Skip to main contentBack to Top

This concentration is meant to teach the student how social influence and persuasion works, specifically focusing on different aspects of information warfare and data collection.

The concentration teaches how strategic adversaries have targeted propaganda campaigns against the United States as well as cross-cultural comparisons. When possible, the courses will also focus on case-studies of US adversaries to understand strategic comparative advantage concerning social influence campaigns.

This concentration is interdisciplinary and collaborative in nature, teaching the social science of influence campaigns combined with modules on communication, history, intelligence studies, and socio-psychological aspects of group behavior and decision-making. The concentration is aimed at understanding the human element of cyber-operations involving social influence including social media warfare.

Contact Us

Dr. Craig Albert- Program Director

Summerville Campus

Allgood Hall

1120 15th St, AH-N309
Augusta, GA 30912

maiss@augusta.edu

706-737-1710

Curriculum

Social influence is one of the most important forms of information operations (IO) and is routinely deployed within great power politics, both as a force multiplier, and as a great balancer between nation-states with discrepancies in their national power indices. In this program students will be able to expand their knowledge base on important aspects such as how information warfare and propaganda integrate with intelligence, how online deception and social influence work among many other objectives.  

Program of Study

Core Courses:

PADM 6351: Introduction to Homeland Security

SECR 6411: Introduction to Intelligence Studies

SECR 6600: Research and Analysis Methods for Intelligence and Security Studies

SECR 6906: Terrorism Studies

SECR 6911: Introduction to Security Studies

SECR 6916: The Causes and Prevention of War

Social Influence Concentration Courses:

SECR 6168: Cross-Cultural Security and Psychology

SECR 6413: Open Source Intelligence Collection

SECR 6920: Weaponizing Information: The History and Theory of Propaganda

SECR 6982: Information Warfare

Capstone/Thesis: 

SECR 6998: Thesis I or SECR 6997 Capstone 

SECR 6999: Thesis II or SECR 6997

or

SECR 6809: Ethnic Conflict

SECR 6919: Psychology of Terrorism

Careers

There are a variety of employment opportunities in the profession of Intelligence and Security Studies. Having a dedicated concentration in social influence will greatly amplify the job prospects of our graduating students in the areas: 

MAISS News

Israel flag

What led up to the Hamas attack on Israel and what role did the U.S. play?

The conflict between Israel and Palestine dates back many years, but the recent escalation can be attributed to issues centering around Palestinian rights and access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which has had some restrictions recently because of violence between the two sides.

Man poses for a photo under a mounted plane

MAISS degree provides pathway to Department of Defense job for AU alumnus

“One of the benefits of the MAISS program I found is that, due to Augusta being a military city, we had a lot of military folks in our courses. They would always go out of their way to explain stuff to us civilians, like what certain topics meant or real-world experiences of things we were talking about, and it definitely improved the course,” said Grayson LaHatte.

Three men and a woman stand on each side of a flag bearing the logo for Augusta University Online.

Augusta University Online expands AU’s degree offerings with successful launch

Augusta University Online recently celebrated the enrollment of 166 students into three graduate-level programs: Master of Public Health, Master of Science in Information Security Management and Master of Education in Instruction.

Man and woman shaking hands

Augusta University and Savannah River National Laboratory partner to support global security research, workforce development

Augusta University and Savannah River National Laboratory are proud to announce a new agreement that formalizes their long-standing partnership and expands upon their shared mission to address global security issues.

Discover what MAISS has to offer you

 

APPLY NOW