Strategic Thinking

• • A week-by-week guide to the topics you will explore in this subject will be provided in your study materials.

Equivalent subjects

You should not enrol in this subject if you have successfully completed any of the following subject(s) because they are considered academically equivalent:

• MAQ-PICX850-Strategic Thinking (No longer available)

Others

NCCW (pre-2020 units) PICT850, PICX850 Pre-requisite Admission to MPICT or MCPICT or GradDipPICT or GradDipCPICT or PGCertPICT or MPICTMIntSecSt or MCPICTMIntSecSt or MIntSecStud or GradDipIntSecStud or MSecStrategicStud or MCyberSec or MSecStrategicStudMCrim or MSecStrategicStudMIntell or MSecStrategicStudMCyberSec or MSecStrategicStudMCTerrorism

Additional requirements

• Other requirements -

  Students who have an Academic Standing of Suspension or Exclusion under Macquarie University's Academic Progression Policy are not permitted to enrol in OUA units offered by Macquarie University. Students with an Academic Standing of Suspension or Exclusion who have enrolled in units through OUA will be withdrawn.

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. 

• Critical Topic Review (25%)
• Policy memo (25%)
• Research Essay (50%)

Current study term: 23 Jul 23 to 05 Nov 23