Bio
Andrew C. Winner is Adjunct Professor at SAIS Europe
Professor Emeritus, U.S. Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island
Andrew C. Winner is a Professor Emeritus at the U.S. Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island. He held the position of Chair of the Strategic and Operational Research Department at the Naval War College from 2013-2019. His areas of focus are the uses of military force, nuclear weapons and deterrence, European security, South Asian and Indian Ocean security, maritime strategy, and counterproliferation. At the Naval War College, he was the Director of the Indian Ocean Studies Group. In 2024, he was awarded the Navy Superior Civilian Service Award for his work on nuclear deterrence including the US government’s Deterrence Escalation and Review wargame, maritime strategy, and maritime cooperation with European allies and partners. In 2019 he was awarded the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award for his work as department chair. In 2007 he was awarded the Navy’s Meritorious Civilian Service Award for his work on the Navy’s new maritime strategy. Prior to his appointment at the Naval War College, he was a senior staff member at the Institute for Foreign Policy analysis, a think tank and defense contractor affiliated with The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Prior to joining the Institute, he held positions as a foreign affairs officer at the U.S. Department of State on the staff of the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs and in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs where he worked on nonproliferation, security in the Persian Gulf, NATO enlargement, arms transfer policy, and security assistance. He also worked in the Office of the Secretary of Defense on conventional arms control, including several rotations on the U.S. negotiating delegation in Vienna. He holds a PhD from the University of Maryland, College Park, and an MA from Johns Hopkins University SAIS (Bologna and Washington DC), and an AB from Hamilton College.
Courses
- Strategy And Policy
This course is an introduction to strategic studies, which deals with the preparation and use of military power to serve the ends of politics. Two themes run throughout: (1) the nature of war based on the work of major theorists including Carl von Clausewitz, Sun Tzu, and Alfred Thayer Mahan, and (2) the evolution of warfare from the late nineteenth century to the present. Current day events and examples will be used throughout including the current Russia-Ukraine war, the Israeli conflict with Hamas, Iran, and others, and potential for conflict in East Asia. There are no prerequisites for this course; nevertheless, a basic grasp of 20th and 21st century history will help. This course is open to all students who want to learn about how military force is thought about and used and risks associated with militarized conflict.
Prerequisites: Students may not register for this class if they have already received credit for SA.660.740[C] OR SA.502.181[C]
- Nuclear Weapons, Strategy, and Control
This course explores nuclear weapons, strategies for their use, and efforts to control their spread and use. Students will learn about the origins of nuclear weapons, the technology underlying the weapons and their delivery systems, and varying ways of thinking about their use and limitations, including the core concept of nuclear deterrence. This will include reading and actively working through concepts developed by some of the foundational thinkers in nuclear strategy. The course will look at the role of nuclear weapons in the Cold War, in the post-Cold War world, and ongoing issues associated with current day conflicts and competitions under the nuclear overhang. This includes examining Russia’s latest nuclear doctrine and threats in the war in Ukraine, nuclear issues underlying Israel-Iran competition and clashes and the nuclearization of the broader Middle East, the recent rapid growth in China’s nuclear arsenal, U.S. nuclear policies and modernization, North Korea’s growing capabilities, and the Indian-Pakistani nuclear dyad (or triad if you consider China-India dynamics). Each regional or country-specific set of nuclear issues will be used to examine a particular nuclear issue, theory, strategy, and/or use. Class will include at least one policy decision-making activity. In addition to readings and discussion, class will also rely on multimedia resources such as movies, documentaries, audio/video of real-world events, and podcasts. No previous knowledge or coursework on military security or strategy issues is necessary.
