This course identifies the public law, regulation, and associated policy that facilitates and in some cases restricts emergency management planning, recovery, and relief. Topics include national, state, and local issues and examples of public law. The course also covers issues associated with intergovernmental (fire, police, EMS, emergency management, military, etc.) action in emergencies as such action relates to regulation or public law.

This course provides an overview of what is known about natural hazards, disasters, recovery, and mitigation, how research findings have been translated into policies and programs, and a sustainable hazard mitigation research agenda. The course also provides an examination of past disaster losses and hazards management over the past 50 years, including factors--demographic, climate, social--that influence loss.

This course is a study of the economics associated with international, national, state, or local level disaster. Students will study, analyze, and conduct research on the direct and indirect economic losses associated with disaster. The course will cover the economics associated with both public and private institutions.

This course deals with the casualty consequences of large scale emergency, disaster, and/or destruction. Public health, emergency casualty services, mortuary, and other issues are addressed using case examples, theory, and principles that have been researched, studied, and documented in international, national, and local settings. The course covers the background and philosophy, parameters, clinical issues, special circumstances (CBRN/WMD), clinical and non-clinical issues, and recovery strategies in Mass Casualty Incident Management. In conjunction with the outlined topics, the course examines a number of Mass Casualty Incident Management Case Studies (New York City, Jerusalem, Toronto, New Orleans, Tokyo and Madrid).

A new normal is now present with respect to wildland fire occurrence. Mega-drought, depleted water resources, climate change-enabled forest insect infestations, reduced snowpack, and related impacts have resulted in earlier, more prolonged, and more deadly fire seasons in America’s natural wilderness regions. Mitigation of and adaptation to this new normal are important features of protecting the public that students, practitioners, and public officials must be aware of in order to effectively discharge their respective duties. This course will make current and future public officials aware of the challenge, the urgency of action, the opportunities available, and the leadership & management skills needed to guide society during this increasingly critical threat situation.

This course addresses the potential results from nuclear, biological, and chemical incidents or uses. Topics include public health consequences of such incidents, emergency planning and response measures in place among U.S. agencies, and emerging detection and management technologies. Existing vulnerabilities to these types of incidents and attacks will also be discussed.

A healthy cyberinfrastructure is the foundation of emergency and disaster management. It provides emergency and disaster management agencies the ability to effectively address and respond to natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and law enforcement issues. Technology has leveled the global playing field, and the impact on the cyberinfrastructure must be assessed among all relevant communities. This means implementing cybersecurity awareness into all levels of emergency and disaster management through: knowledge management, task behavior, dissemination of information, cyberinfrastructure impact awareness, communication, and deterrence. Students will be exposed to planning, management, response, and recovery factors related to cyberinfrastructure, as well as analyze economic, social, and technical aspects of cybersecurity associated with public emergencies and disasters.

This course offers students the opportunity to study a historical disaster of their choosing in depth. The theory of case study analysis is covered in detail—problem formulation, research methodology, data collection, and analytical techniques are examined. Concurrently, students develop a topic statement and concept of analysis for their chosen disaster. The final product of the course is a case analysis that includes a telling of the story of the disaster; a depiction of the methodology that will be utilized to understand the disaster in academic terms; an analysis of what happened and why; and the lessons that can be drawn from the study that would improve the field of emergency and disaster management. Students will learn a valuable research skill that can be used repeatedly throughout their careers.

This course examines necessary communication that must be provided by public officials before and during emergencies and disasters in order to protect the public and achieve understanding and cooperation. Specific theories of emergency and disaster communication are examined. The communication surrounding several recent disaster events is analyzed, and students write a press briefing or press release for one of these cases. Finally, students engage in a forum discussion of a disaster of their choice, appropriately titled: ‘the good, the bad, and the totally clueless.’ Students achieve an enhanced ability to deal with the media and the public before and during crisis situations, which is an extremely valuable skill to have.

Emergencies and disasters do or can impact all people, anywhere, at any time. The emergency and disaster management field was developed in recognition of this, and seeks to prepare practitioners and public officials for the challenges that they will face. Evidence indicates that the impact of disasters is not distributed evenly—that in fact, the poor, minorities, and women are disproportionately impacted by disasters. This is something that students, practitioners, and public officials must be aware of in order to effectively and ethically discharge their respective duties. This course will make current and future officials aware of the impacts of race, poverty, gender, and similar social justice issues that they will need to consider in their careers in emergency management and public service.

Climate change and global warming are real, and science has coalesced around the fact that mankind’s activities are causing or contributing to the rapid global warming that is currently in progress. Mankind’s input into the equation is the burning of carbon fuels, which releases unprecedented levels of carbon dioxide, a highly potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. The field of emergency management typically divides activities into four components: planning, mitigation, response, and recovery. It is now time to add a fifth component: adaptation. Mankind’s activities have programmed into the future climate somewhere between one and six degrees Celsius of warming, and a significant but as yet incalculable amount of sea level rise. We do not have the option of stopping or reversing these events, so we must adapt if our civilization is to survive. The student will begin by examining the science itself, courtesy of the Climate Reality Project. The student will examine how the US government has evaluated the situation in the National Climate Assessment. The student will look at both the pessimistic and optimistic possibilities that our future could hold. Students will select a book from a supplemental reading list and report on their topic of choice in the forums. To conclude, students will create a personal Climate Change Adaptation Plan for themselves, their families, and/or their organizations.

This course explores the threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) as a unique phenomenon within the homeland security landscape. Specifically, this course provides students with a historical perspective on the development and use of WMD from both an international and a domestic perspective. The course also explores the efforts to prevent, prepare, and respond to the use of WMDs.

This is an interactive course designed to help students achieve a greater understanding of the statistical methods and models available to analyze data and to solve problems associated with making decisions and testing hypotheses in uncertain conditions. The course is designed for students seeking a thorough appreciation of how statistical tools can support sound decision making efforts in a wide range of situations. Topics covered include inferential statistics, averages, measures of variation, the Normal distribution and its uses, sampling distributions, hypothesis testing for large and small samples, regression and correlation, and Chi-Square distributions. The skills, tools and methodologies needed to analyze systems and to make decisions are provided. State of the art analytical tools and quantitative methods, including computer-based solutions are discussed. The emphasis of the course will be on the proper use of statistical techniques and their implementation rather than on mathematical proofs. However, some mathematics is necessary in order to understand the proper application of the techniques introduced and discussed during the course.

This course examines the variables involved in crisis planning, communication, and management. To do so, we must consider the organization's vulnerabilities, the environment in which it thrives, the stakeholders who can influence its operation and the strategies best suited to maintaining or enhancing its reputation. The media plays a crucial role in crisis management, and we will discuss this factor throughout the course. We will consider how the media acts as a catalyst as well as an intermediary in this process. Some of the questions that will arise will be: Is the relationship inherently antagonistic? Should it be? By the conclusion of the course, participants should have developed a deeper understanding of the range of crises facing organizations, an enhanced appreciation of communication tactics that can be brought to bear in such situations and a greater familiarity with the historical antecedents of current crises.

This course examines a range of management issues and strategies within the context of managing public organizations. The core focus is on an enhanced understanding of the theoretical and practical approaches to public management, an examination of enduring and day-to-day dilemmas faced by competent public managers, and the application of relevant theories to public management within the United States.

This course will expand the student's understanding of the leading approaches to public administration with a focus on the local and state levels of government. It will cover topics including decision-making, budget and taxation, and electoral and legal differences between state and local governments and other states. It will cover the legislative process, and how it fits into the larger federal system. Students will see the implications to the larger federal issues they have studied and their application to state and local bureaucracies.

This course is a fascinating study of the concepts of medical and healthcare issues in emergency management in mass-casualty and high-impact incidents. The student will learn about the planning and coordination--from the national to the local levels--necessary to respond to disasters that are natural (such as earthquakes, floods, tornadoes and heat waves); industrial, technological and transportation (such as hazardous materials, air crashes and mass gatherings); conflict-related (such as terrorist attacks and mass shootings); as well as the education, training and research done before, during and after these events.

This course focuses on the principles, types, and forms of health management systems that exist to serve public needs during society’s most threatening crises. Topics range from international and national political and policy views of disaster health management down to local levels where leading hospitals and emergency managers must respond to public health disasters on a daily basis.

This course provides a graduate level study of epidemiologic concepts and approaches to population problems in public health. It covers a wide spectrum of topics, to include outbreak investigation, test properties, and study design. The course will provide understanding of disease and disease transmission, rates and proportions associated with different forms of outbreak, and epidemiological risk management methods and measures. Students are required to utilize Epi info software to complete their assignments. (Prerequisite: PBHE550)

This course is an opportunity for the School of Security and Global Studies graduate student to pursue an independent research project or examine a specific area of Security and Global Studies under the mentorship of a single professor. Participation is at the discretion of the faculty member. This course will require a major research paper of approximately 30-40 pages; there will be no examination. Students will submit a proposal prior to the start of the project, an annotated bibliography, and a final paper at week 8, all of which will count toward the final grade. To be eligible for an independent study, students must be enrolled in a graduate degree program, must have completed 24 hours at APUS toward their current degree program, and should have already contacted a professor and gained approval for the independent study topic. Once these conditions are met the student should contact their academic advisor. Once the course is open the student must complete an official online registration for the course.

This is a special topics course that is designed to afford students the opportunity to examine topics not covered by the existing curriculum. View the course schedule to find out details about each course including prerequisites, course objectives, course materials, a snapshot of the syllabi, and session dates. The subject matter of each special topics courses may vary, and special topics courses may not be offered every month.

This course serves as the final program requirement for students achieving the emergency and disaster management master’s degree. This course will involve a major research paper or thesis project that demonstrates understanding of and ability to implement the program objectives. The research paper and thesis option will demonstrate understanding of social science research methodology as it applies to the program of study. Students will follow the requirements of the APUS Capstone Manual and the appropriate presentation style guide. NOTE: This course may not be taken until all other courses are completed and the student has a minimum 3.0 GPA. Capstone courses are 16 weeks long and cannot be taken along with any other course.

The School of Security and Global Studies Masters Project Capstone course gives students the opportunity to address issues of public importance that are directly or closely related to their own career, occupation, profession or current position. Creative projects as program capstones may derive from a wide variety of organizationally defined formats such as legislative proposals (local, state or federal), amicus briefs, standard operating procedures, training program manual, procedure manuals, organizational change proposals, communication plans, or recruitment plans to name but a few. The format will be proposed by the student and approved by the instructor. The creative project must demonstrate originality and will follow the style requirements set by the student's academic discipline. For example, a criminal justice student would present work in accordance with the current American Psychological Association (APA) Publication Manual. NOTE: It is mandatory for students to contact their Academic Advising team when they are 2 or 3 courses out from the capstone. Guidance on the format of the research study proposal and a sample proposal are contained in the APUS Research Study Manual. NOTE: This course may not be taken until all other courses are COMPLETED. THIS COURSE IS 16 WEEKS.