With the events of Sept. 11 still resonating, the Fletcher School is putting a new academic focus on terrorism by offering interactive courses on crisis prevention and management.
Professor Robert Pfaltzgraff, a Fletcher instructor who specializes in international security studies, teaches a seminar on "Crisis Management and Complex Emergencies." His 25 students consider tactics for crisis aversion and decision-making in the context of international turmoil.
While the course has been offered at Tufts since the 1970s, Pfaltzgraff said the events of Sept. 11 and the subsequent foreign policy changes have led him to redefine the course and rearrange its syllabus.
"The course has changed in that there is now a fourth period of crisis management: pre-World War II, the Cold War, the end of the Cold War until the attacks, and then Sept. 11," Pfaltzgraff said.
Student interest and enrollment in the course has increased since the Sept. 11 attacks, which coincidentally marked the date of the course's first meeting that year.
The course offers hands-on experience in crisis management, including a major weekend exercise, called Simulex, that places participants in a simulated situation where they must work together in the wake of an emergency.
This year's simulation took place two weeks ago - students dealt with a hypothetical Iranian acquisition of nuclear weapons, as well as several terrorist acts committed in the United States and Europe. A team of students representing the militant Islamist organization al Qaeda completed the exercise.
Many of these students, including first-year Karoun Demirjian, enrolled in the optional course because they are considering specializing in either security studies or negotiation and conflict studies.
Demirjian said she registered for the course because she thought "it would be good exposure to see how people think [and] work together when things go wrong."
Alumni of the course include Philip Zelikow, the executive director of the 9/11 commission as well as Stephen Flynn, whose book "America the Vulnerable: How the U.S. Has Failed to Secure the Homeland and Protect Its People from Terrorism" has been widely received since its publication last August.
Pfaltzgraff's course isn't the only Fletcher offering on terrorism - Professor Richard Shultz also offers a seminar on "U.S. Intelligence, Terrorism, and National Security."
But some Tufts undergraduates, particularly those studying international relations, complain about the dearth of courses on terror for them.
Natalie Grano, a sophomore double majoring in international relations and French, expressed disappointment about this situation. "I think there should be increased awareness and education on terrorism," Grano said. "With more education comes less fear, and in today's day and age we must take a look at it in a nonbiased light, for negotiation purposes."
Kirk Okano-Lange, assistant director of the International Relations program, said that during his few months at Tufts, he has "not come across any evidence of a high number of [undergraduate] students who have explicitly asked about courses related to terrorism."
Other schools around the nation are offering similar courses on terrorism, according to The New York Times. The Metropolitan College of New York offers a class called "The Impact of Disaster on Communities." The Metropolitan College and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice now offer Masters programs in terrorism and disaster management.
Pfaltzgraff said such studies are important and necessary to mould future leaders of the international arena.
Terrorism "gives us a great deal to talk as well as an unending list of issues to deal with," Pfaltzgraff said.<$>
