Advances in science and technology over the past century have created many unprecedented and still unresolved global security challenges for policy makers and the public. The invention of nuclear weapons during World War II led Einstein to conclude that “the unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking.” Security concerns and government-sponsored research programs later combined to shape the Cold War arms race between the United States and Soviet Union. Many military and technical innovations resulted; these include precision-guided intercontinental ballistic missiles, spy satellites, and global navigation satellite systems, but also the modern electronic computer and computer networks, which became the basis for the internet. Recent developments in biotechnology and digital communication and control raise the prospect of possible new kinds of warfare. This course will provide students with a basic technical understanding of some of the critical technologies that are relevant to national and global security and will equip them with the skills to better assess the challenge of developing effective policies to manage such technologies. Case studies will include nuclear weapons and their proliferation, delivery systems for weapons of mass destruction, biotechnology and biosecurity, cyberwarfare, quantum technologies, autonomous weapons and human-level machine intelligence.