MPA Strategic Studies and Cybersecurity

The courses provided by a MPA Strategic Studies and Cybersecurity

This program is taught in English but specific sessions can be providedin French in particular conditions

SPECIALIZED COURSES

Actors, Geopolitics and Governance of the Cyberspace

The course understands the birth of the cyber era from the convergenceof advanced computing power and the global interconnection ofcomputer networks, creating a unified space for data storage and flow.

Examine the roles and influences of different entities, includingcompanies, states, and civil society, in cyberspace.

Explore how synergy and cooperation between defense, industrialdevelopment, and research allow states to redefine their roles in the 

international order, formulating public policies for cyber governance.

Study national and international regulations governing cyberspace,focusing on maintaining a healthy and secure environment.

Principles and Mechanisms of Cybersecurity

Traces the evolution of data security, emphasizing how moderntechnologies and the internet have heightened the need for robustinformation system protection.

Teaches the fundamental principles of cybersecurity aimed atsafeguarding data and information systems against cyber threats thatcould affect their availability, integrity, or confidentiality.:

Identifies the components of cyber-attacks, including the attacker,objectives, targets, and procedures, and understand their variedconsequences.

Understands cryptographic methods for converting readable data intoencrypted formats, ensuring that only authorized entities with thecorrect decryption key can access the information.

Cyber-defence: Policies, Strategy and Tactic

Develops a doctrine and organizational structure for effective cyberdefense.:

Examines how cyber activities challenge traditional concepts of borders,territory, and security, reshaping notions of attack, enemy, and defense.

Recognizes cyberspace as the fifth dimension of strategic operations,alongside land, sea, air, and outer space. Can cyber-deterrence beconceived?

Understands the role of cyber-capabilities in supporting conventionalmilitary forces.

Foreseeing Cyber-risks in Information Technologies and OperationalTechnologies

The purpose is to enable the student to

plan and organize components within an infrastructure, focusing onintegrating security elements. Implement cyber design principles tocreate secure systems.

master the systematic process of identifying, analyzing, and evaluatingpotential risks that an organization, project, or system may face.

conduct penetration tests (Pen Testing) to simulate attacks and identifyvulnerabilities in computer systems or networks, aiming to enhanceoverall security. 

Implement recommendations to strengthen the security of IT and OTsystems by addressing identified vulnerabilities.

Cyber Intelligence:

Transition from searching for moving information to stored data,understanding the shift from passive to active information gathering in adata-rich environment.

Utilize intelligence for cyberdefense purposes, focusing on the collectionand analysis of information to protect against cyber threats.

Learn to collect information from publicly accessible digital sources forintelligence purposes:

Use artificial intelligence to analyze vast amounts of information toachieve a better understanding and better analyze situations in real time.

FUNDAMENTAL WORKSHOPS

Workshop in Strategic Studies

The purposes of the workshop are summarized as follows:

Enabling the student to exploit and use the knowledge provided in thefundamental courses in Cyberdefence , Cybersecurity andCyberintelligence in addition to the teachings of the general strategycourses

Making the link between Cyberdefence and the existing defence strategies and practice of the armed conflicts

Applying the concepts and doctrine to specific areas of conflicts andcrises adapted to the concerns of the students.

Developing a synthetic approach and a critical thinking through theresearch papers and presentations required

Workshop in Research Methodology

The workshop is dedicated to the scientific research processes in thesocial sciences, in international relations, diplomacy and in strategy. Itpresents the methods used in the development of hypotheses and in theuse of information or observation data. It specifically addresses themethod of writing the dissertation itself.

FUNDAMENTAL COURSES

Decision-Making and Strategy in Armed Conflicts  

The course provides an updated presentation of the contemporaryarmed conflicts, and how they moved away from the old conventionalwarfare and are affected by a new combination of inter and intrastatearmed conflict, like hybrid warfare. In addition, the technological shift inwarfare with the robotization of war and the introduction of artificialintelligence are also considered.

The strategy-operational planning-tactic chain depends on a decision-making process with at its core the political decision makers, theirprerogatives, their doctrines, and the way they decide. This is a key issueto be learnt in strategic studies.

Geopolitics and Geostrategy of the Great Powers

The very nature of an international/or/global political system relies onthe balance of force between the leading global powers. As the worldsystem moved from a bipolar system to a unipolar, then to the presentsystem qualified a multipolar by some and as non-polar by others, thecourse emphasizes a presentation of:

the capabilities of each of the great powers, in addition to the politicalstructure and dynamics

the foreign policies in their changing doctrines and strategies for eachof the considered powers

their influence on the global geostrategic landscape

Geopolitics of the Sea and Maritime Strategies

The control of the sea seems to be one of the key issues as far as thenational economies are dependent on foreign trade and shipments andcommodities, on international movements of population and on theaccess to strategic locations. 

The course combines a historical approach starting with thedevelopment of political geography and the emergence of sear powers,with an updated presentation of the key present issues at stake,stressing out the type of control exerted by each of the planetary andregional powers.

Each of those powers has its own maritime strategy to control the keylocation in the seas, oceans and straights, or at least to balance theexpansion and the hegemonic strategy of competing or antagonisticpowers. 

The objectives of the MPA Strategic Studies and Cybersecurity

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Updated 4 September 2024