GMAP Curriculum
All GMAP students enroll in the same eight core courses at the same time throughout their year of study. Additionally, students write a master’s thesis. For those whose native tongue is English, they must pass an oral and reading language exam in the language of their choice prior to graduating from The Fletcher School.
GMA D210: Leadership and Management
This course is divided into two modules:
A. Leading and Managing Strategically: This module explores the global strategic and managerial challenges that decision-makers increasingly face in both public and private sectors. It attempts to reconcile their evolving role and competency requirements with the new global business imperative. In particular, the module aims at benchmarking best practices from the disciplines of strategy, management, and marketing, and transposing them to the field of action of the “new diplomat”. This reengineering of skills constitutes an invitation to challenge established organizational wisdom and to adopt new strategic and managerial orientation with respect to a variety of issues (e.g., planning, strategy formulation, internationalization, decision-0making, human resource management, customer and stakeholder satisfaction, innovation, image persuasion, and knowledge management).
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Professor Simonin
B. Foreign Policy Leadership: This module focuses on six leaders who are known for major accomplishments in foreign policy: Elizabeth I, Napoleon, Woodrow Wilson, Winston Churchill, Mao Zedong, and Mikhail Gorbachev. Each is examined within the context of the pressing international problems of her/ his time and in light of the political science and business literature on leadership. With varying myriad situations the faced at home and abroad, these leaders provide lessons and models for those who are interested in and aspire to leadership.
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Senior Associate Dean Nutter
GMA D220: International Negotiation
This course explores the processes, rather than specific substantive
issues, of international negotiation. Using exercises and
simulations, it examines the nature of conflict in the international
arena; the special characteristics of negotiation in the
international setting; pre-negotiation and the problems of inducing
parties to negotiate; negotiation dynamics; the roles of culture and
power; and the strategy and tactics of international negotiation.
International mediation, arbitration, special problems of
multilateral negotiation, and the follow-up and implementation of
negotiated agreements are also examined.
» Professor Najam and Professor Chigas
GMA E220: International Trade Economics and Investment
This course investigates why nations trade, what they trade, and the
distribution of gains from trade. Topics include trade and growth,
technology, the product cycle, multinationals, international labor
migration, tariffs, dumping, regional economic integration, and
international competitiveness of firms and nations. Throughout the
course there will be special emphasis on which policies affect which
outcomes.
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Professor Kowalczyk and Professor Blackhurst
International Finance
This course is divided into two modules:
E230 A. International Finance: This section presents frameworks
for understanding the performance of economies that are linked to
the rest of the world through trade in assets as well as through
trade in goods and services. The course will teach models of the
determination of exchange rates, trade balances, and other
macroeconomic variables. These models are then used to analyze
general issues, such as the choice of exchange rate regime, the
performance of the international monetary system, and the role of
international capital markets, as well as specific current topics,
such as the single currency in Europe, the Asian financial crisis,
and the policy debate over capital controls.
» Professor Klein (July ) / Professor Richards (March)
B200 B. Private Sector Finance: This module addresses the topics
of valuation, emerging capital markets, project finance, international
banking, and securitization.
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Professor Jacque
GMA L220: International Organizations
The theory and practice of international organizations (IOs) is a
dynamic and increasingly important dimension of world politics. This
course provides an introduction to the field, focusing on the
interaction between international law and politics in international
organizations. It begins by briefly exploring the role of
international institutions from the perspective of international
relations and international legal theory. We then proceed to an
overview of the international legal order as embodied in the United
Nations and regional organizations, with a special focus on the
function of international organizations as makers and interpreters
of the law. The bulk of the course is devoted to the substantive
work of the UN and other organizations in three principal areas:
peace and security, human rights and humanitarian affairs, and
sustainable development. We conclude by stepping back to look at
questions about the legitimacy of international organizations: who
wields power within the organizations, how is that power wielded, to
whom are those wielding power accountable and on what basis.
» Professor Johnstone (This course is offered in GMAP March)
GMA L240: International Business and Economic Law
This course provides an introduction to the legal context of international commerce. It examines the international legal system, and focuses on international trade law as a major component of the international legal system, with great relevance for international commerce. It examines selected issues within the international trade law system, including tariffs, discrimination, protectionism, health and environmental protection. It also examines selected issues of the regulation of international business, including the scope of jurisdiction, taxation and bribery. It examines contractual forms and legal constraints in private international commercial relations, including the formation of contracts, letters of credit, and international loan agreements. Finally, the course concludes with an examination of the application of some of these concepts to international internet-based commerce.
» Professor Trachtman (This course is offered in GMAP July)
GMA P202: International Politics
International Politics considers contemporary political and
economic developments at both the levels of the international system
and the nation-state in the context of their historical antecedents.
The course also weighs contradictory interpretations of these
events; it focuses on "big picture" visions of current events and
developments, attempts to extract any essential truths these may
contain, and tries to apprehend the historical, political, economic,
and cultural factors that militate against them. Part I
introduces each topic and is intended to raise questions and provoke
discussion during the residency period. Part II delves into
each topic in greater detail, sometimes by focusing on multi- or
supra-national institutions, and sometimes by examining particular
regions and countries that exemplify the trends and counter-trends
discussed in Part I (e.g., France in the context of the EU; Iran;
Iraq; Latin America; Russia; Eastern Europe).
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Professor Seleny
GMA P215: Transnational Social Issues
A. Environment: Global environment and resource policy has in the past 25
years joined human rights and humanitarian and development issues at the
forefront of international policy. Developing sound agreements requires an
ability on the part of the diplomat, political leader, or corporate
decision-maker to understand the scientific basis of the problem, the
economic costs of addressing or not addressing it, and the technological and
political possibilities for proposed solutions. Increasingly, environment
and resource issues are at the core of sustainable development programs. In
this course we will examine three issues: ocean fisheries; global climate
change and chemicals management as they affect economic development; and
trade and human health. We will explore how such issues arise and become
part of the international agenda, how treaties are negotiated, and how
implementation takes place in industrial and developing countries.
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Professors Moomaw
B. Humanitarian Issues: This module will put complex emergencies and
acute hunger situations within a global perspective, focusing on key
institutional actors in the field of disaster relief. The module will analyze
the political, economic, and ethical issues raised by humanitarian interventions
in war situations. Building primarily on experiences in Africa, the module will
explore linkages between relief and development as well as topics such as how
aid unintentionally targets and harms civilians.
»
Professor Walker
C. Human Security: This course explores issues of vulnerability and livelihoods and the interventions that NGOs and governments use to reduce risk and promote security and well being. We focus on both stable and unstable environments and complex situations where both conflict and poverty are present. The module investigates the principle humanitarian and development frameworks for understanding problems and aid interventions, both successful and failed, designed to mitigate those problems.
»Kim Wilson (March)
GMA P240: Security Studies
Security Studies examines current issues in international security and the United States national security policy. It aims to provide an intellectual foundation and the tools needed to analyze contemporary security issues. The section reviews some of the key theories and concepts that form the basis of security studies as a distinct area of study in international relations. It examines debates about national security doctrine, military transformation, and conventional force structure. This module will analyze the causes of terrorism and other asymmetric threats; the prospects for conflict across the Taiwan Straits; nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) proliferation; third party intervention in ethnic conflicts; the problem of "nation building;" and the security implications of epidemic disease, border controls, and demographic trends.
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Professor Taliaferro (This course is offered in GMAP March)
GMA P245: Security Studies
& Crisis Management
This course considers crisis management in theory and practice,
drawing from the period since World War II. Theories of crisis
prevention, escalation, management, de-escalation, termination, and
post-crisis management; alternative decision-making theories,
structures, and processes; the nature of crisis bargaining and
negotiation; and the role of third parties. Special attention will
be paid to the role of military force in post-Cold War crisis
scenarios.
» Professor Pfaltzgraff and Professor Shultz (This course is offered in GMAP July)
Master's Thesis
GMAP students choose the thesis on a topic covered during the program. During the midyear residency, participants discuss requirements and topics and a master’s thesis instructor works with students throughout the year to answer questions and facilitate the preparation process. At the third residency, students defend the thesis (25-40 pages long) before two faculty as well as members of their team.
INSTRUCTOR AND COURSE CONTENT MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE