Richard Betts

There are no recent reviews for this class, which perturbed me when I decided to take it this last semester (Fall 2013). I thought I would add my thoughts to make up for the dearth of information. The last person who wrote on this class was a GS student who had previously served in the Marine Corps. I write this as 3.5 GPA political science undergraduate junior with something of a hard-on for military history and affairs who got a surprise A. Readings: The course is almost entirely about the readings. There are approximately 3000 pages of it all, which sounds terribly intimidating when one first signs up. Indeed, Betts does everything in his power to impress upon you just how terrified you should be, but in reality I found it much more manageable than the horror stories I had heard. Most weeks have a relatively modest 50-200 pages of reading, which is no more than Jervis's Intro to IR, or any other moderately high level polisci course for that matter. One or two weeks have gargantuan loads of 400-500 pages, while an equal number have fewer than 50 pages. I would say that I actually read about 70-80% of the material without breaking much of a sweat. I simply missed out the entirety of the really heavy weeks. On account of the fact that the exams allow you to choose your questions, you only read to know about 70% of the course well to get an A. Basically, when it comes to the re…

To enroll in this class, you must fill out an application. Fill this out carefully since it will determine if you make it into the class. Betts tells you that getting into the class is the first hurdle, and indeed it is. Betts is scary, though over time, he becomes a bit more friendly in the classroom and begins to call students by their first name. This does not mean that you will not do well or that you will not learn anything -- it just means that he will keep you intimidated and guessing the entire semester. His weekly oral quizzes help to do this. And you better show up prepared for them or else you will feel entirely and completely humiliated. In terms of course material, much of the theoretical material is still relevant (bureaucratic culture, intelligence gathering, etc.), but many of the sources seemed outdated. Though many of the sources may in fact be valuable to study, it is somewhat frustrating that an entire week's material might be from 1967. I took this class precisely because I hoped it would help me better understand current national security policy. While the class contributed to my theoretical understanding of this topic, it rarely took up issues of current relevance. You can pick up on these issues in your final paper, but to do well on it, you must choose a very focused and specific question and come up with a very focused and specific answer. No broad sw…

Betts is a very good teacher. Intimidating as hell with his practice of calling on people at random with specific questions about the reading (so you had better do it unless you like humiliation), but very thorough and thought provoking. It is one of those tough classes that is worth it.

First, let me note that I am a General Studies undergraduate who served in the U.S. Marine Corps. I entered the class already comfortable with much of the material and I got an A-, which I believe is better than most of the SIPA students. Even with my headstart on the subject matter, I left this class with a vastly improved ability to read, comprehend, organize and synthesize a lot of information. This is the first class of my academic career from which I will retain a great deal of useful information for years to come. This class is mostly about the reading, with Betts as a centerpiece who holds it all together. The effort and style of the instructor fell short of the standard set for students, the instructor's experience, or the centrality of the course to SIPA's M.A. in International Security Policy. His years of experience are evident but his professorial style is lazy. He read lectures, usually verbatim, from a paper which seemed like it was written years ago and given the slimmest of revisions from one semester to the next. The lectures and readings are organized into thematic sections. The reading list posed thought questions for all of the readings. Your study should focus on answering these questions on the midterm and final while citing the title and author of all relevant readings. The bar is set very high for the midterm and final, with the TAs docking points for a…

Despite my comments regarding the heavy workload this class was the most interesting I have taken in the Political Science department. I found the topic of national security to be extremely captivating and actually eye-opening to some extent. Professor Betts is truly a scholar on this topic and many of the selected readings really helped gain a good understanding of the weekly topics from several perspectives. The grading is certainly fair, though be prepared to be interrogated before each class on some minor and major points made by the authors.

Dr. Betts is a well-known academic in his field and he is really a very nice person as well. He expects you to read a lot for this class but doesn't require any other outside work. Most students join informal reading groups and pass around summaries to cope with the reading load. The best part of his class was when he stepped away from the podium and spoke to the class on the fly without his pre-determined lecture notes. Because he is reading his lecture, some people find it difficult to keep up and take notes. Outside of class he is very easily approachable and really very nice.

Great class, if you don't mind getting your ass kicked on a weekly basis. Betts assigned an incredible amount of reading, and every one was expected to know every bit of it inside and out (oral quizzes at the beggining of each class). I learned more in this class than in all my other poli sci classes combined. Class discussions were good, because every one was always prepared; hard to b.s. because Betts would grill you until you broke. Most members of the class were horribly afraid of him during the first few weeks, but agreed at the end that he was a really nice guy. Made it clear that there are no easy answers in national security policy. So I now believe that the world political system is this scary, irrational entity which no one can really control, but I'm all the better for it.

Betts' class has loads of readings but speed reading and taking down 1 page summaries of each reading will get you far. His lectures are fascinating although he talks very fast and they seem to have no structure. That being said, the optional sections are the most helpful if you plan to be a lazy ass and not do any reading because the TAs are wonderful in pointing out the key ideas of each reading.

weekly oral quizzes; 2 five page papers on the week's reading (do them early or you will be swamped); one 6,000 word final paper; participation

Very tough grader, but unbeatable in his field. The reading is extremely interesting, although he fixates on General Clausewitz. He mostly reads his lecture from notes (probably at least a year old, though at times updated). I found him more engaging when he made remarks off the cuff. The TA in this class (in my case Dafna) really saved my butt, especially given the onerous workload. For grad students, the midterm is optional, which is very nice.