A History of the National Security State Through Comprehensive Exam Questions

So over the past month or so I’ve been tweeting out a long thread of pretty much every question that I’ve ever asked in a comprehensive exam. At Patterson, a comprehensive exam will involve eight hours of writing on five questions, followed by a one hour oral defense. Going back to about 2007, it works as a nifty little history of the national security state since the latter part of the Iraq War. As you would imagine, there are lots of early questions about counter-insurgency and the Surge, and more than a few along the way about the F-35. China and Russia steadily increase in importance, although in the early years there are a lot of “let’s project how China will do a thing, and think about what problems that causes,” sorts of questions. Towards the end the “Wars on Terror” questions become almost cynical. In any case, take a look; it’s an interesting evolution.

Alright, so last week I promised to run a thread of all of the @UK_Patterson Security and Intelligence comps questions that I’ve asked since arriving here in 2005.

— Robert Farley (@drfarls) December 3, 2018