This course is a comparative examination of selected political systems which will benefit foreign policy and intelligence analysts. Both historical and contemporary systems are compared and categorized, including non-state global influences such as international organizations and religious and ideological movements. Modern foreign policy practitioners are frequently untutored concerning: the differences between parliamentary systems and presidential systems; the workings of communist systems; traditional authoritarian regimes; and the particular governmental arrangements of a variety of individual national cultures, both Western and non-Western.