War Studies Minor

Print Degree Planner (opens a new window) |

Statement of Purpose: War Studies is inherently interdisciplinary, bridging the humanities and sciences to equip the future leaders and officers of the 21st-century. Through the study of conflicts past and present, the Minor in War Studies bolsters the essential skills that are the bastion of a Citadel education: critical thinking, concepts of leadership, and a complex understanding of the global environment. The Minor in War Studies thus complements academic work in almost every other field of study at The Citadel and is a natural complement to the institution’s core mission.

The Minor in War Studies trains students to think critically, to synthesize diverse fields of data, to broaden horizons, and to communicate persuasively. These transferable skills are vital to leadership positions across society in the 21st century: not only within the military, but also within the civilian and security job markets, where critical thinking about real-world problems is crucial to success.

Administration: The Minor in War Studies is overseen by a steering Committee on War Studies, headed by a Director for the Minor. The Committee on War Studies shall comprise three members, one from History, one from the remainder of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and one from the School of Science & Math. The Director for the Minor shall be selected from among the three. Each member serves renewable two-year terms.

Curriculum:

To earn the Minor in War Studies, students must complete 15 hours of coursework from the list of courses curated by the Director and Committee on War Studies. Courses used to fulfill elective requirements in a student’s major may also fulfill requirements for the War Studies minor. Students are required to take one Military History course, one War & Society course, and three electives. No more than 9 hours of coursework from any one department may count toward the requirements of the minor. Students must achieve a cumulative grade point average of at least 2.0 on the courses taken to satisfy the requirements for the Minor in War Studies. A new course designation, WARS, will identify new interdisciplinary courses confirmed for use with the Minor.

In addition to the coded courses below, a student may submit, per the Director’s approval, any Special Topics course from any department on campus toward the requirements of the Minor in War Studies. The Governing Committee of the Minor in War Studies will also issue a curated list of eligible courses prior to registration each semester.

The list of courses below will be supplemented every semester by Special Topics courses curated by the War Studies Committee, such as CHEM 309 - Current Topics in Chemistry or PSCI 433 - Topics in International Politics .

Course in “Military History”

Any course from History numbered between HIST 372 and HIST 395 .

1 Course in “War and Society”

HIST 304 - The Civil War Credit Hours: 3
HIST 335 - Weimar and Nazi Germany Credit Hours: 3
HIST 338 - Britain and World War I Credit Hours: 3
HIST 341 - The Reformation and Wars of Religion Credit Hours: 3
HIST 364 - The Arab-Israeli Conflict Credit Hours: 3
HIST 372 - Special Topics in War and Society Credit Hours: 3

Elective Courses

No more than one from the above History courses, but otherwise selected from the following courses and the curated Special Topics list:

BIOL 207 - Bioterrorism Credit Hours: 3
CRMJ 332 - Comparative Counter-Terrorism Credit Hours: 3
ENGL 210 - The Literature of War Credit Hours: 3
PHIL 410 - Humanity in Crisis: The Problems of Good and Evil Credit Hours: 3
PSCI 332 - National Security Policy Credit Hours: 3
PSCI 335 - Comparative Foreign and Defense Policies Credit Hours: 3
PSCI 346 - Multinational Peacekeeping Credit Hours: 3
PSCI 348 - Theories of Peace and War Credit Hours: 3