Examine new challenges to national security.
Emerging Threats in National Security is a semester-long seminar exploring non-traditional challenges to U.S. national security. This program asks whether traditional paradigms of security are adequate to address novel, non-kinetic threats in 2026 and beyond.
Topics include space competition and commercial constellations, inclusion and identity in the military, climate change and displacement, and transnational cartels as hybrid actors. Students will analyze current cases—from Pentagon personnel policies to the U.S. strike on a Venezuelan fast-boat—and debate their legality, morality, and strategic wisdom.
The seminar is interdisciplinary and designed to draw students from across majors. We will examine law, policy, politics, strategy, history, ethics, and science, and encourage vigorous debate and collaborative problem-solving. Students will produce short briefs and a final capstone paper. Guest speakers and a Washington, D.C. experiential trip will provide direct engagement with practitioners.
The seminar is not designed as a broad introductory survey; rather, it adopts an advanced “selected topics” perspective, focusing on a small number of salient or emerging national security issues of the greatest importance, urgency, and difficulty. It is interdisciplinary, embracing considerations of law, policy, politics, strategy, history, ethics, science, and more. Participants will discuss how our country has reacted to prior crises and threats to national security, whether those reactions netted positive overall gains to national security, and how we can best use the lessons learned from past crises to tackle present and future national security challenges. The seminar is designed to be highly interactive, relying upon vigorous discussion and debate among all class members.
The program begins with a foundation in national security, providing students an opportunity to think more broadly about the field. Students are encouraged to question whether traditional concepts adequately address new and novel threats facing the United States domestically and internationally While national security may be traditionally thought to be the domain of lawyers and political scientists, this program seeks to include students from diverse backgrounds to join the national security dialogue. Students from all majors are encouraged to apply.
Each session will focus on a different national security issue currently facing the United States. Given the rapid, dynamic, and often unprecedented policy changes to issues impacting national security during the current administration, each session will focus on how the United States is presently handling issues of national security and will draw from current news reports and academic literature to challenge students' views. Students will explore these current and on-going topics and engage directly with one another, debating the merits of each issue and proposing policy to elevate those issues they believe to be among the most pressing national security concerns.
The program concludes with discussions on the U.S. national security decision-making process and ethical dimensions of national security policy and will challenge whether the traditional paradigm for addressing national security is adequate given new threats. At the end of the program, students will work in pairs to produce policy briefs which will be compiled into a report and published on the Eisenhower Institute’s Website and social media platforms.
A key component of this program will be an experiential learning trip to the Washington, D.C. area to visit the centers of power where national security decisions are made. As part of this journey, students will participate in a simulation activity with national security professionals to challenge and strengthen their decision-making abilities.
The program is led by attorney Annie W. Morgan Esq. ’06, a Gettysburg College alumna and adjunct professor of political science. Ms. Morgan is a Senior Military Defense attorney for the Law Offices of David P. Shelton, PLLC. Previously she was Attorney Advisor for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network with the U.S. Treasury Department, and a civilian defense attorney with the Department of Defense Military Commissions Defense Organization, investigating torture and other human rights violations.
Spring 2026 Schedule
Emerging Threats in National Security will meet on-campus for four sessions during the spring semester. Students will also spend part of their Spring Break in Washington, D.C. Dates below are tentative, and students applying should be available on Tuesday evenings from 4pm-6pm during the spring semester.
Tuesday, January 20, 4pm-6pm
Topic: Identity, Inclusion, and Security in the Military
Tuesday, February 10, 4pm-6pm
Topic: Transnational Criminal Networks and Nonstate Threats
Tuesday, March 3, 4pm-6pm
Topic: Space Domain and Extracyber Integration
Spring Break Trip to D.C. – March 12 – 14
Tuesday, April 7, 4pm-6pm
Topic: Climate Change as a Threat Multiplier
Attendance at ALL sessions is required.
It is each student's responsibility to ensure that class schedules do not conflict, or to make arrangements with professors to make up work or assessments.