Enrolments for 2021 have closed.
Strategic Thinking
Postgraduate | MAQ-PICX8050 | 2021
Previously MAQ-PICX850
Course information for 2021 intake View information for 2024 course intake
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.
- Study method
- 100% online
- Assessments
- 100% online
- Entry requirements
- Part of a degree
- Duration
- 18 weeks
FEE-HELP available
Strategic Thinking
About this subject
On successful completion of this subject, you will be able to:
- Demonstrate specialised knowledge of key concepts, theories and contemporary issues in the field of strategic studies, aligned with the field’s leading thinkers, texts and paradigms.
- Comprehend the challenges and complexities of strategy-making as well as the main features, applications and relative merits of various strategic approaches.
- Apply disciplinary knowledge to analyse and critically evaluate real-world historical and contemporary strategic decisions, cases and issues.
- Apply critical thinking skills in order to cogently and effectively defend intellectual positions and to produce well-reasoned, theoretically informed and empirically substantiated written work.
- A week-by-week guide to the topics you will explore in this subject will be provided in your study materials.
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%)
For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).
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- QS Ranking 2024:
- 10
- Times Higher Education Ranking 2024:
- 10
Entry requirements
To enrol in this subject, you must be admitted into a degree.
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 (Not currently 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.
Study load
- 0.125 EFTSL
- This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.
Equivalent full time study load (EFTSL) is one way to calculate your study load. One (1.0) EFTSL is equivalent to a full-time study load for one year.
Find out more information on Commonwealth Loans to understand what this means to your eligibility for financial support.