REECAS Quarterly Course Lists
Spring 2021: JSIS 578/488 NATO, Energy, and Cyber Security in Europe
Spring 2021
Class Synchronous Meeting schedule:
Thursdays 9:00 am – 11:50 am PST
Class Asynchronous Meeting schedule:
One additional hour Tuesdays or Thursdays (depending on students’ schedules) will be provided for small group student mentorship. Additional asynchronous meetings can be scheduled depending on students’ mentorship needs.
Location: Online
SLN: 15765
Joint Sections: N/A
Instructors: Dr. Sarah Lohmann and Ambassador John Koenig
Additional Details:
Welcome to NATO, Energy, and Cyber security in Europe! This class provides an overview of challenges faced across NATO countries due to hybrid warfare emanating from non-Alliance states and malicious actors. It looks at the emerging technology environment, and how cyber intrusions have compromised energy grids and critical infrastructure. It challenges students to develop deep research on the greatest challenges to energy stability and cybersecurity, to develop scenarios for mitigation of cyber intrusions, and to create more resilient energy sources. The class enables students to expand their professional portfolio by writing country-specific case studies which could be published in a publication that is part of a NATO Science and Technology project to be passed out a NATO ministerial. It will also expose them to experts from government, the military and academia across NATO countries to gain real insights into the greatest international security challenges facing the Alliance states, and how these are being resolved.
Please note: Undergraduate students interested in taking the course must email Dr. Lohmann at slohmann@uw.edu with a writing sample of 1200 words to be admitted to the class. The writing sample can be a previous research paper or publication, preferably addressing an international security topic. This is a class where the main graded assignment is an in-depth research paper. Students should have strong writing and research skills. The class is limited to 12 graduate and 5 undergraduate students. Add codes will be sent to undergraduate students only after they have received written confirmation in response to their application essay.
Objectives
At the end of the course, students will be able to:
- Identify renewable energy sources, hybrid attack vectors and vulnerabilities that could negatively impact the energy supply chain, cybersecurity, critical infrastructure, and thus, NATO effectiveness in Europe.
- Second, they will have created their own publishable country-specific case study on topics such as: how to mitigate cyber-attacks on an energy grid, improve energy sustainability, and work together with allies to protect critical infrastructure.
About the instructors
Dr. Lohmann and Ambassador Koenig both formerly worked for the U.S. Department of State. Amb. Koenig is the former American ambassador to Cyprus and previously served as Deputy U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO and a senior member of the NATO International Staff. Dr. Lohmann, who has taught at the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Munich for the last decade, served as a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and as a senior public diplomacy officer in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. She is currently helping to lead the NATO Science and Technology project “Energy Security in an Era of Hybrid Warfare.”