WEEK 1 INTL434

Instructions: Your initial post should be at least 250 words. Please respond to at least 3 other
students. Responses should be a minimum of 150 words and include direct questions. Please review
rubric below.

Initial Post Due: Thursday, by 11:55 pm, ET

Forum Question:
Discuss how theories of realism affect the view of threat.

During your discussion, provide international and U.S. perspectives. End you discussion with your view
of threat.

Discussion Forum Grading Rubric Attached

Hello Everyone,

The theories of realism affect the view of a threat at many perspectives. The theories

determine how one goes about observing a threat, its intents, and how to relatively absorb it. The

theory of realism is directly related to world politics within International Relations. The main

inkling is that world politics will always be contradictory in the pursuit of establishing power.

International relations theory is the study of International Relations (IR) from a theoretical

perspective. It attempts to provide a conceptual framework upon which International Relations

can be analyzed.

Steven Forde abridged it very well when he states; “Machiavelli's realism extends to a

denial of moral principles altogether, while Thucydides seeks to preserve the moral achievement

that can be found in political community” (Forde). Machiavelli believes that one should

preemptively counter threats.

I do believe that realism is the most vicious of all International Relation theories and the

most powerful one inside international politics. When it comes to International and U.S.
perspectives of the theories the factors include a threat or threats may come from many sources

and the motivational factors might be pecuniary, political, spiritual, cultural, conceptual, or it

may perhaps be an individual feeling of antagonism. It is significant that a state/nation

recognizes all these aspects and contemplates the foundations they come from while facing

threats. Realism flourishes off differences, conflicting ideas, power and the elimination of peace.

It makes sense that these are some of the strong points within the theory. These strong points are

even proven, hence the many wars and conflicts amongst the world states. The weak points

within the theory that include the uneven distribution of power that create a plethora of

differences among the many states. Realism is one sided and that is why other ideals have been

introduced opposing realism.

-Kirsten-

Bibliography
Forde, Steven. "Varieties of Realism: Thucydides and Machiavelli." APUS CLE : Gateway :
Welcome. Accessed March 5, 2020.
https://edge.apus.edu/access/content/group/425572/Varieties%20of%20Realism%20-
%20Thucydides%20and%20Machiavelli.pdf.
""Major Theories of IR."." YouTube. n.d. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU0Iks1arFQ.
"Political Realism in International Relations (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)." Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Accessed March 5, 2020.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/realism-intl-relations/.
""Theory in Action: Realism."." YouTube. n.d. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=UnKEFSVAiNQ.

Week 1 Replies.

Hey Kirsten,

I love that you brought up the spiritual and cultural aspects of realist threats. I think a lot

of times people tend to forget that politics in and of itself is a very cultural thing, and like many

forms of culture, people do not really understand other belief systems. For the United States, our

"culture" of politics is democracy, and we heavily promote democracy in just about any place
that we can. We saw it with Cuba, we saw it with Germany, and we still see it across the Middle

East as the United States pushes for democratic influence globally. Do you think that we push

democracy on others a little too much? Should we maybe accept that other nations are going to

have different styles of politics than we do? In most of these cases, we push for democracy from

a moral standpoint of people being killed or treated illy, but in other cases, we have seen the

United States go into other nations and circumvent their way into promoting a democratic

lifestyle in other countries to help protect ourselves from possible mishaps that could arise.

From the spiritual side of things, I do think that we have seen a recent rise in realism

amongst many religious groups especially here in the United States. I think that has had a lot to

do with active shooters that targeted churches, and even cultural shifts within the United States.

Both of these things could be perceived as a threat to religious organizations and cause these

churches to preemptively prepare for the worst.

Great forum this week!

V/R,

Zac

Hello Zac,

Thank you for replying to my post this week. Let’s look at Russia’s realism. Example:

Russian Realism in the Middle East: The United States is conducting airstrikes in Syria, too, and,

although it seems to escape our notice sometimes, a limited ground war against ISIS as well. The

United States has more of a military existence in the Middle East, and is doing more with that

presence, than anything Russia is doing there. In performing such flexible diplomacy, Putin is

operating in the realist tradition. In that respect Russia is indeed one-upping the United States,
insofar as the United States follows the non-realist habit of perceiving the world as divided into

allies and adversaries, limits efforts at cooperation to the former, and sees the latter as fit only for

confrontation, punishment, and isolation. Such a non-realist approach is a poor way to protect

and advance one’s interests.

But to answer your question: “Do you think that we push democracy on others a little too

much? Should we maybe accept that other nations are going to have different styles of politics

than we do”?

I do believe that we push democracy/ our believes on others to much. We push but want

to accept which can become a great problem. We need to understand and be open-minded that

different countries have different viewpoints and believes and if we start to look at thinks in

peoples view, we may accomplish more.

-Kirsten-

Hello Daniel,

Welcome to class and nice to virtually meet you. Nice background. So, since you with the

Army National Guard and you work Narcotics, I will assume that the Border is where you have

your action? My second affiliation is with DHS as well just in a slightly different way. I know it

has been crazy out there at the Borders especially on the Southwest. Is I read I see that you were

deployed to Afghanistan, I bet you learned a lot about yourself being there and had some time for

self-reflection? For how long were you there? Here is a little about me, not much but something.

I currently work for the Department of Emergency and Military Affairs and Department of

Homeland and Security (FEMA). Prior to my current job, I worked for the DOD-Department of
Defense for over 15 years; learned and accomplished a lot during this time. What are my plans

from here; well I will continue more courses and make my transition to commissioning into the

U.S. Army to fulfill my own personal purpose. In May 2018, I completed my AAS and AA in

Justice Studies and plan to continue and to work on the completion of my BA and MA in Human

Intelligence followed by Doctors in Strategic Intelligence. So, with all this said, good luck and

have fun throughout this course and I am looking forward of many great discussions.

-Kirsten-

I really don't have any hobbies. I do read a lot, but that's basically all. My expectation for

this course is to challenge my thinking and understandings of the not so-called norm. Essentially,

I am taking this course to complete my Human Intelligence degree and hope with taking this

course that I can educate others and challenge their viewpoints. With this said, I am looking

forward of many discussions and to learn a lot in this course. Good Luck to everyone. Thanks

-Kirsten-
 Week 2

Hello Everyone,

According to Richard A. Hogan: " Threat is understood as occurring when experience is perceived as
inconsistent with learned conceptions and evaluations of self. Defense is conceived as a response to
threat maintaining the self as conceived by denying or distorting the threatening experience. A
defensive reaction reduces awareness of threat but does not resolve the threat. The self and its
defense are susceptible to further threat. Threat and defense thus follow one another in successive
levels." This theory is illustrated with excerpts from" client-centered" interviews. Implications of the
theory for maladjustment, mental hygiene, and research are discussed.(PsycINFO Database Record
(c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Example are Cyber treats (software):The CryptoLocker ransomware attack was a cyberattack using
the CryptoLocker ransomware that occurred from 5 September 2013 to late May 2014. The attack
utilized a trojan that targeted computers running Microsoft Windows. It was supposed to be the first
that was posted to the Internet on 5 September 2013. The Trojan was spread through infected email
attachments, and through an existing Gameover Zeus botnet. When initiated, the malware encrypted
certain types of files stored on local and mounted network drives using RSA public-key cryptography,
with the private key stored only on the malware's control servers (Hansberry, et al.), ("Beware scam
emails claiming to offer anti-CryptoLocker tools. (2014, Jun). Computer Act!Ve").

This malware then presented a message which offered to decrypt the data if a payment (through
either bitcoin or a pre-paid cash voucher) was made by a certain deadline, and it threatened to
delete the private key if the deadline passes. But there was no assurance that the payment would
release the encrypted content. In late May of 2014 CryptoLocker was isolated through Operation
Tovar, which took down the Gameover Zeus botnet that had been used to distribute the malware.
Throughout the operation, a security firm involved in the procedure gained access to the database of
private keys used by CryptoLocker, which was used to build an online tool for recovering the keys
and files without paying the ransom. It is alleged that the operators of CryptoLocker effectively
extracted a total of possibly $3 million from victims of this trojan ("Beware scam emails claiming to
offer anti-CryptoLocker tools. (2014, Jun). Computer Act! Ve"), (APUS).

-Kirsten-

Bibliography

"Beware scam emails claiming to offer anti-CryptoLocker tools. (2014, Jun). Computer Act!Ve."
Shibboleth Authentication Request. Accessed January 21, 2020. https://search-proquest-
com.ezproxy2.apus.edu/docview/1552693467?accountid=8289 .

Hansberry, Ashley, Allan Lasser, and Andrew Tarrh. "Cryptolocker: 2013?s Most Malicious Malware."
Accessed January 22, 2020.
https://www.cs.bu.edu/~goldbe/teaching/HW55815/cryptolockerEssay.pdf .

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?
q=Theory+of+Threat&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p
%3Dkp3KYfmpPkYJ
 Bibliography
"Beware scam emails claiming to offer anti-CryptoLocker tools. (2014, Jun). Computer Act!Ve."
Shibboleth Authentication Request. Accessed January 21, 2020. https://search-proquest-
com.ezproxy2.apus.edu/docview/1552693467?accountid=8289 .
Hansberry, Ashley, Allan Lasser, and Andrew Tarrh. "Cryptolocker: 2013?s Most Malicious
Malware." Accessed January 22, 2020.
https://www.cs.bu.edu/~goldbe/teaching/HW55815/cryptolockerEssay.pdf .
"Google Scholar." Google Scholar. Accessed March 15, 2020.
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?
q=Theory+of+Threat&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart#d=gs
_qabs&u=%23p%3Dkp3KYfmpPkYJ.

Define Threat

Instructions: Your initial post should be at least 250 words. Please respond to at least 3 other

students. Responses should be a minimum of 150 words and include direct questions.

Initial Post Due: Thursday, by 11:55 pm, ET

Responses Due: Sunday, by 11:55 pm, ET

Forum Question:

Define threat. Does the definition you researched differ with our authors or other sources? If so, how?
As we begin looking at various theories of threat, our view on threat may evolve. You may bring in

outside sources in your effort to define threat. Dictionary, peer-reviewed, and scholarly sources only,

please.

Bibliography

"Cyber Warfare." RAND Corporation Provides Objective Research Services

"Ethics and Cyber Warfare: The Quest for Responsible Security in the Age of
Digital Warfare by George Lucas." Ethics & International Affairs. Last
modified December 8, 2017.
https://www.ethicsandinternationalaffairs.org/2017/ethics-and-cyber-
warfare-george-lucas/.

Week 1 Intro replies

I believe we were in a course a few months back. This past twelve months have consisted

of so many courses its hard to keep straight where I saw have ran into peers! Glad to share

another course with you, it is always nice to see familiar names in the forums and know that

others are keeping on with their coursework. I believe you were still deployed in the Middle

East, great to hear you got back for a little bit, can’t believe you got sent right back out again.

Good luck on your current assignment! When trying to come up with hobbies, I am in the same

boat. I don’t really have any exciting hobbies that I regularly partake in like rock climbing or

something equally as interesting in the outdoors. I find myself doing a lot of techy type hobbies.
I have recently been trying to learn more about networking and the setup of secure networks.

This consists of me at home learning how to navigate around pfSense (a really awesome open

source firewall) and Tomato (another open source program for routers). It has been really

interesting learning the various ways to create a safer network at home, especially for a person

like me who is living in a fairly dense apartment.

Week 2 reply

In what you are describing, it sounds like fear right? So the fear of a threat, whether actual or

imagined, has real world implications depending on the person or entity which is responding to it

as well as what type of power, militarily or economically, they may have to retaliate. Are there

cases when the entity perceiving the threat simply cut everything off and go into defensive mode

without any influence outward? Like no attacks or anything? I wonder, for example, if a country

thought it was going to be attacked and it went into defensive mode. Could it just maintain that

without lashing outwardly? I suppose that would be self isolation. For certain people can and do,

do that. But do countries? To be completely self isolated as a country without interacting or

needing anything from any other country. Perhaps the closest countries I can think of that are like

that would be Cuba and North Korea, but even they receive outside support from China and

Russia. With how interconnected our world is, I am not sure any country could do that now.

Answer:
Hello Jonathan,

PRC has many different capabilities and could be a possible danger in theses aspects.

HUMINT- capable: In history HUMINT was already a powerful tool throughout the war. The
MSS is responsible for both open and clandestine collection. It uses students, diplomats,
businessmen, and scientists in its attempts to gain information. China has been aggressive in its
HUMINT collection activities in the United States (Pike, 2011), (APUS).

Cyber- highly capable: The PRC`s military may use cyber capabilities during a battle and has the
most extensive, and most practiced cyber-warfare capabilities in Asia. The PRC enhancing its
cyber capabilities can become a great treat to the US, by using cyber to infiltrate
businesses/cooperation around the world and steal intelligence and trade secrets (APUS).

SIGINT- capable: The Technological Department delivers the PRC with a wide-range of SIGINT
capabilities. Throughout my readings, I came to find that the PRC upholds the most widespread
SIGINT capability of any country in the Asia/Pacific region.

GEOINT- MASINT- capable: China’s GEOINT and MASINT delivers a less rigorous cable
platform due to China’s imagery and other technical capabilities that are missing the desired
grasp to collect intelligence on the United States. Even though, China is quickly emerging,
testing and adjusting new ballistic missiles, the Military Intelligence Department`s ability to use
MASINT or GEOINT is limited due to distance, research, and time spent refining this aptitude.

OSINT- highly capable: Why is OSINT highly capable in the PRC? Through its attentiveness on
unclassified open sources of information, OSINT delivers the means to develop binding and
trustworthy intelligence products that can be shared with non-NATO components/elements of
intercontinental operations. China’s OSINT capabilities are highly capable equated to Iran and
Russia. With the use of travelers and citizens to travel to other countries, generally the United
States, which gives the PRC, the high ability to collect information this way and could be of use
against the US (Section 3 - ADVERSARY FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS -
Operations Security - INTELLIGENCE THREAT HANDBOOK).

-Kirsten-

Bibliography
The National Security Archive. Accessed March 15, 2020.
https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu//NSAEBB/NSAEBB424/docs/Cyber-030.pdf.
Pike, John. "Intelligence." GlobalSecurity.org. Last modified 7, 2011.
https://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/world/china/humint.htm.
"Section 3 - ADVERSARY FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS - Operations
Security - INTELLIGENCE THREAT HANDBOOK." Federation Of American
Scientists – Science for a Safer, More Informed World. Accessed
March 15, 2020. https://fas.org/irp/nsa/ioss/threat96/part03.htm.