Comprehensive Security Cooperation

The Course

The Comprehensive Security Cooperation (CSC) course is a five-week, in-residence executive program offered three times a year for mid-level military, government, and non-government professionals in the security sphere. Its goal is to empower warfighters in the U.S. and its allies and partners, thereby strengthening their collective deterrence against adversaries attempting to alter the status quo, whether by force or coercion below the threshold of armed conflict.

Fellows spend approximately three-quarters of their time on complex, interdisciplinary, and transboundary security challenges and about a quarter on specialty security content that deep-dives into a variety of priority areas for warfighters and defense policymakers. Alongside presentations, discussions, and exercises, Fellows analyze security environments, identify key disruptors, and develop strategies to counter them. Through this collaborative process, they build relationships, enhance mutual understanding, and reinforce defense cooperation.

Throughout the course, Fellows work toward developing resilient solutions to pressing security challenges in the Indo-Pacific. These efforts enhance the capacity of the U.S. and its regional allies and partners to deter malign influence and aggression and effectively respond to complex security threats, thereby bolstering regional stability and upholding the rules-based international order.

Course Goals

CSC aims to contribute to a free, open, prosperous and secure Indo-Pacific by:

  1. Educating: Deepening understanding and encouraging critical evaluation of complex security challenges.
  2. Connecting: Constructing a network of interdisciplinary practitioners in order to enhance international security cooperation.
  3. Empowering: Building individual potential and partner capacity to find innovative solutions to complex security challenges, employing a whole-of-society approach.
Core Content

Critical thinking sessions emphasize the importance of objective, rigorous analysis, while introducing fellows to analytical tools to help them understand complex security challenges.

Geostrategic sessions explore the range of different security challenges, regional security architectures and geostrategic considerations within each  geographic sub-region: Northeast Asia, Southeast  Asia, South Asia and Oceania. These sessions are complemented by an examination the U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy.

Security Challenges examined in detail on the course include, but are not limited to, economics and security; maritime security; counterterrorism and irregular warfare; environmental security; health security; media, misinformation and disinformation; and cybersecurity.

Capacity sessions seek to develop strategic-level understanding of such areas as statecraft; security sector governance; interagency cooperation; crisis management; and women, peace and security.

Exercises include strategic table-top exercises which aim to deepen understanding of strategic cooperation and competition between states.

Completion

Upon successful completion of this course, you will receive a Course Certificate and Alumni Status.

Concentrations

In addition to the core content, Fellows choose to select a specialty “concentration” or focus area that is of particular interest or professional relevance to them and can assist them with their Fellow Project. Concentrations are deep dives on specific security issues, which allow Fellows with mutual interests from different security sectors to work together on complex challenges.

Each iteration of CSC features a different combination of concentrations, including:

How do China and the world interact? How does the People’s Republic handle its relationship with other countries? How can we best manage our relationship with China? This concentration provides professionals with a forum rich in perspectives and the tools necessary to tackle these questions. We will explore the roots of China’s rise, the Chinese way of influencing, such as “winning without fighting” and lawfare, and the art and science of managing our interdependence with China, among other topics.

This concentration provides an in-depth exploration of how influence, information, and perception have emerged as critical instruments of power in today’s complex security landscape. Fellows will examine the strategic deployment of narratives, psychological operations, advanced technologies, and cyber capabilities by state and non-state actors to influence behavior, undermine adversaries, and maintain strategic advantage. Through interactive simulations, policy exercises, and sessions led by subject matter experts, this module offers insights derived from critical case studies. Fellows will develop practical competencies in influence mapping and counter-narrative strategies, thereby enhancing their professional effectiveness in today’s multidomain security environment.

The IW concentration focuses on the strategies, operations, and tactics used by malign state and non-state actors to coerce or otherwise influence targets below the threshold of conventional war—ranging from disinformation and political interference to terrorism and hybrid warfare. In addition to benefiting from the opportunity to share best practices in IW and lessons learned from throughout the Indo-Pacific and beyond, Fellows gain insights into the strategies, as well as tactics, techniques, and procedures, used by malign actors and explore options to deter and proactively respond to these threats.

This concentration explores the critical relationship between the defense industrial base, national security strategy, and deterrence. Participants analyze how DIB can adapt to emerging regional and global security challenges by focusing on acquisition lifecycles (technological innovation, production, and sustainment), human resources, supply chains, and security. The lectures, seminars, electives, and exercises provide a holistic understanding of DIB and prepare participants for multinational collaboration.

 The DAP concentration explores the theory and practice of deterrence in the context of alliances and partnerships. It examines the evolution of deterrence strategies, the role of extended deterrence, burden-sharing dynamics, and contemporary challenges such as emerging technologies, gray-zone conflicts, and geopolitical shifts, which are supported by case studies on multilateral deterrence frameworks and U.S. alliances.

The NSE concentration explores how economic policies—such as investments, trade agreements, sanctions, tariffs, economic statecraft, and defense industrial policy—play a critical role in shaping national security by influencing alliances and geopolitical power. National security economics is a subfield of economics that examines the intersection between economic factors and a nation’s security. It involves studying how economic resources, policies, and systems determine a nation’s ability to defend itself, maintain internal stability, and influence global power dynamics. In this concentration, fellows—both warfighters and security practitioners—will have the opportunity to understand defense economics, international trade, geopolitical strategy, industrial policy, supply chains, cyber and maritime security, and public finance dynamically interact with each other.

Upcoming Concentrations

CSC 25-2
7 May – 11 June 2025

  • Defense Industrial Base
  • China and the World
  • Cognitive Warfare Strategies

CSC 25-3
13 August – 17 September 2025

  • Irregular Warfare
  • National Security Economics
  • Deterrence with Allies and Partners

Fellow Projects

Fellows  apply what they learn on the course by working on either individual or group-based projects, which seek to find innovative solution to complex problems.