Analytic education has become the new buzzword in universities across the world.
for inclusion in Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programmes related to International Relations, Foreign Affairs, and Public Policy Studies.
We raise our students on raw bear-meat, studying real-life politics. Our case studies describe real actors and real events. Homework projects deal with real issues.
Policy analysis and strategic threat assessment can be unsettling as it deals with disturbing motives and controversial actions. Regardless, we do not believe there is any benefit in hiding the harsh reality from students by constructing bland proxy actors that pretend conducting invented strategies in thought up situations.
A unique feature of our method is emphasis on teamwork. Structured Analytic Techniques are facilitators of collaboration among analysts. Students in our course experience drinking collaboration from the hose.
All three home projects during the course are team projects. While typical university courses focus on individual learning and reward individual accomplishment, our students are taught the importance and the power of working in a group, in pursuit of a common objective. Contemporary analytic work is precisely that – a team act built around group commitment and collaboration.
Those students who intend to take it easy and enjoy the ride without breaking a sweat will promptly realize that a falling out with their team will inevitably have dramatic consequences for their chances to complete coursework and get a good grade.
We do not do any hand-holding nor interfere in team workings. Our courses are consciously styled after the conditions of the real world where the only thing important to the client is the timely delivery of an actionable analytic product. Stress levels on our courses tend to be high. We feel stress is good, because future analysts need to learn how to function under duress.
Last but not least, we also teach students both risk-taking and accountability. The analytic profession is unthinkable without the willingness and the ability to go out on a limb. Our analytic education reflects this reality.
To become an analyst, one has got to have guts, this profession is not for faint-hearted. However, it equally shuns reckless and impulsive risk-happiness. The fine balance between risk and responsibility can be learned only through practice. And practice we provide aplenty – completing course project work demands from a good student some estimated 50 hours.
As a matter of fact, our syllabus is relevant for anyone working or intending to work in a role related to policy development – broadly defined. SAT help produce more creative and robust policy advice aimed at informing policy judgments and selection of courses of action.
Foreign affairs analysts need techniques to compensate for the complexity of international developments, widespread deceptive practices and the inherent limitations of the human mind.
Understanding the intents of foreign actors is challenging, especially since they attempt to conceal them.
Today’s strategic threats reflect an unprecedented degree of complexity and fluidity. They increasingly involve non-state hostile actors and rogue groupings that have displayed “transformer” capability adapting to international efforts aimed at denying them operational freedom.
Globalization has led to dramatic increases in the diversity of outcomes creating a plethora of possible futures.
ALL VALID ARGUMENTS FOR LEARNING STRUCTURED ANALYTIC TECHNIQUES.
