Master of Science in International Economics degree program combines STEM coursework with theoretical frameworks
Siddhartha Warwade, F27, was always interested in understanding governments and the process of governance, ever since he was young — his parents held positions in the government of India, and the conversations around the dinner table kindled his curiosity. Growing up, Warwade absorbed conversations about the work of senior policy makers and encountered officials and envoys, which began to inform his own views on global affairs.
With a knack for math and science, however, Warwade studied mechanical and industrial engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. The path then seemed clear and pragmatic. And yet, in the late 2010s, as Warwade followed current events, his inherited impulse toward matters of geopolitics and international relations returned to the forefront of his ambitions.
“I thought that if I got an opportunity, I would surely pivot into that ecosystem because I held a genuine curiosity about these matters, one I rarely found in other disciplines,” Warwade said. “It was rather unusual for an engineer to jump into this sector without proper and formal training during my time, but then I got an opportunity to work with one of the leading policy schools and think tanks in India.”
A Graduate Program to Understand the Global Ecosystem
Warwade’s time as a fellow for the Global Governance Initiative, which was cofounded by two alumni of The Fletcher School, broadened his career ambitions.
“I tried my hand at various divisions: institutional relations and partnerships, policy advocacy and research, program management and so on,” Warwade said.
Warwade encountered people from various walks of life—and in myriad sectors, much like what he witnessed as a child and later on with his close engagement with the nascent and up-and-coming public policy ecosystem of India.
“That's when I really started building a more concrete interest in what international affairs is about, what domestic politics is about, and what differentiates various levels of policy administration and implementation,” he said. “India’s policy ecosystem feels inertia around grassroots level implementation, but the most significant bottlenecks of the problem lie in the international space, where we need to align multiple stakeholders with varied interests, limitations, and worldviews.”
Warwade could see how to align his own work with the grand strategy of nations who shared common values, but he didn’t have the intellectual vocabulary or foundational knowledge that many influential stakeholders possessed. He wanted to enrich his ability to participate in the world of policy with more precision and depth—especially regarding the ecosystem of his home country, India.
As Warwade met more global affairs practitioners during his fellowship, he began to understand higher education in a new light, seeing how their careers and worldviews were deeply influenced by where and what they studied.
“Fletcher started during the time of The League of Nations, and its whole purpose was to ensure that practitioners understood international affairs at a time when diplomacy was at its lowest,” he said. “Some schools train scholars to lead diplomatic efforts where they’re most precarious. Fletcher is a global leader and has been a significant proponent of this effort—helping to build the capacity of leaders on the world stage.”
It became clear to Warwade that Fletcher would help him become the thinker he wanted to be.
“Fletcher teaches at the intersection of deep theoretical foundations of international affairs and the practical skills to solve those problems from the get-go,” he said. “I really like that dialectic between practitioner and theoretician.”
A STEM-Designated Master of Science in International Economics
Coursework in Fletcher’s Master of Science in International Economics (MSIE) has reinforced and complemented what he was trained to do as an engineer—to look for more efficient solutions early on. At Fletcher, he’s now learning to ask better questions. Before Fletcher, Warwade’s abilities in quantitative analysis often sat at odds with higher policy entities, which he now attributes to his inability to communicate with his audience correctly.
“Senior policy folks were very skeptical about data-driven suggestions,” he said. “They used to say, ‘I'm a politician. And you guys who understand the statistics are just lying to me with tact.’ I had this battle in my mind—is that really the case?”
Warwade intended to put that outlook to the test in the STEM-designated MSIE degree program, which is designed for students who have a foundation in qualitative theories and in quantitative analysis.
“In India, people educated in the leading international affairs schools in the West have successfully brought the experience of leading global teams to solve national problems,” Warwade said. “They have had the experience of working in very different settings, going across the board from government to multilaterals and private institutions before coming back to these senior roles.”
“Education is the most valuable experience, and in its true essence it is substantiated by professional and personal experience,” he added. “I wanted to have that, and I’ve found that having a STEM accreditation in the United States would enhance my ability to have that experience in the heart of global affairs.”
A Cohort With Standout Experience
Reflecting upon his first year, he finds that the caliber of fellow students enriched his learning.
“I’m in classes with senior diplomats, the kinds of people I would have no access to until I’ve had 10 to 15 years of work experience in India,” he said. “Their understanding of the security paradigm and geopolitics inspired and honed my interest in the question of international security.”
While classes like econometrics provide him with the hard skills he needs to be successful in his career, time spent with his cohort illuminates how he conceives of his career path more holistically.
“Because of the people I meet, I can benchmark what kinds of experiences an individual like that has,” Warwade said. “If I want to become someone who thinks and acts like that, I can reverse engineer their paths so that I gather the most that I can from classes and interactions outside the classroom. It’s helped me reorient around the very specific parts of international relations that I really care about.”
Warwade currently interns with the U.S. Department of War’s regional center in Hawaii, working on Track 1.5 dialogues, capacity building, and epistemological wargaming.
Read more about Fletcher’s Master of Science in International Economics (MSIE) degree program.