Strategic Defense Technologies, Post-Baccalaureate Certificate

About the Certificate

Purdue University’s Strategic Defense Technologies certificate program is an interdisciplinary professional development opportunity for anyone whose work requires knowledge and competencies needed to analyze, understand, design, and execute defense and civilian strategies that involve technologies supporting the strategic interests of the United States. The program is designed for midcareer military and civilian personnel in the Department of Defense ecosystem, employees of DoD contractors and staff members for policymakers, think tanks and other nongovernmental organizations.

Program Website

Certificate Requirements

9 Credits Required

Program Learning Outcomes

Students will:

• Analyze system-level political-economic-military trade-offs and synthesize historical “constants” to evaluate and justify strategic technology options, including offsets, in a given context.
• Distinguish major strands of grand strategy across great powers and assess/prioritize contemporary defense-technology competitive relationships and legal frameworks to support course-of-action recommendations.
• Define strategic foresight and explain the roles of critical, creative, and “rethinking” mindsets in technological contexts; then construct plausible scenario sets and articulate a vision statement that aligns resources and execution.
• Formulate and solve structured defense-technology challenges that exist in between scientific certainty and engineering probability-appraising past, present, and future constraints-and compose professional written/oral justifications suitable for senior and technical leadership.
• Design a technological strategy for an organization by assessing national/international threat landscapes, specifying goals and means, and integrating risk-management methods supported by lessons learned from incidents.

Graduate Programs Disclaimer

• The student is ultimately responsible for knowing and completing all degree requirements. Students should consult with their advisor/department for more information.
• Not all graduate programs may be actively recruiting students and course modality availability may vary. 
• Please refer to the Explore Graduate Programs website for a list of currently available graduate programs.
• Transfer credit policy: Credits earned for graduate study at other universities (both domestic and international) may be applied toward an advanced degree. Only credit hours associated with graduate courses for which grades of B- or better were obtained will be eligible for transfer. Any additional conditions under which credit transfers may be made are determined by the various departments.
• Comparative information about Purdue University and other U.S. educational institutions is also available through the College Navigator tool, provided by the National Center for Education Statistics, and through the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard.