program in the devoted specifically to graduate-level education in security studies.
SSP has prepared its students to enter the policy world and the broader community of experts working on security issues for 30 years. SSP students have gone on to leading positions as policymakers, diplomats, congressional staff members, and intelligence professionals in the and other governments. They also have attained senior positions in the private sector, as journalists, and in the relief community. The vast majority of our students receive employment offers shortly after graduation, and SSP mid-career graduates report receiving promotions and other new professional opportunities.
Students are taught by Georgetown University’s elite graduate faculty, who are experts on issues such as terrorism, illicit economies, peacekeeping, intelligence, and military doctrine. Students also benefit by having instructors from the federal government, the private sector, and prestigious research institutions such as the RAND Corporation and the Brookings Institution. While at SSP, students will learn from both top academic experts and from professors with significant policy experience. The SSP’s extensive course list—more than 60 different courses focused on security issues—is without parallel. Classes range from traditional topics that provide students a strong background in the core of security studies to seminars on cutting-edge topics such as the rise of , intelligence and the policy practice, nuclear weapons programs, Al Qaeda, and counterinsurgency.
There is no better place to study the most important security issues of our day than the Security Studies Program. The faculty and staff here look forward to teaching you and advancing your career in the years to come.
Daniel L. Byman
Director
Security Studies Program
