Environment and Development
The Environment and Development Track offers a wide variety of courses covering a broad range of related topics. These courses inform students about key debates, policy, and management issues surrounding efforts to integrate environmental protection measures with the promotion of economic and social development to achieve sustainable development. Some courses focus on the activities of major international organizations and industrialized and developing countries while other courses emphasize more regional and/or issue-specific perspectives and concerns.
Foreign Policy and Security Studies
The Foreign Policy and Security Studies Track focuses on the ways in which governments formulate and execute policies toward other states or non-state actors deemed to be of national interest by policy makers. The courses in this track will examine the projection of national power and influence (military, economic, political, and cultural) throughout the world. They will probe the institutional framework for the development of foreign and security policies, the influence on that process exerted by domestic interest groups (political, economic, social, religious, and ethnic), and the consequences of those policies both at home and abroad.
International Business, Economics and Politics
The International Business, Economics, and Politics Track offers a wide array of courses in international business, economics, and political economy, and explores the relationship among each other. Several courses in the track also address the manner in which politics interacts with both markets and business to influence patterns of international trade, finance, money, and production. The track focuses on the influence of politics on the functioning of the international economy and the impact of economic developments on politics. It pays close attention to the role played by nation-states, multinational corporations, interest groups, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and other actors in the international political economy. This interdisciplinary track covers issues related to the functioning of firms, economies, and political actors in advanced industrialized and developing nations and includes courses on both general global forces and on various countries and regions.
Note: Students planning to take the International Economics, Business, and Politics Track must take CAS EC 392 or SMG IM 345 in place of CAS IR 292 as a principal required course. All these courses require CAS EC 101 and CAS EC 102 as pre-requisites; CAS EC 392 has one additional pre-requisite: CAS EC 202. CAS EC 202 will be credited toward the International Economics, Business, and Politics track.
International Systems & World Order
The International Systems and World Order Track takes international politics beyond the traditional concerns of state-to-state relations and encompasses the wide range of other organizations — economic as well as political — that help shape world affairs. This track focuses on transnational issues and the organizations and laws that govern them. Issue areas include migration, humanitarian issues, human rights, terrorism and organized crime, cyber-security, diplomacy, intercultural communication, and more. Formal international law and the collection of formal and informal rules and bodies, such as the United Nations, by which international and regional cooperation and conflict resolution are achieved are also emphasized.
Regional Politics and Cultural Anthropology
The Regional Politics and Cultural Anthropology Track offers a wide array of courses across disciplines and regions that provide perspectives on sub-regional, national, local history, cultures, societies, politics, and additional bases for a more systematic comparative analysis. It is intended to enhance appreciation of the distinctive dynamics and patterns in different parts of the world, with special emphasis on the internal forces and factors that provide background and context for both the formal and informal interactions of international relations.