Professor Michael F. Oppenheimer

Course Details
February 6 - February 27, 2008
Interactive sessions meet Wednesdays, 6:45-8:15 PM, Eastern Time
Course Number: X12.9009 | Price: $250

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Michael F. Oppenheimer is a professor in the Global Affairs master's degree program at New York University.

Times Journalists (clockwise from upper-left): Susan Chira, Foreign Editor; Steven Lee Myers, Moscow Bureau Chief; David E. Sanger, Chief Washington Correspondent; Elaine Sciolino, Paris Bureau Chief.

Course Description
How durable is America's position as the world's only superpower? This course will examine challenges from China, Russia, the European Union and Iran, focusing on their foreign policies and US responses, and introducing students to the basics of international relations theory.

Questions considered in this course include: To what extent are America's challengers interested in diminishing US primacy? Are these challengers acting in response to current US policy or are they motivated by more enduring considerations? How are these challenges being carried out, and how effective are they likely to be? And how is the US responding to them?

This course will consist of assigned readings, online lectures, and moderated discussions among academics and New York Times journalists followed by questions from students.

About the Professor
Michael F. Oppenheimer is a professor in the Global Affairs master's degree program at New York University. He also does extensive consulting, specializing in future-oriented policy analysis for the US foreign policy and intelligence communities. He is an expert on international conflict, global economics, US-European relations and national security strategy. He has published on a wide range of topics, including Europe's future, international trade distortions and US trade policy. For the past decade, Mr. Oppenheimer has worked for Washington foreign-policy makers and intelligence officials on a range of strategic work. He is credited with expanding the use of scenarios and alternative analyses in the US intelligence estimate process. He worked for the chairman of the National Intelligence Council in establishing the method and process, and in facilitating the scenarios for mapping the global future. He has conducted a workshop for The Brookings Institution on legitimacy and the potential use of force against Iran. He is a US delegate for a track two dialogue with Iranian experts, sponsored by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. He is a fellow at the Institute for Homeland Security and consults to the Department of Homeland Security on future threats and US strategies.

Professor Oppenheimer is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Foreign Policy Roundtable at the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, and the American Council on Germany. He is a frequent speaker on the origins and leading indicators of conflict, domestic sources of foreign policy and new approaches to thinking about the global system. Before he joined the NYU faculty, he was president of Global Scenarios, a New York based consulting company, and previously was executive vice president at The Futures Group, a Connecticut-based international research and consulting company with government and corporate clients.

About the Journalists

Susan Chira was named foreign editor for The New York Times in January 2004. Previously, Ms. Chira had been editorial director of book development since September 2002. Before that she was the editor of the Week in Review section at The Times since October 1999, after having served as deputy foreign editor of the newspaper since February 1997. Before that, she served in a variety of reporting positions including national education correspondent, correspondent for the newspaper in Tokyo from October 1984 until February 1989, metropolitan reporter in the Albany and Stamford bureaus, and reporter for the Business Day section.

Steven Lee Myers was appointed Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times in August 2003. Before that, Mr. Myers was a correspondent in the Moscow bureau of The Times since June 2002. He has also worked as the defense correspondent in the Washington bureau since November 1997, after having served as a State Department correspondent since August 1996. He was also a City Hall reporter in New York for three years and a metro reporter for two years.

David E. Sanger, chief Washington correspondent for the New York Times, has covered the arc of the Bush presidency for the paper and specializes in a wide variety of issues, from American foreign policy to globalization, nuclear proliferation to Asian affairs, and the politics of national security. In a 24-year career at The Times, Mr. Samger has reported from New York, Tokyo and Washington, as a correspondent, bureau chief and one of the paper’s senior writers. Twice he has been a member of reporting teams at The Times that won the Pulitzer Prize.

Elaine Sciolino became the Paris bureau chief of The New York Times in September 2002. Previously, Ms. Sciolino was a senior writer in the Washington bureau where she wrote about national security and culture. Ms. Sciolino is the author of "Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran," which was published by The Free Press in October 2000 and is a History Book Club selection. She researched and wrote the book as a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and later as a senior fellow at the United States Institute of Peace. She was also awarded a writing fellowship from Open Society Institute for the project.

More Information
E-mail Inquiries: scps.global.affairs@nyu.edu
Phone Inquiries: (212) 998-7171