Scholars and policymakers need to specialize: solutions that work in Latin America may not be well suited to the landscape of the Middle East. Profound understanding of a region’s history and politics is mission critical for diplomats, policymakers, NGO staff, and business leaders.
Study actual conditions around the world and understand how to influence, draft, or enact effective policy. Approach problems from a comparative lens or delve deeply into a specific country or region. The comparative and regional studies field of study is multidisciplinary and emphasizes history and politics, so you can better understand the internal dynamics of states within particular regional and global contexts.
Drawing on Lebanon's civil war and the uncertainty that the post-war order brought along, I developed this curiosity to understand how conflicts shape people's aspirations and futures. I'm drawing on Lebanon's revolutionary uprising in 2019 in order to see how people used this opportunity to recreate time and to recapture stolen time.
Tamirace Fakhoury, Associate Professor of International Politics and Conflict
MALD and MIB students compelte 12 credits in their field of study. MGA students complete 15 credits, plus a practicum. Tracks in the regions of Europe, Latin American, Middle East, or Pacific Asia require four additional courses.
Choose at least one:
DHP H205 The Historian’s Art and Current Affairs
DHP H250 Global Decolonization
DHP P201 Comparative Politics
Choose at least one:
DHP D207 Religion and Conflict in International Relations: Policymaking Assumptions, Analysis and Design
DHP D211 Politics of Statecraft
DHP D227M Small States Asymmetry and Influence
DHP D229 Nationalism, Religion, and Conflict
DHP D231 Gender and Human Security in Transitional States and Societies
DHP D238 Current Issues in Global Immigration Policy
DHP D266 Peace and Democratization Processes: Cross-Comparative Perspectives
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 H246 Revolutions: Theories and History
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 in the 21st Century
DHP P246M Civil Resistance
DHP P247 Civil-Military Relations
DHP P260 Islam and the West
DHP P263 Civil Wars: Theory and Policy
DHP P268 Islam and Politics: Religion and Power in World Affairs
EIB B232 Work and Employment Relations in the 21st Century
EIB B244M Financial Inclusion and the Informal Economy
EIB E244 Political Economy of Reform, Growth, Equity
ILO L212 Nationalism, Self-Determination and Minority Rights
ILO L250 Law and Development
ILO L253 Comparative Constitutional Law
Choose at least two:
DHP D206 U.S. Diplomatic Tradecraft
DHP D224 Negotiation and Mediation in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Past Lessons and Future Opportunities
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 Russian Foreign Policy
DHP D283 U.S.-European Relations Since the Fall of the Berlin Wall
DHP D284 Europe in Changing World Order
DHP H203 U.S. Foreign Policy, 1898 to Present
DHP H252 Russian Foreign Policy from Peter the Great to Putin
DHP H261 War and Society in the Middle East in Historical Perspective
DHP H266M Contemporary Middle East
DHP H271 Foreign Relations of Modern China, 1644 to the Present
DHP H275 South Asia and the World
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 P279M Identity Politics of East Asia
DHP P280 Eurasia: Geopolitics, Religion, and Security
DHP P284 Africa's Global Politics
DHP P287M Political Economy and Business of the European Union
DHP P290 Migration and Transnationalism in Latin America
DHP P298 Conflict in Africa
EIB B269 China and International Business
EIB B277M Business and Political Economy in Latin America I
EIB B278M Business and Political Economy in Latin America II
MGA students must complete one skills course. MALD and MIB students may not use these courses as a field elective unless otherwise indicated above.
DHP D208M Research Methods and Scholarship
DHP D218 Influencing Policy and the Global Debate: Writing Analysis and Opinion
DHP D220 Processes of International Negotiation
DHP D225 Conflict Resolution Practice
DHP D243M Overview of Survey Methods
DHP D245M Working in Difficult Research Environments with Vulnerable Populations: Advanced Field Research Methods
DHP D258 Introduction to Data Science for Global Applications
DHP P203 Analytic Frameworks for International Public Policy Decisions
DHP P207 GIS for International Applications
DHP P225 Design, Monitoring and Evaluation of Peacebuilding and Development Programming
DHP P234 The Arts of Communication
DHP P250 Environmental Problem Solving
DHP P289 Advanced Geospatial Modeling
EIB B205 Data Analysis and Statistical Methods
EIB B206 Data Analysis and Statistical Methods for Business
EIB B262 Marketing Research and Analysis
EIB B291 Leadership Building Teams, Organizations, and Shaping Your Path
EIB E210M Quantitative Methods
EIB E213 Econometrics
EIB E214 International Economic Policy Analysis
EIB E247 Econometric Impact Evaluation for Development
ILO L215 Ethics in the Practice of Foreign Affairs
MGA students must complete a practicum for their field of study.
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 an 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.
