PUBP 710.008 Spring Semester, 2003 Tuesdays, 4:30-7:00 p.m.  School of Public Policy  Room 109 (formerly room 250) Arlington Campus George Mason University

Todd M. La Porte  Associate Professor  Office hours: Tuesday, 2 - 4 pm and     Thursday, 5 -7 pm; by appt.  Rm. 248, Arlington Campus  (202) 686-7115 (home) tlaporte *at* gmu.edu

Kevin Thomas Research Associate Professor Office hours: by appt. Rm. 206, Truland Building (703) 993-8119 kthomas2 *at* gmu.edu

Revised February 20, 2003

Course Description

Large distributed network systems, electric power, telecommunications and data, transportation, water and waste treatment, food distribution, housing and shelter, public health and care systems, and finance and banking:  all are foundations of complex modern societies.  

Threats to these systems due to human, technological and natural causes are on the rise.  They are receiving increasing attention from civil and military leaders, since societies' dependence on such large and complex systems makes them especially attractive targets for attack. Natural disasters, too, disrupt the sometimes fragile systems on which we depend for economic growth, physical protection and  social welfare.  Research shows that the incidence, and cost, of natural disasters is on the rise.

This newly perceived vulnerability has caused designing, operating, maintaining and protecting critical systems to take on a new urgency.  Technological complexity, rapid social and regulatory change, and globalization contribute to making the protection of such systems potentially very difficult. Because of their importance to the overall task of governance of modern, complex, technological societies, critical infrastructure policies and politics will be the focus of this new course.

To begin, students will be exposed to literatures that inform our understanding of large, complex, sometimes risky technical systems.  We will read and discuss work on normal accident theory, emergency management, disaster assistance and public utility regulation and deregulation,. We will look particularly at issues of public policy that affect organizations' capacity to function at high levels of reliability.  We will examine how societies and organizations understand and manage risk through both direct government control and through systems of risk sharing and insurance.  And we will consider the extent to which the design and operation of critical infrastructures present problems of governance and values of concern to the public.  The reading and discussion phase of the semester will last approximately 8 weeks.

During the second half of the term, students will conduct collaborative research and fieldwork on critical infrastructure systems and organizations, explore how they are planned and designed, and see how they function during and after a natural or technical disaster or attack.  Students will learn to perform infrastructure vulnerability assessments by doing research on a critical infrastructure of their choice, and will learn to conduct elite interviews with agency staff and operatives in the Washington region.

This course will be conducted in association with the activities of the Critical Infrastructure Working Group.

Course Requirements and Grading

The course will be conducted as a seminar. You are expected to:

• complete assigned readings,
• participate in in-class and electronic discussions,
• participate in individual and group fieldwork,
• prepare a final paper, approximately 20 pages in length, s
• make a presentation on your group's activities.

Grades will be based on the following allocation:

In-class and electronic discussion

Class and electronic discussion group participation is an important part of this seminar. These discussions are intended to be highly interactive, open, and even irreverent (but always respectful!). Questions about many concepts are undoubtedly going to arise, and the class bulletin board is a good place to raise them.  WebCT can be accessed by clicking here , or by going to http://mason3.gmu.edu:8900/SCRIPT/ITRN701S00/scripts/serve_home.

Final paper

Students are required to submit a written paper (6,000 words) that reports on the fieldwork or problem area your group has investigated.  It should apply the concepts the seminar will address, and expand on them in light of developments you and your group have found.

This paper will be done in small groups or individually.  I encourage students to work together to master the material, and to generate useful ideas and insights.  If you work on a group paper, the contribution of each member should be equal to a regular individual term paper effort; the page length should reflect.  I may ask for individual assessments of how the group worked, to fairly allocate credit to team members.

The presentation of the group's work is also an important activity.  If you wish, you may consider as an audience for your presentation a senior official of the organization or problem owner.  Presentations will be given during the last two class sessions.  These could be used as practice sessions for a briefing to senior management on your findings and observations.

The format of the paper can be in any consistent and logical system, of which there are many.  Diana Hacker's A Pocket Style Manual or A Writer's Reference have been very useful to many students; copies are on sale in the Arlington Campus bookstore. The paper must be double-spaced on regular white paper.  Spelling, punctuation and syntax are important, and will be considered in the final evaluation. The University Writing Center can help with the mechanics of paper composition, if you have any concerns about it.  See me if you have any questions about writing, styles, etc.

The final paper will be due at 4:30 pm on May 5, 2003.

Please note: All work must be your own. Where the work of others is used, even in paraphrased form, it must appropriately referenced, including (especially!) material taken from on-line sources.  When in doubt, cite!  Plagiarism is an Honor Code violation.  If you have any questions about proper referencing practice, read the information at:  http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html , or contact the instructors.

In order to assure a level playing field for all students, we may require that papers be submitted electronically in order to facilitate source and fact checking.  For lists of "term paper mills" that share or sell term papers, see http://www.coastal.edu/library/mills2.htm . We're sure you can do work that is much higher quality than what is purveyed here.

Readings

Readings will be available on the Web or through the Library's Electronic Reserve System.  Suggested readings will be made available by the instructors.  Electronic reserve readings are noted in the entries below.

To access the electronic reserves, go to the Library's e-reserve link:   http://oscr.gmu.edu/cgi-bin/ers/OSCRgen.cgi

Scroll through the list of courses ("PUBP 710 section 008") or instructors ("La Porte"), and enter the password "dial" to get access to the readings.  You may need to download Adobe Acrobat to view some of the files.