WHY STUDY INTERNATIONAL HISTORY and Politics?
The International History and Politics Department of the Graduate Institute is the oldest school of international relations in Europe. Located in Geneva – the site of multiple international, intergovernmental, and nongovernmental organisations – we offer our students a unique opportunity: to pursue historical research and analysis in an interdisciplinary setting while living in a city that has been at the forefront of multilateral diplomacy for over a century.
A Dynamic Study Plan
The particular contribution of the International History and Politics Department is to bring a historical methodology to the study of international affairs, including policy-making, political systems and institutions. These methods – specifically qualitative and textual analysis, archival research, oral history, and attention to structural change and continuities over time – allow students to coherently link history, politics and the contemporary environment.
A Master’s degree in international history and politics at the Geneva Graduate Institute provides a set of tools for a practical career in politics and diplomacy as well as in the private sector. The same methods that make for a great international historian are an indispensable asset in the fast-changing world of global politics.
The Department’s mission is to encourage dynamic and cross-cutting historical approaches to understanding, contextualising, and situating current international politics and policies. Members of the faculty teach and research governmental and non-governmental actors and organisations; human rights, humanitarianism and humanitarian actions/interventions; development politics, policies and ideologies; nation-building and state-building; civil society and social movements, gender, women and public policies, labour, employment and trade unions; international and global public health; environment and environmentalisms, climate change and political ecologies; immigrants, refugees and diasporas; international finance and economy; conflicts and international security issues, political violence and terrorism; transnational actors, institutions, histories and processes; and foreign policies, multilateral diplomacy, negotiations and co-operation, regional integration, and North-South relations.