Fletcher's programs and research centers add a level of depth to our academic offerings by conducting cutting-edge research and hosting conferences and visiting faculty.
The Program in International Business
Director: Professor Laurent Jacque
Associate Director: Dorothy Orszulak
[web]
The Program in International Business prepares students for management careers in both private and public enterprises. The program approaches the teaching of international business by looking first at the nature of the global business environment, then at the interaction between the firm and this environment, and finally at the internal organization and dynamics of the multinational firm itself.
The program is closely linked to the School's
curriculum in International Business and is built around two basic tracks: 1) international finance and banking, leading to careers in global financial institutions; and 2) corporate strategy, marketing and technology management, preparing for careers in international consultancy and general management with globally reaching service and manufacturing corporations. Each track is formalized by certificate programs in International Finance & Banking and Strategic Management & International Consultancy.
Fletcher students can take advantage of traditional courses, seminars, conferences and research activities which develop analytic skills in international finance and banking, marketing, manufacturing and strategy necessary for business problem-solving and decision-making. In addition, through workshops, summer internships, guest speakers and visiting research associates, the program serves as a catalyst for dialogue between the School and the corporate world.
Financial support for this program has come from the Cabot Foundation, the Exxon Education Foundation, the General Electric Foundation, the Xerox Foundation, and the Shell Foundation. back to top
The
Jan Henrik Jebsen Center for Counter-Terrorism Studies
Director: Brigadier General (Ret.) Russ Howard
[web]
The events of September 11, 2001, the 2002 Bali, 2003 Madrid, and 2004 London bombings, the campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines, and the continuing war in Iraq all underscore the threatening and dangerous international security landscape we face. Given these events and the continuing campaign against terrorism, it is essential that future world leaders, such as those studying at The Fletcher School, be given the tools and resources to not only understand the current threat, but to discover ways and means to prevent, predict, and preempt future threats.
To meet this challenge, The Jan Henrik Jebsen Center for Counter-Terrorism Studies was established at The Fletcher School in September, 2005. Its mission is to increase the understanding and competency of counterterrorism professionals. To accomplish this mission the Jebsen Center funds a robust research and analysis program, hosts conferences and a visiting fellows program, and conducts outreach activities.
back to top
The Center for International Environment and Resource Policy
Director: Professor William Moomaw
[web]
This program explores the importance of environment and resource issues in determining the relationships among nations and the linkage between national patterns of economic activity and the environment. A major emphasis is on translating the scientific basis for environmental concern into policies, technologies and strategies that address both the needs of human societies and the requirements of natural systems.
Research activities within the program examine the link between patterns of economic development and environmental degradation, comparative national environment and resource policy development, and the role of international organizations, corporations and other institutions in responding to environmental challenge. The interdisciplinary nature of the program brings together faculty and students with backgrounds in economics, law, negotiation, political science, natural science, resource management and engineering.
In collaboration with the student-directed Energy and Environment Forum, the program brings speakers to campus and holds symposia and conferences. Students are encouraged to work on topics of active policy concern, and to learn whenever possible by contributing directly to the resolution of important environmental and resource issues. back to top
The Edward R. Murrow Center
Director: Crocker Snow
[web]
The Murrow Center was established in 1965 as a memorial to the man whose distinguished reporting and analysis of world news and imaginative leadership of the United States Information Agency set a standard of excellence in the field.
Mr. Murrow's library and papers are housed at the Digital Collections and
Archives at Tufts University.
The Center awards Murrow Fellowships to mid-career professionals who engage in research at Fletcher ranging from the impact of the "new world information order" debate in the international media during the 1970's and 1980's to, currently, telecommunications policies and regulation. back to top
The International Security Studies Program
Director: Professor Richard Shultz
[web]
The International Security Studies Program (ISSP) provides a multidisciplinary approach to the study of the sources of conflict, conflict resolution, the role of force in international relations, and the maintenance of international peace.
Each year the program sponsors a guest lecture series on international security issues. Some of the many speakers sponsored in the past year included: Sir Richard Dearlove, KCMG, OBR, Former Director of M16, British Secret Intelligence; The Honorable Chang Hee Lee, Ambassador, Ret., Republic of Korea; Lieutenant General Joseph R. Inge, Deputy Commander, USNORTHCOM, and Vice Commander, USELEMNORAD; Dr. William Luti, Assistant to the President and Senior Director, Defense Policy and Strategy; Brigadier General Joseph Dunford, USMC, Director, Operations Division Plans, Policies and Operations, HQ USMC; Dr. Rohan Gunaratna, Head, International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, Singapore; Sir David Manning, KCMG, Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the United States of America; Rear Admiral (Ret) Rudolf Lange; Professor Ralph Begleiter, "Distinguished Journalist in Residence,” University of Delaware; Dr. Jonathan Tucker, Senior Researcher, Chemical & Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Program; BG Michael Ferriter, USA, Director for Operations, Plans, Logistics and Engineering Directorate, US Joint Forces Command; The Honorable Francis J. Harvey, Secretary of the Army and Mr. Bruce Lemkin, Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force, International Affairs.
In addition, during the fall semester, ISSP conducts its annual crisis simulation exercise (SIMULEX) involving an international scenario. Assisting the exercises are representatives from the official U.S. government gaming agencies.
Every year, the armed services send distinguished senior officers to The Fletcher School to take part in seminars and to participate actively in those ISSP "outside-the-classroom" educational activities that offer students essential practical insights to complement their coursework.
The program was initiated and has been sustained with the generous support of the Scaife Family Charitable Trust and the Sarah Scaife Foundation. Other grants have come from the John M. Olin Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Allegheny Foundation, the William H. Donner Foundation, the Bradley Foundation, the Anderson Foundation, the Raytheon Company, as well as the Pew Charitable Trusts.
back to top The Institute for Human Security
Director: Peter Uvin, Henry Leir Chair in International Humanitarian Studies
[web]
Throughout the world, people engage in dynamics of social change in the developing world. They do so through the thousands of bilateral, international, and non-governmental organizations that are active in the fields of humanitarian relief, development, human rights, and conflict resolution. Traditionally, practitioners and researchers have tended to specialize in only one of these fields. As a result, while in principle in favor of the other aims, they are often unaware of the positive or negative impact their actions may have upon these other fields.
We are now beginning to understand that any progress made in one field without attention to the others is sub-optimal at best and often unsustainable, since people who live in situations of extreme deprivation often face all these conditions simultaneously. Practitioners and researchers everywhere now urgently seek to gain insights about the overlaps and interactions between these fields, train staff who are able to collaborate with people from other areas of expertise, and develop strategies that cut across traditional professional borders.
Some scholars, governments, and international organizations have recently begun using the term "human security” to bring together the concerns and practices that deal with the many faces of, and close relations between, freedom from fear and freedom from want. Under this rubric fall a broad variety of issues and trends, but they all share a desire to cross boundaries between fields of social change until now usually treated separately, and a strong ultimate focus on the inclusive well-being of all human beings. The Institute’s work is based on these principles.
The Institute is resolutely interdisciplinary. All its activities make a fundamental choice in favor of crossing academic and professional barriers. It integrates economics, politics, law, nutrition and health, and all other perspectives it needs. back to top
The Program in Southwest Asia and Islamic Civilization
Director: Professor Hess
[web]
This program concentrates on the strategically important area that extends eastward and northward from the Arabian Peninsula to include Pakistan and Central Asia. Since this same region forms the core of classical Islamic civilization, understanding its cultural and institutional history is a necessary part of the analysis of its contemporary problems. Among subjects receiving special attention are: international competition in Southwest Asia; security in the Gulf and Red Sea; military competition and the arms trade; modernization of Saudi Arabia and Iran; regional economic development and international trade; Islamic fundamentalism; ethnic violence; politics of oil and petrochemicals; and modern technology and social change.
During the academic year the program sponsors lectures, colloquia and an executive seminar series.
The program offers a range of language learning opportunities in conjunction with Tufts University, other colleges and universities in the greater Boston area, and institutions of higher education in the Middle East. The program sends several students each year to universities in the Middle East, Central Asia and Southwest Asia for summer language training and/or to pursue internships in the public and private sectors.
The program also engages in a number of special educational activities. It sponsors a special training program in international affairs for the Foreign Ministries of Gulf countries and it engages in administrative and academic training activities for the Jerusalem School, a graduate school of economics and diplomacy in Palestine. back to top
The
Center for Emerging Market Enterprises
Director: Charles Bralver
[web]
Throughout the last two decades, the mass movement of capital and economic transactions from intrastate marketplaces to the global economy has resulted in an increasingly complex system of economic activity and growth. From globally dispersed corporate investments to individuals sending remittances to their home countries, economic globalization has reallocated capital and shifted economic power giving emerging markets more traction and visibility. Consequently, there is a critical need for organizations in developing countries to expand their capacity to enter the global marketplace while developed country organizations must refine their abilities to operate in these formerly non-traditional areas.
Fletcher's Center for Emerging Market Enterprises (CEME) considers not only particular geographies but also the topic areas that affect these emerging markets through events, research, executive education, visiting scholars, and conferences. CEME's focus areas range from the global economic players like India, China, and Brazil to countries of regional or industry-specific importance such as Venezuela, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Romania. Issues including microfinance, governance, and labor markets are also a key part of CEME's focus. back to top
The Center for South Asian and Indian Ocean Studies
Director: Professor Ayesha Jalal
[web]
Established in 1989, The Center for South Asian and Indian Ocean Studies at Tufts University has served as New England's focal point for scholars of and scholarship on the South Asian subcontinent and the Indian Ocean rim.
With an emphasis on history, culture, literature, religion, politics, economics and diplomacy, it is committed to promoting interdisciplinary approaches to the study of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka , Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives, which together make up the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.
The Center fosters comparisons and links across the Indian Ocean which connect the people of South Asia with those of Southeast Asia and the Middle East. back to top
The Global Development and Environmental Institute
Co-Directors: Professor Moomaw and Dr. Neva Goodwin
[web]
The Global Development and Environmental (G-DAE) Institute is jointly administered by
The Fletcher School and the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The stated goals of G-DAE are "To gain a new understanding of how nations and societies at differing stages of economic development can pursue that development in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner; and to assist the public and private sector in applying this knowledge in the creation of appropriate policies that promote sustainability."
G-DAE activities include research, curriculum development, a visiting scholars' program, conferences and faculty seminars. The Institute continues to build on Tufts' position as a leader in teaching and research on issues related to the environment. back to top
Maritime Studies Program
Director: Professor John Curtis Perry
[web]
Previously known as the Oceanic Studies Program,
the study of maritime affairs at Fletcher is not
organized in a center but forms an incipient
special program, providing an intellectual focus
for those who might choose to include a salt
water perspective in their work. back to top
The Hitachi Center for Technology and International Affairs
Director: Professor Pat Schena
[web]
The growing centrality of technology issues in international affairs has raised new and complex issues for government policymakers and corporate executives. To address the pressing domestic and global issues engendered by the impact of technological change and advance on the conduct of nation-states and transnational relations, The Fletcher School established a center dedicated to the study of global technology management, comparative national technology policy and strategy, technology transfer to the Third World, techno-nationalism, cross-border R&D and technological competitiveness. The Center, which was initially endowed with a major grant from the Hitachi Corporation, focuses on global, regional and national technology issues that are linked to the interaction between government and business. back to top
The Center for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution
Co Directors: Eileen F. Babbitt, Hurst Hannum
[web]
Understanding how to prevent or stop wars or rebuild societies in their aftermath requires a broader perspective than either human rights or conflict resolution alone possesses. The mission of the Center for Human Rights & Conflict Resolution is to promote peace, justice, and human rights by fostering greater understanding and cooperation between these two fields.. Through conferences, training programs, research, and publications, CHRCR seeks to expand the theory, policy and practice of both human rights and conflict resolution to better understand and, where appropriate, integrate the insights of both. The Center then seeks to apply that cross-disciplinary knowledge to heighten the effectiveness of each group.
CHRCR emphasizes research that evaluates the practical value of intergovernmental and non-governmental intervention initiatives. For example, it has evaluated the efforts of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and non-governmental organizations in Bosnia and Rwanda to promote the coexistence of people returning to communities that have been deeply divided by violence. The Center also has explored how conflict resolution techniques and changes in normative rules might mitigate the violence that often accompanies self-determination disputes. The aim of the Center is to uncover what has worked and what has not, both to contribute to scholarly knowledge and to the formulation of better public policy.
At The Fletcher School, CHRCR hosts occasional lectures and provides opportunities for student research and participation in CHRCR's multi-faceted research and educational activities. back to top
Our programming at Fletcher includes lectures, discussions, and workshops designed to build a Boston-based intellectual community of faculty and graduate students who can forge new ways of thinking about gender, security and armed conflict. Our speaker series brings prominent scholars, policy practitioners, and women leaders from armed conflict-affected regions who are expanding the boundaries of what is known about gender and armed conflict. We also hold meetings for graduate students to network with researchers with interests in gender, security and human rights, and provide mentoring for those who wish to bring a gender lens to their coursework, research, and internships.
Our program also aims at strengthening international collaboration between scholars and policy practitioners through international conferences, knowledge-building workshops, our website, and our activities as part of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security. New initiatives include the launch of an Interactive International Research Agenda on Gender and Armed Conflict, designed to: enable policy makers and women in conflict-affected regions to articulate their own knowledge needs and find research that helps answer their questions; to identify areas where new research and deeper interrogation are urgently needed; and to foster international collaboration between researchers. back to top
The Program in International Development
Director: Professor Steven Block
The Program in International Development combines coursework in the fields of Law and Development, Development Economics, and Comparative and Developmental Political Analysis with workshops, seminars and visits by experts in an integrated program of development studies and research.
The program's goal is to provide a framework for analyzing contemporary aspects of development including problems of social and political change; theories of economic development and growth; the role of law in development; trade and balance of payments problems of developing countries; international development organizations; the role of financial and technical assistance in aiding developing countries; food and agricultural policy; and, the economics of consumption and nutrition. The program is closely linked to the School's curriculum through the Certificate in International Development. back to top
The Program in International Information and Communication
In recognition of the importance of the information and communication components in international affairs, Fletcher pioneered the development of interdisciplinary curricula and research in the fields of international communications flows, political communications and public opinion, and public diplomacy. Today the field has expanded to include international telecommunications and information technology and policy, media and Internet economics and international journalism.
Study and research in this field prepares students for careers in the information industries, including international broadcasting and publishing, international communications, marketing, journalism, telecommunications, and the Foreign Service (particularly in the areas of political and cultural affairs). back to top
We consider negotiation to be a basic life skill, which is important as a foundation for work in any of the fields of international endeavor, and conflict resolution in general as an approach that can be adopted by managers and decision-makers in all career paths. It is a perspective that combines strategic analysis with constructive approaches to problem solving.
In addition to the academic courses, the program offers a non-credit mediation practicum, in which students receive 32 hours of mediation training and then apprentice with experienced mediators in local small claims courts. The practicum training is offered in the fall semester and is limited to a maximum of 20 students. In this and other activities, the program works closely with the International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution student group. back to top
