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Study masters degree online with Macquarie University through Open Universities Australia. Explore all degrees, subjects and short courses now.

The analytical toolkit and professional know-how developed through Macquarie University’s Master of Intelligence can help you and your team navigate the uncertainty of today’s increasingly complex security challenges, from great power competition to transnational crime, climate change and beyond. In studying this course you will gain in-depth knowledge about the theory and practice of intelligence studies; the evolution of the intelligence enterprise in Australia and around the world; and the emerging domestic, regional and international challenges for intelligence. It will also equip you with a practical skill set to analyse intelligence challenges, based on real world examples. The core units focus on synthesising the latest developments in intelligence theory and practice in order to help build your profile as an intelligence professional. Elective choice allows you to also focus on other aspects of security, including counter terrorism, security and strategic studies, cyber security and criminology.

Dive deep into real world global intelligence issues. Secure practical skills analysing intelligence challenges. Think critically and make ethical judgements.

Master of Intelligence

In a changing international and strategic environment, there is a growing demand for people with specialised knowledge in security and strategic studies. In studying this course you will have a deep understanding of the theory and practice of security and strategy studies. This includes in-depth knowledge of Australia’s emerging security and defence environment in the 21st Century. The course further seeks to equip you with practical skills in terms of thinking through complex security problems in a systematic way in order to enhance your employment opportunities. The core units, provided through the Department of Security Studies and Criminology, focus on synthesising the latest developments in security and strategic studies. They will provide you with an in-depth understanding of theoretical and practical issues at a global, regional and national level. The elective units will allow you to focus on other aspects of security, including cyber security, counter terrorism, intelligence and criminology.

Understand and unlock complex security problems. Develop an in-depth knowledge about Australia’s emerging security and defence environment in the 21st century. Choose your specialisation and focus on the latest developments. Think critically and ethically.

Master of Security and Strategic Studies

In studying this course you will develop an in-depth knowledge about the theory and practice of counter terrorism studies; the emerging domestic, regional and international challenges related to terrorism and its implications for counter terrorism approaches and policies; and the evolution of Australia’s counter terrorism strategies and policies. It will also equip you with a practical skill set to analyse counter terrorism challenges, based on real world examples. The core units, provided through the Department of Security Studies and Criminology, focus on synthesising the latest developments in counter terrorism theory and practices. The elective units allow you to focus on other aspects of security, including intelligence, security and strategic studies, cyber security and criminology.

Investigate domestic, regional and international counter terrorism practices and strategies. Secure a practical skillset analysing worldwide counter terrorism methods and tactics. Acquire intelligence, cyber security and criminology knowledge. Make ethical and social judgements.

Master of Counter Terrorism

Australia and Cyber Intelligence

Policing Investigations and Intelligence

Applied Cyber Security

Intelligence Analysis

Counter-Terrorism Law

Intelligence : Theory and Practice

History of Intelligence

Strategic Thinking

Anarchists, Terrorists, and Freedom Fighters

Law, Crime and Justice

This unit gives students the opportunity to engage in the composition of a self-directed research project in their field of specialization. This unit necessitates students to thoroughly engage with the existing research on their topic, using it as a stepping-stone in developing their own research skills. Students will be accompanied in devising a research question, translate this question into a set of research tasks, synthesise an appropriate methodological framework, conduct a literature review, and write up the result of their research as a coherent long research essay. This research relies on utilizing academic secondary sources and does not require original empirical work.

Supervised Project in Security Studies

This unit equips students with a solid understanding of defense analysis, examining key questions related to strategic domains and grappling with contemporary challenges such as the impact of emerging technologies on defence and strategy. The unit introduces students to a range of analytical techniques and explores net assessment methods, providing them with the knowledge and skills to critically evaluate defense capabilities and challenges.

Defence Analysis and Net Assessment

This unit provides students with the opportunity to examine in depth a current and topical issue in security studies and criminology. The specific topic of the unit will differ each session, capitalizing on opportunities for departmental academics to present contemporary and cutting edge research in areas of emerging concern for the security of Australia, its region and the world.

Emerging Topics in Security Studies

The subject was formerly known as PICX8950 Strategic SimulationThis subject provides students with an opportunity to apply the knowledge they have gain throughout their program of study to a real world crisis. By participating in a dynamic simulation, students will be required to solve problems and find solutions to real world challenges. Students will be assigned to an executive team that includes students with different skill sets and knowledge. These executive teams may include strategists, intelligence analysts, criminologists, counter terrorism experts, and cyber security analysts. Depending on their specialization, students will take one of these roles. Their mission will be to formulate solutions by employing the academic, research and analytical skills they acquired throughout their program. The student will be required to make policy recommendations based on his assessment of the situation.

Immerse yourself in a simulated mission and experience teamwork behind the scenes of a crisis. Choose your intelligence professional role—from cyber terrorism analyst to criminologist and more. Put the theory you’ve learnt during your studies into practice. 

Crisis Simulation

This subject is previously known as PICX921 Australia&#39;s Strategic and Defence PolicyThe rise of China and India to great power status, arms modernisation trends across the region and unresolved territorial disputes in the South China Sea are collectively producing an unprecedented period of uncertainty in Australian defence policymaking. Against this backdrop, Australia&#39;s major ally, the United States, is increasingly expecting its allies and partners to play a more active role in the region. Consequently, the debate over Australia&#39;s strategic and defence policy choices has intensified in recent years. This unit investigates the current debates in Australia’s strategic and defence policy. Students will not only explore how external developments are shaping defence policy, but also look internally into the process of how Australian defence policymaking is created. In particular, this unit will examine the bureaucratic politics within the Department of Defence and between the three Services (Navy, Army and Air Force) when shaping defence policy.

Consider Australia’s strategic and defence policy since federation, and the decision-making process of the ADF and alliances such as ANZUS. Judge policy concepts and defence economics by evaluating white papers and force posture reviews.

Australia's Strategic and Defence Policy

This subject was previously known as PICX808 Cyber Terrorism and Information WarfareThis subject provides an overview of the new and developing threats that cyberspace brings in terms of global security and the implications for corporate, law enforcement and national security responses. The course will analyse cyber attacks involving both nation state actors and non-nation state actors with political motives (including terrorists) through historical, operational and strategic perspectives. Students will gain an understanding of various definitions of cyber espionage, cyber terrorism, cyber warfare and information warfare. They will also be able to analyse how nation states and non-nation state actors utilise the Internet as an attack vector in information warfare to infiltrate digital systems to gain control of critical infrastructure. The subject is interactive and students are expected to actively participate in seminars and online discussion forums.

Raise your awareness of cyberspace threats and the implications for law enforcement and national security responses. Study the role of the internet in radicalisation and recruitment, and the role of digital currency in money laundering.

Cyber Conflict, Cyber Espionage and Information Warfare

The unit was formerly known as PICX8061 Transnational Security.The unit is designed as a thorough introduction into UN peace operations, a continually high salience issue of global politics. The unit is divided into three parts: the theory and history of UN peace operations from 1947 through the present, including peacekeeping principles, doctrinal developments and evolving peacekeeping typology; the operations/praxis of peace operations, to include for example, the rules and practices on troop contributions, funding, and deployment models; and current debates, to include for example, whether peace operations work; contested consent, and the future of peacekeeping during great power competition.

Multi-dimensional by definition, this course seeks to understand the connection between political, economic, military, social, and cultural security, while teaching the high-order research skills required to appraise and analyse security challenges.

Peace Operations

The subject was formerly known as PICX860 Geopolitics and Geostrategy
The international security order is in a period of rapid transformation. This subject examines the major global geopolitical trends, including in the Indo-Pacific, the greater Middle East, Europe, as well as Latin America and Africa. It also analyses the influence of those dynamics on the geostrategies of key countries. Aside from exposing students to the concept of geopolitics as an analytical instrument, the subject will deal with a series of case studies, including the evolving US-Sino rivalry; the Sino-India great power game; the geopolitics of Southeast Asia; the rise of Iran, and the emerging roles of Saudi Arabia and Turkey; the question of the re-emergence of Russia and Germany as great powers; and the Subjected Kingdom in times of Brexit. The subject will provide students with in-depth understanding about the key contemporary global geostrategic dynamics and the implications for regional and international stability.

Get a global perspective on the political issues that affect places like the Middle East and Europe. Flick through case studies from across the years. Discuss contemporary points such as Brexit and the re-emergence of Russia and Germany’s power.

The Geopolitics of Asia

This subject was previously known as PICX850 Strategic Thinking.
This subject addresses the challenges of formulating, assessing and engaging with strategy in historical and contemporary geopolitical contexts. It exposes students to classical and formal approaches to strategic thought, and teaches students how to write policy briefs where they will engage with strategic challenges in relation to real-world policy contexts. Content will include the fundamentals of strategy and the challenges of strategy formulation and assessment given uncertainty and the logic of military operations, the logics of bargaining in different strategic contexts, diplomacy, signalling and strategic narratives, making strategy in conventional and unconventional scenarios given uncertainty about power, credibility and conflict dynamics, the implications of domestic politics and asymmetric warfare. Students will further address these challenges through identifying them in cases and assessing the implications of these for contemporary challenges.

Produce theoretical and empirical academic research by absorbing foundational concepts such as security, war, coercion, intervention, arms races, geopolitics, civil-military relations and cyber warfare. 

This subject is previously known as PICX849 Cyber Policing and Intelligence in AustraliaCyberspace has become a major site for different forms of warfare and coercion, ranging from cyber disruption, through information compromise, all the way to covert information operations on a national level. In this unit students learn how robust cyber intelligence can be used to enhance the often-reactive posture of cyber security. This includes understanding the role of cyber intelligence and counterintelligence within the broad, integrated configuration of cyber-security. Students will learn fundamental intelligence collection and analysis principles and apply them to a cyber-security context.

Examine cyber policing from an intelligence-led policing perspective by looking at cybercrime, jurisdictions and extradition, information sharing, collaboration and cyber policing challenges

Course results for Macquarie University Postgraduate Security & counter terrorism Degrees

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