The Fletcher School

Comparative and Regional Studies

The Comparative and Regional Studies field encompasses courses that either address broad themes using a comparative lens or delve deeply into a specific country or region. The field is multidisciplinary with an emphasis on history and politics. Rather than operating at the level of the international system, the field focuses on the internal dynamics of states within particular regional and global contexts.

The required courses for the field are divided into three tiers: core, thematic, and regional. Students are required to take at least one course from tier 1 (core), at least one course from tier 2 (thematic), and the remaining courses from tier 3 (regional) for a total of 4 courses for the MALD and 5 courses for the MGA.

Field Advisor(s)

Katrina Burgess

Katrina Burgess

Associate Professor of Political Economy
Transit migration and asylum policies in the Central America-Mexico-US corridor; Diaspora politics; Voting from abroad

Research Centers

Henry J. Leir Institute

The Russia and Eurasia Program

The Fare Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies

Field Requirements

MALD and MIB: 4 courses in field of study 

MGA: 5 courses in field of study 

Tracks in the regions of Europe, Latin America, Middle East, or Pacific Asia require 4 additional courses.

Total Credits Required

MALD and MIB: 12.00 credits 

MGA: 15.00 credits 

  • DHP H205 The Historian’s Art and Current Affairs 

    DHP P201 Comparative Politics

  • DHP D207 Religion and Conflict in International Relations: Policymaking Assumptions, Analysis and Design  

    DHP D211 Politics of Statecraft

    DHP D231 Gender and Human Security in Transitional States and Societies

    DHP D238 Current Issues in Global Immigration Policy 

    DHP D285 The Global Rise of Populism: Europe and Beyond 

    DHP D286 From Authoritarian Regimes to Illiberal Democracies 

    DHP H210 Coronavirus as Contemporary History: Pandemics, Power, and Policymaking 

    DHP P213 Religion and Politics

    DHP P219 Political Economy of Development  

    DHP P221 Memory Politics: Trust, Justice, and Redress 

    DHP P243 Internal Conflicts and War 

    DHP P246M Civil Resistance: Global Implications of Nonviolent Struggles for Rights and Accountability 

    DHP P247 Civil-Military Relations 

    DHP P263 Civil Wars: Theory and Policy 

    EIB B232 Work and Employment Relations in the 21st Century 

    EIB B244M Financial Inclusion and the Informal Economy  

    ILO L212 Nationalism, Self-Determination and Minority Rights 

    ILO L253 Comparative Constitutional Law

  • DHP D224 Negotiation and Mediation in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 

    DHP D263 The Arabs and their Neighbors 

    DHP D265 The Globalization of Central Eurasia: Energy, Politics, and Culture 

    DHP D271 International Relations of the U.S. and East Asia: 1945 to the Present 

    DHP D280 U.S.-EU Relations in the 21st Century: A multidisciplinary Analysis of Transatlantic Affairs 

    DHP D282 Contemporary Issues in U.S.-Russian Relations 

    DHP D283 U.S.-European Relations Since the Fall of the Berlin Wall 

    DHP D284 Europe in Changing World Order 

    DHP H252 Russian Foreign Policy from Peter the Great to Putin 

    DHP H261 War and Society in the Middle East in Historical Perspective  

    DHP H271 Foreign Relations of Modern China, 1644 to the Present  

    DHP P260 Islam and the West  

    DHP P261 Democratization in the Middle East: Theory and Practice  

    DHP P262 Contemporary South Asia  

    DHP P266M The Islamic World 

    DHP P268 Islam and Politics: Religion and Power in World Affairs 

    DHP P272 International Relations and Contemporary History: Case Studies from China's Frontiers 

    DHP P274 Politics of the Korean Peninsula: Foreign and Inter-Korean Relations 

    DHP P275 North Korean State and Society 

    DHP P280 Eurasia: Geopolitics, Religion, and Security  

    DHP P287M Political Economy and Business of the European Union  

    DHP P290 Migration and Transnationalism in Latin America 

    DHP P298 Conflict in Africa 

    DHP NEW Business and Political Economy in Latin America

  • A practicum is required for MGA students.

  • In conjunction with completing the field requirements, students have the option to achieve depth in one of the following regional tracks: Europe, Latin America, Middle East, or Pacific Asia. There are three additional requirements for depth. First, students must take additional course in the field (for a total of 5 for the MALD and 6 for the MGA). Second, they must take at least 3 courses with 75% regional content. Third, they must pass a language exam (or otherwise demonstrate proficiency) in one of the regional languages.

Faculty with expertise in the field:

Katrina Burgess

Katrina Burgess

Associate Professor of Political Economy
Transit migration and asylum policies in the Central America-Mexico-US corridor; Diaspora politics; Voting from abroad
Bhaskar Chakravorti

Bhaskar Chakravorti

Dean of Global Business
Technology Advancement; Entrepreneurship; New Venture Formation; Strategies for Emerging Markets; Game Theory; Asymmetric Information; Implementation Theory; Auctions and Mechanism Design
Leila Fawaz

Leila Fawaz

Issam M. Fares Professor of Lebanese and Eastern Mediterranean Studies
Social and political history of the modern Middle East; Late Ottoman Arab history; Wars and civil wars; Relations of city and state, culture and society from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean circa 1890-1920; Read Leila Fawaz's complete Research Profile.
Kelly Gallagher

Kelly Sims Gallagher

Academic Dean, The Fletcher School
Energy and climate change policy in the United States and China; Processes of technological innovation (especially the role of public policy) with a particular emphasis on the deployment of advanced energy technologies, including the transfer of technologies from one country to another; The intersection of science and technology with public policy
Sulmaan Khan

Sulmaan Khan

Associate Professor of International History and Chinese Foreign Relations
Chinese foreign relations; International security; International history
Jette Knudsen

Jette Steen Knudsen

Professor of Policy and International Business
My work is interdisciplinary and draws primarily from political science and business in society scholarship.  I define my field of research as government regulation of social welfare.  I use the term social welfare to refer to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities, but I also consider social welfare to mean employment and training opportunities with a particular focus on low-skilled workers. Examples of recent and ongoing research: http://ssrn.com/author=1680504
Sung-Yoon Lee

Sung-Yoon Lee

Kim Koo-Korea Foundation Professor in Korean Studies and Assistant Professor
Political philosophy; Democracy; Confucianism; U.S. - East Asia Relations; North Korea; South Korea
Elizabeth Prodromou

Elizabeth H. Prodromou

Visiting Associate Professor of Conflict Resolution
Religion, Democracy, Security; Transatlantic policy responses to global religious radicalism and violent extremism; Causal interactions between Identity discourses and geopolitical interests; Eastern Mediterranean, Near East, Europe; Orthodox Christianity and Islam; Balkan States; The Middle East; Greece; Turkey; Cyprus; Egypt; Religion and Politics; Security-International; Terrorism
Nadim Rouhana

Nadim Rouhana

Professor of International Affairs and Conflict Studies
New paradigms of conflict analysis and resolution; The Israeli-Palestinian conflict; Citizenship and democracy in multiethnic states; Settler colonialism and political transformation; Religion, nationalism, and conflict dynamics
Ibrahim Warde

Ibrahim Warde

Adjunct Professor of International Business
Islamic Banking and Finance; International Political Economy; Business and Public Policy; Finance and Ethics